Cisco and IBM have announced that they are working together to address the growing global threat of cybercrime. They will work closely together across products, services and threat intelligence.
Cisco security solutions will integrate with IBM’s QRadar security analytics platform, and will build new applications for it. The first two new applications will be designed to help security teams understand and respond to advanced threats and will be available on the IBM Security App Exchange.
IBM Global Services will also support Cisco products within managed security service provider (MSSP) offerings.
And, the collaboration establishes a new relationship between the IBM X-Force and Cisco Talos security research teams, who will begin collaborating on threat intelligence research and coordinating on major cybersecurity incidents. IBM also will deliver integrations between X-Force Exchange and its Resilient Incident Response Platform (IRP) with Cisco’s Threat Grid. This integration greatly expands the historical and real-time threat intelligence that security analysts can correlate for deeper insights.
For example, Cisco and IBM recently shared threat intelligence as part of the recent WannaCry ransomware attacks. The teams coordinated their response and researchers exchanged insights into how the malware was spreading. They continue to collaborate on the investigation to ensure joint customers, and the industry, have the most relevant information.
The cost of data breaches to enterprises continues to rise. In 2016, the Ponemon Institute found for companies surveyed the cost was at its highest ever at $4 million – up 29 percent over the past three years. A slow response can also impact the cost of a breach – incidents that took longer than 30 days to contain cost $1 million more than those contained within 30 days. These rising costs make visibility into threats, and blocking them quickly, central to an integrated threat defense approach.
“Cybercrime is expected to cost the world $6 trillion annually by 2021. This is why IBM has been a proponent of open collaboration and threat sharing in cybersecurity to change the economics for criminals,” said Marc van Zadelhoff, general manager, IBM Security. “With Cisco joining our immune system of defense, joint customers will greatly expand their ability to enhance their use of cognitive technologies like IBM Watson for Cyber Security. Also, having our IBM X-Force and Cisco Talos teams collaborating is a tremendous advantage for the good guys in the fight against cybercrime.”
