FireEye, the $10B security company, has seen its stock price climb through the roof over the last six months. Everything was in perfect harmony in the land of FireEye, until the Target fiasco hit. Target ultimately paid the price for failing to take the appropriate action in recognizing the threat, and mitigating it. Should FireEye share some of the blame for this historical blunder? After all, Target spent $1.6M on the FireEye security platform. What happens if another billion dollar retailer fails to contain a threat, and they’re using the FireEye platform?
FireEye’s Managed Defense
Now let’s take a quick look at the proactive monitoring services offered by FireEye called Managed Defense. Manage Defense is a 24×7 proactive monitoring service where the FireEye security team becomes an extension of the customer’s security operations. Thus, security analysts proactively monitor threats within the customer environment, detecting anomalies, and recommending action items to mitigate threats.
FireEye Managed Defense Features
- 24×7 proactive monitoring
- Offers alerts and guidance on how to resolve threats
- Includes investigative services to find out who is behind the threat, and what actions are required to contain threats
- FireEye notifies the customer of threats that need follow up
- FireEye team becomes “a second set of eyes, making sure nothing slips by”
- Helps clients accelerate response to threats
- Investigates and analyzes live response data from endpoints devices
Is FireEye Partly To Blame for Target
Now that we have more info on the FireEye Managed Defense offering, we can draw our own conclusions. If Target is using FireEye’s Managed Defense, is FireEye partly to blame for the Target fiasco? It’s not my place to play the blame game, but in my book FireEye is off the hook now. However, others might think differently.
