Intel Security Sets Its Sights on Use-Case-Driven Technology

At Intel Security’s FOCUS conference in Las Vegas, the company is announcing its renewed strategy to help enterprises of all sizes stay safe in an increasingly hostile online world. As part of the strategy, Intel Security is updating an existing product with McAfee Endpoint Security 10.X and is also introducing the new McAfee Active Response Platform.

“The whole theme for us is the ‘new next’ since so much of what is happening at Intel Security is taking our business and product portfolio into a new space from where we have been,” Chris Young, senior vice president and general manager of Intel Security Group, told eWEEK.

Young joined Intel a year ago, after leaving Cisco where he was senior vice president of security. Part of the work that Young is doing now is to redefine Intel Security’s leadership and direction.

Lifecycle

Intel Security is moving to a security lifecycle threat approach that includes protecting assets, detecting threats and then correcting potential security issues.

As part of that focus, Intel Security is announcing today its new McAfee Endpoint Security 10.x release.

“We have not only improved performance, but we have turned traditional endpoint protection into a platform that also allows our customers to detect threats and do more advanced forensics,” Young said. “We have simplified the suite as well, so there are fewer moving pieces.”

As part of Endpoint Security, the Intel Security Threat Intelligence Exchange has also been integrated into the suite. Young explained that when the Threat Intelligence Exchange was announced in 2014, it was a stand-alone product.

“In some cases, we want solutions to complement one another, and in other cases, we bring them into a fully integrated suite,” Young said.

Intel Security is also announcing its new McAfee Active Response technology, which complements the Endpoint Security suite. Active Response fits into the “detect and correct” portion of the threat lifecycle.

“It allows our customers to hunt for indicators of compromise, set alerts, and look for process and behavior information,” Young said. “So we can go beyond analysis and detection approaches that are based on files and instead look at behavior and different indicators to identify the existence of threats.”

Young added that McAfee Active Response is great for zero-day attacks that have not been seen before as well as revealing potential insider attackers against an organization. The Active Response product works with Endpoint Security, though Young noted that it can also be deployed as a stand-alone technology.

As Young contemplates his second year of running the Intel Security business, he said his focus will be on continuing to make use-case-driven technology. “We’re working from the customer problem back down to the products,” Young said. “We’re investing in integrated products, in labs and architectural design, so our customers can implement a solution, instead of having to piece together an architecture on their own.”

Originally published on eWeek.