Global Crossing Ups Ante On Network Security

What’s a major expense for organizations that nobody wants to talk about? Security breaches. It seems like every few days there’s another big splash in the news about user accounts and credit card numbers being compromised. There’s the direct cost of having to make up for losses, but there’s the larger cost of concerned customers abandoning or avoiding the company out of fear they’ll be the next victims.

These are the security horror stories we hear about. What generally isn’t reported is the espionage and theft of intellectual property that goes on behind the scenes. Your competitive advantage can be neutralized in minutes when key trade secrets and client lists are downloaded by unethical competitors and professional thieves.

Most companies are more attuned to network security than ever before. But is it enough? Judging from breaking news stories and industry buzz, not hardly. This is why Global Crossing is expanding its portfolio of security solutions for enterprise customers.

Global Crossing is well known as a leading worldwide IP network provider serving 40% of the Fortune 500 and hundreds of carriers, mobile operators and Internet service providers. They have the resources and the reach to deal with threats on an international basis. They also have the need, as their customers are prime targets for nefarious activities.

Global Crossings expanded suite of network security measures now includes a new SIEM or Security Information and Event Management platform. This resides in the Global Crossing Security Operations Center (SOC) where a team of security professionals, analysts and engineers monitor and assess network security issues on a full time basis. The reports and analysis are delivered to the proprietary uCommand portal for each customer.

The suite of security features includes a firewall, intrusion prevention service, web content filtering, antivirus and antispam appliance provided by Fortinet. This is augmented by additional professional services that include security policy review and creation, penetration testing, vulnerability assessments, incident response and security assessment and audit.

This is a multi-pronged approach that starts with evaluation and design of policies, procedures and technical measures, continuously monitors for threats, automatically thwarts them in progress and reports the attacks, plus jumps into action to deal with new issues as they arise.

The challenge of network security is that it is a rapidly evolving field with highly motivated and increasingly sophisticated perpetrators pitted against equally motivated security professionals. The more valuable your assets and the more your company depends on network connections and an online presence, the greater the threat to your operations.

Are you feeling the need for improved network security? If you are beyond what out of the box antivirus programs can do for you, a managed security solution may be your most cost effective option. Whether you have a small retail store or a Fortune 500 corporation to secure, get pricing and features of managed network security options new. You’ll likely sleep a lot easier knowing that someone in the security center is watching out for your interests.

Windstream’s Enterprise Level Managed Security

The larger your organization, the more important network security becomes. You have more assets to protect, there are more nodes where something hostile can enter, the consequences affect more users, and you may be under stricter scrutiny from regulating agencies. Examples are HIPAA in the medical field and PCI DSS for financial transactions.

The simplistic firewall solutions that work fine for individuals, small organizations and even some medium size companies are just not sized for organizations with hundreds or thousands of users. They may not be robust enough to meet the threats, either. While some large organizations build an in-house security staff and effectively manage their own network security, others are finding that buying a managed security service is more cost effective.

Managed security for large and enterprise level organizations is a specialty of Windstream. Known as a provider of broadband Internet, phone services and digital television with millions of customers in 23 states, Windstream Communications also offers a wide range of IP-based voice and data services to business and government agencies. They’ve got the scale and expertise to meet the expectations of larger companies. Their newly expanded managed security service for enterprise businesses is well worth a look if your operation has outgrown its network security solution or if you are considering options to cut expenses.

Windstream’s security solution is fully managed and monitored around the clock. They’ve partnered with Fortinet, an acknowledged leader in unified threat management, to offer a highly robust security service. Since Windstream can now provide both the WAN bandwidth and security, they are in a prime position to be able to protect your organization from network intruders.

What do you get with Windstream managed network security? It’s a suite of service that include firewalls, antivirus protection and intrusion detection. Application intelligence detects and prevents malicious traffic gaining network access. You’ll have protection against the nearly continuous onslaught of viruses, worms and phishing attacks that are a fact of life with computer networking. Site to site Virtual Private Network (VPN) connections are IPSec encrypted. Remote access VPN and remote desktop options are available. Secure WiFi options are also available, as more and more companies are including wireless access points. Web content filtering is also included to protect employees from objectionable Web content.

Do you have a need to meet or exceed industry compliance standards such as HIPAA and PCI DSS? Windstream has a managed solution that will ease the burden of this.

If your organization has a need for large scale and robust network security and you like to let an expert service provider hand this for you, or you just want to see if managed security makes more economic sense than doing it in-house, then you should take a few minutes to put in a request for pricing and consultation from our Telarus consultants. It costs you nothing and could be a big money saver as well as offering peace of mind.