Blumira Unfurls Detection and Response Services for SMBs
Blumira today extended the cloud-based automated threat detection and response service it provides to include both a free tier and a set of premium Microsoft 365, cloud and advanced offerings.
Jim Simpson, Blumira CEO, said the goal is to make threat detection and response capabilities accessible to a wider range of small-to-midsized businesses that otherwise would not be able to afford to implement them.
At the core of the Blumira portfolio is a security information event management (SIEM) platform the company deployed in the cloud. The company then created a set of detection, response and reporting capabilities that can be consumed as a service. Those services are designed to be deployed in minutes via connectors with no additional infrastructure required, said Simpson.
The free edition of the Blumira service provides security monitoring for Microsoft 365 with unlimited users and data along with detection and response, basic reporting and ongoing updates to detection rules. All users of the free edition can upgrade in-product to paid editions to gain access to Blumira’s 24/7 security operations team for support. Customers that upgrade to the advanced service can access ongoing security consultations with a technical account manager as well a network attack surface assessment.
Blumira tracks potentially malicious behaviors such as email forwarding, password changes and anomalous access attempts. It then synthesizes that data to a daily findings report as opposed to generating hundreds of ongoing alerts that most SMB organizations would not be able to act on, said Simpson.
The Blumira approach also eliminates data volume ingestion limits or hidden charges that previously hindered the ability of SMBs to make use of a threat detection and response platform, he added.
The issue that Blumira is trying to address is that most SMBs often can’t afford to employ anything more sophisticated than a network firewall and antivirus software deployed on endpoints to combat cybersecurity attacks. As cyberattacks become more complicated and sophisticated, malware can now lie hidden in an IT environment for hundreds of days before being activated. SMBs require a less expensive approach to detecting breaches long before malware becomes activated.
Blumira is also seeking to engage the managed service providers (MSPs) that SMBs typically rely on for security. It offers a free not-for-resale license for all managed service providers (MSPs) for its advanced edition.
As cybersecurity becomes more challenging, it’s apparent that more organizations, regardless of size, are going to need more advanced tools to combat threats. The challenge is achieving that goal without breaking the IT budget. The percentage of IT budgets spent on cybersecurity has increased in recent years. SMBs typically don’t have the resources required to implement layers of cybersecurity defenses. However, as the cost of delivering cybersecurity services via the cloud declines, the percentage of organizations that can strengthen their overall security posture should increase. The challenge, of course, is going to be convincing the leaders of those organizations to proactively adopt those services before something catastrophic actually occurs.
