Blue Coat Systems Launches Ecosystem for Sharing Endpoint Security Info

As security threats become more sophisticated and prevalent, companies are seeing the value in sharing information about threats instead of keeping it to themselves to help better protect the enterprise from unwanted intrusion.

In line with this thinking, enterprise security provider Blue Coat Systems—which provides on-premise, hybrid and cloud-based solutions for protecting Web connectivity—has unveiled an ecosystem of partners to share actionable intelligence gathered from various endpoint security solutions with the entire Blue Coat security portfolio.

Founding members of the Alliance Ecosystem of Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) include Bit9 + Carbon Black, Countertack, Digital Guardian, Guidance Software, Promisec, and TripWire. These companies all will share information about threats from a variety of EDR solutions, including application protection and privilege management, whitelisting, execution isolation and comprehensive visibility and control.

Legacy endpoint vendors have not kept pace with threats that enter the enterprise from endpoint devices, which can result in major data breaches and other damage to the network, Blue Coat said in a press release.

This, as well as the increased number of mobile devices that are now part of the enterprise network thanks to bring-your-own-device (BYOD) and other trends has led to the rise of EDR technologies to provide a new level of visibility and control on the endpoint, the company said. By integrating the information gleaned from various EDR solutions into one platform, the enterprise can ensure its using all of its available resources to protect its endpoints from attack, said said Neal Creighton, CEO of Blue Coat ecosystem partner CounterTack.

"As new technologies like EDR emerge in the cyber security market, organizations are realizing that integrating innovative platforms quickly is essential in countering advanced attacks," he said in the release. "Our tight integration with Blue Coat is driven by what our customers want, and we're excited about the go-to-market opportunities together as we deliver best-of-breed endpoint security and network security solutions to the market."

While the secure network proxy will continue to provide in-depth traffic termination and inspection capability to keep the enterprise safe, EDR solutions  provide host-level visibility and remediation capabilities that provide the next level of protection, said Peter Doggart, vice president, Business Development, in the release.

“Enterprise network administrators dealing with BYOD, shadow IT and the Internet of Things, are realizing the need for endpoint detection and response is crucial,” he said. “Other than the proxy, the endpoint is the only place where IT security has full visibility into what is happening within their environment. By working with leading endpoint detection and response leaders, Blue Coat is providing customers with a truly comprehensive end-to-end solution—from complete network to endpoint visibility and detection, to swift and effective incident response and remediation.”

The Blue Coat EDR Ecosystem will provide a number of benefits, including malware detection, reduction in the time to resolution and the aforementioned response and remediation to incidents, according to Blue Coat.