Democratising Cybersecurity

Oct 23, 2024
5 minutes
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In 2024, cybersecurity has become a top priority for businesses across the globe. And with good reason – the cost of cybercrime globally now stands at over $8 trillion, with our proprietary research finding that an overwhelming 96% of companies experienced a cybersecurity incident in 2022. It is this exact dilemma that Palo Alto Networks and BT have come together to resolve. By combining our best-in-class firewalls (recognised as an 11-time Gartner Magic Quadrant leader) with BT’s top-tier Managed Security Services, businesses gain access to a scalable solution that delivers essential security expertise and technology to safeguard their data and systems.

The Mission to Protect Any and Every Business Worldwide

With the en-masse adoption of generative AI, the situation has only worsened. The bar to becoming a cybercriminal has never been lower, and we are witnessing both a cadence and speed of attacks that we’ve never seen before.

Amidst the backdrop of a challenging economic climate, how can businesses of all sizes ensure they stay cyber secure, despite significant restraints around time and resources?

Firewalls represent the cornerstone of any cybersecurity strategy and help ensure a strong line of defence between internal, sensitive data and the outside world. However, managing them, maintaining them and ensuring they are kept up to date has always required certain skills and been resource-intensive…until now.

A Better, Smarter Way

Through our partnership with BT, we have removed those two main barriers to entry by offering expertly managed firewalls, designed to scale and adapt to unique business requirements. That includes everything from global enterprises to new startups. Here’s how it works:

1. Expertise Without the Increased Headcount

BT’s security experts handle the setup, migration, operation and maintenance of your firewalls. They provide 24/7 support and monitoring with consultants offering clear and accessible security advice to keep you informed and aid your decision-making. With over 3,600 cyber security professionals and 14 Security Operation Centres (SOC) globally, threats are continuously watched, learned from, predicted and responded to, ensuring that businesses remain protected.

2. Gold Standard Protection

Not only do businesses benefit from leading expertise, they also gain access to the best tools. We are an 11-time Gartner Magic Quadrant industry leader for network firewalls, which are triple “A” rated by CyberRatings. They are evolving and improving too, now leveraging machine learning and AI-enabled automation for highly interoperable and adaptive solutions.

With our next-generation technologies, BT helps customers adopt Zero Trust across the network security stack, implement cloud-based security, and leverage inline deep learning to stop unknown zero-day attacks, blocking even the most evasive threats. Combined with BT’s leading managed services, our joint customers can receive smarter security, reduced overall TCO and enhanced protection.

3. A Solution with No Sell-By Date

AI has changed the threat landscape forever. Not only has it lowered the barrier to entry for cybercriminals and created new types of threats, it has also allowed established threat actors to work with never-before-seen speed and efficiency. Our Unit 42 team recently saw an instance where bad actors extracted 2.5 terabytes of data in just 14 hours – not days, weeks or months.

In short, businesses need cybersecurity solutions that evolve just as quickly as attackers do. Every month, BT identifies more than 2,000 signals of a potential cyber attack every second (over 200 million per day) as it defends critical networks across the world, according to new data pointing to an accelerated cyber security threat. They are continually informed about emerging threats and how to combat them. The result? A continually evolving product and service that keeps firms protected, no matter how advanced or sophisticated threat actors become.

BT identifies more than 2,000 signals of a potential cyber attack every second – over 200 million per day – as it defends critical networks across the world, according to new data pointing to an accelerated cyber security threat.

Tom Gavin, Sales Director at BT, Networking & Security, explains:

Staying ahead of the latest cybersecurity threats is a concern many customers have, but they feel they lack the knowledge, the resources or face challenges balancing IT spend across a growing number of priorities. Together, BT and Palo Alto Networks give our customers – whatever their size – the protection their business needs, in a way that works best for them.

In a world where there are thousands of cybersecurity tools and as many vendors, this collaboration also represents part of our wider mission to lead the industry with a cloud and platform-based approach. Recognising the importance of this, BT has joined us on this journey. Having been in partnership for over a decade, we will continue to work together to streamline and consolidate security tools and applications, resulting in better TCO, enhanced performance, increased agility and greater resilience.

Our Business Is Protecting Yours

With our industry-leading products and BT’s best-in-class Managed Security Services, we are taking one step closer toward ensuring businesses of all sizes can remain cyber secure amidst a rapidly evolving threat landscape. The goal is simple – democratise cybersecurity and ensure firms have the knowledge they need, supported by specialist expertise, and protected by the best cybersecurity technologies, without having to compromise.

Learn more about our industry-leading managed security services with BT Managed Firewall powered by Palo Alto Networks.

Visit our BT and Palo Alto’s extensive partnership and joint solutions to learn how we’re bringing innovative SASE and cybersecurity solutions to market.


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