In Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), organisations are being pre-emptive about security due to the increasing threat posed by targeted attacks. These threats take the form of cyber-attacks that lie dominant inside the network for months and even years, exfiltrating valuable company data for illicit financial gain. The severe repercussions have prompted managed security service providers (MSSPs) to expand their offerings to protect organisations against advanced persistent threats (APTs).
New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, A Service-centric Approach to APTs, concludes that a greater portion of market participants' revenues will be devoted to threat intelligence research, detection and remediation to enable organisations to counteract the negative effects of APTs.
Intelligence and forensics will become the most important differentiator for companies selling APT solutions and services as understanding how threat actors work is vital to identify indicators of compromise during the early stages of an attack. Companies are thus deploying technologies such as advanced data analytics and event correlation alongside sandboxing to help organisations detect and remediate attacks once they are inside the corporate network.
"European organisations have a more relaxed approach to cyber security than United States (US) organisations, wherein there is greater awareness of the threat of targeted cyber-attacks," said Frost & Sullivan Information & Communication Technologies Senior Analyst Beatriz Valle. "Slowly, however, European companies are coming to grips with the fact that they are prime targets – just as much as their US counterparts."
In the US, the possibility of a class action lawsuit resulting in large aggregate losses and the strength of the legal professional services sector have had a positive impact on the security posture adopted by organisations. This environment will soon reach Western Europe and the consequences are likely to be encouraging for MSSPs. MSSPs should nevertheless create customer awareness of the damage a threat actor can cause in a short time to quickly expand their market in EMEA.
"For now, MSSPs are partnering more than ever with product vendors to offer compelling APT solutions for the complex European market," remarked Valle. "This trend is becoming entrenched in the security landscape, with more product vendors joining forces with service providers to enhance their customer reach and exploit the rising demand for greater investment in analytics, APT research and behavioural modelling."
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