At Fortra’s Alert Logic, our partners have always played a key role in our go-to-market strategy for our managed security services. They offer critical insights into cybersecurity, industry challenges, and market trends. Alert Logic’s Partner Perspectives shares insights and expertise from our partners on the ever-changing cybersecurity landscape.
Introducing CSI
With more than 40 years of trading experience, CSI has earned a reputation for building and running technology platforms for the future. Leveraging key technology partnerships, combined with a deep technical bench of experts, CSI navigates often complex compliance landscapes, and they address today’s most pressing infrastructure and organizational challenges facing IT leaders. CSI runs high-performance, secure managed IT services that makes their customers competitive, cutting-edge, and compliant.
Alert Logic connected with Leyton Jefferies, Head of Cyber Security Services at CSI, to gain his insights on the state of cybersecurity:
What key trends have you seen in cybersecurity in the last 6-12 months?
Leyton Jefferies (LJ): In the past six months, there have been several notable trends in the cybersecurity market:
1. AI and automation: AI has become a critical component in cybersecurity, helping organizations analyze vast amounts of data to detect threats that might otherwise go unnoticed. CSI sees AI-powered tools are increasingly used for predictive threat detection, moving beyond reactive defense strategies. We recognize this raises concerns as malicious actors could exploit AI, demanding a careful balance in its use.
2. Rise in ransomware and malware attacks: Ransomware continues to dominate as the most prevalent form of cyberattack, with a significant increase in malware incidents. In 2024, malware-based threats have surged. This sharp rise underscores the persistence and evolving nature of cyberthreats.
3. Increased phishing attacks: Phishing remains one of the most significant threats, especially in delivering ransomware. The number of phishing incidents globally has been increasing.
4. Remote workforce vulnerabilities: As remote and hybrid work continues to grow, so do security risks. This trend, seen since the pandemic, remains a priority as organizations struggle with securing remote environments and managing cyber hygiene.
5. Cybersecurity investments and consolidation: The cybersecurity industry continues to attract significant investment, across various categories like data protection and managed detection and response (MDR). Additionally, the market has seen a steady flow of mergers and acquisitions, reflecting the sector’s consolidation.
These trends reflect the ongoing evolution of cyberthreats and the industry’s response, emphasizing both innovation in defense and the growing complexity of cyber risks.
What are the biggest security challenges companies face today?
LJ: Companies today face a wide range of security challenges that continue to evolve in complexity and severity including:
1. Ransomware and cyber extortion
- Challenge: Ransomware attacks have grown in both sophistication and frequency. Cybercriminals use malware to encrypt data and demand payment (often in cryptocurrency) for decryption keys, often threatening to leak sensitive information.
- Impact: Companies face massive financial losses, operational disruptions, and potential legal consequences from data breaches. The average cost of a ransomware attack has skyrocketed.
2. Supply chain attacks
- Challenge: Attackers target software vendors or third-party services that a company relies on, inserting malware or backdoors into trusted products or services.
- Impact: These attacks, like the SolarWinds breach, compromise the entire supply chain, allowing attackers to infiltrate multiple organizations by breaching a single weak point.
3. Insider threats
- Challenge: Employees, contractors, or business partners with legitimate access to sensitive information can either intentionally or unintentionally cause data breaches.
- Impact: Insider threats are difficult to detect and can be particularly damaging because insiders typically have authorized access to critical systems.
4. Cloud security vulnerabilities
- Challenge: As companies migrate data and operations to the cloud, they face challenges related to data breaches, misconfigured cloud settings, insecure APIs, and shared responsibility between cloud providers and users.
- Impact: Misconfigurations can expose large volumes of sensitive data, and a lack of control or visibility over cloud infrastructure increases risk.
5. Phishing and social engineering attacks
- Challenge: Cybercriminals use emails, text messages, or social media to trick employees into revealing sensitive information or granting access to company systems.
- Impact: Phishing remains one of the most common methods for initiating attacks like credential theft and ransomware delivery. It exploits human vulnerabilities rather than technical weaknesses.
6. Data privacy and compliance
- Challenge: Companies must comply with an increasing number of data protection regulations (e.g., GDPR, CCPA). Ensuring data privacy and protection can be complex, particularly with cross-border data transfers.
- Impact: Failure to comply can result in hefty fines, reputational damage, and legal consequences.
In your experience, what are the biggest benefits for businesses in working with a combined solution from your company and Fortra’s Alert Logic?
LJ: Working with a combined services solution platform which includes Fortra’s Alert Logic, CSI delivers both security operations center (SOC) and security information and event management (SIEM) services, providing significant advantages for businesses. These services work together to enhance an organization’s cybersecurity posture. Following are key advantages businesses experience by using the combined service platform from CSI and Fortra’s Alert Logic:
- Comprehensive threat detection and response
- Centralized security management
- Reduced time to detect and respond (MTTD/MTTR)
- Improved efficiency with automation
- Cost efficiency
- Enhanced scalability
- Improved collaboration
- Access to advanced analytics and machine learning
- 24/7 monitoring and real-time protection
- Better incident investigation and forensics
What are some key considerations for businesses when choosing security partners, and how does Fortra’s Alert Logic fit into that equation?
LJ: When businesses choose security partners, especially regarding SOC and SIEM solutions, several key considerations must be considered. These factors ensure that the security partner provides the right mix of tools, expertise, and support to meet the business’s unique security needs.
CSI’s MDR services platform, powered by Fortra’s Alert Logic, is a strong contender for businesses seeking a comprehensive MDR solution with SIEM capabilities. It fits especially well for organizations looking for:
- Scalable and flexible cloud security solutions
- 24/7 monitoring and incident response
- Integration across multi-cloud and hybrid environments
- Expert-managed services for businesses without a full in-house security team
Its combination of automated detection, real-time response, and human expertise ensures businesses can handle evolving security challenges efficiently and cost effectively.
What exciting developments or innovations do you see on the horizon for the cybersecurity industry, and how do you anticipate Fortra’s Alert Logic playing a role?
LJ: Exciting developments in cybersecurity include AI-driven threat detection, zero-trust architectures, and extended detection and response (XDR) solutions.
Fortra’s Alert Logic is poised to play a key role by enhancing real-time, detection and response capabilities. Leveraging AI for predictive threat analytics and cloud-native security, Alert Logic helps businesses stay resilient against sophisticated attacks.
Its integration with cloud environments and automation tools will be pivotal in addressing evolving threats, improving incident response, and reducing operational complexity for organizations.
We appreciate CSI taking the time to sharing these insights. Learn more about Alert Logic’s partner program.
