Jay, our company offers Managed Services to SMB clients. We leverage two partners who provide 1) software and 2) MSSP (Managed Security Service Provider) solutions to complement our professional services.

We partner on the MSSP side with a company called ProtectPoint. They focus in the small and mid-sized client space and have an outstanding reputation. I personally know the CEO and he has built a great company based on integrity and strong intellectual capital. It is one of only two solutions that we resell.

Please let me know if you'd like to learn more. We're based in Fort Worth, TX.


Regards,
Brian

Links:

• http://www.protectpoint.com
• http://www.comportcorp.com

posted February 10, 2008

Let's take away all of the marketing fluff....

My definition of a "Network Managed Security Services" company is "Swift Talkers Who Bundled More Bloatware As A Service Provider For A Fee".

Network Managed Security - as a logical term relates to managing network based traffic. Either via firewalls, routing, Intrusion Prevention/Detection Systems. Anything and everything on the network level. What about WEBAPPSEC? Web Application Security. Guess what, this still passes through the network but will almost often be offered as a separate service for yet another fee.

Most "Network Managed Security Services" are nothing more then companies who've jumped on the popular bandwagon and deploy overrated technologies and sometimes those technologies aren't even properly deployed.

Hacker Safe Hacked
http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=205600099&subSection=All+Stories

Most competent admins should be able to defend the networks they administrate without the costs of uber expensive bloatware. I currently administrate in excess of 50 IP PBX servers deployed all over the US and have yet to have a compromise. There is no magic uber "parallel vector forward facing pseudorandomnonsensically-termed high availability nothing" in front of them. Strictly a hardened system which is proactively monitored.

On the other hand I also have clients which I administrate and have used industry recommendation (NIST, SANS) to place them in a highly secure state. Some have uber high availability firewalls and IPS'/IDS' using all sorts of neat features. So it all depends on what is it you truly need to do.

If you need to protect a company with over say 20 servers, I would recommend either hiring a well experienced engineer, of sending your current engineer to some security bootcamps and give him or her a raise if the costs are less then hiring a "Network Managed Security Snakeoil Salesman".

On the other hand, I could play a security sales engineer as well and offer you high availability (ZERO DOWNTIME guaranteed) monitored service which would make the biggest corporations cringe at a 10th of their best offer. So define what exactly is it you THINK you need.

Do you need to

a) Protect your infrastructure from attack/hacks/inside jobs
b) Protect your forward facing view (webservers, Internet Presence) from attacks
c) Ensure data to and from your employees is secure (VPN)
d) Ensure you're company is in compliance (e.g., SOX, CALEA, etc)

There is a broad range of services you could do without but don't expect a sales engineer to tell you this. Expect them to woo you into buying it. I can give you an unbiased opinion/answer on what I would tell you to go with, but your question is akin to me asking "I just saw Chevrolet it was red would you buy it?" What is it you need to do? Tow logs, drive kids to school, make it a taxi? What color red, fire red, crimson red, orange red.

posted February 10, 2008