AlienVault Unified Security Management

AlienVault Unified Security Management is a network security platform comprising integrated components. At the heart is an SIEM and log management system, with complementary components being asset discovery, vulnerability and threat assessment, threat identification and management, behavioural monitoring and security intelligence modules.

This security management platform is provided alongside AlienVault’s Open Threat Exchange, with information feeds from more than 8,000 members in more than 140 countries worldwide. Customers are provided with updates every 30 minutes. As well as this weekly updates are provided to rule sets contained within the platform from the AlienVault Labs Threat Intelligence service.

The platform aims to provide customers with improved compliance management, greater situational awareness, reduced exposure to threats and vulnerabilities, and better incident response.

Originally based in Madrid, AlienVault moved its headquarters to California in 2011. It also has an office in Texas and has expanded further into EMEA with the opening of a sales and technical support centre in Cork, Ireland, in mid-2014. It offers its services to customers worldwide.

AlienVault has an extensive partner programme that includes resellers, system integrators and MSSPs. In terms of MSSPs, it currently has 35 partners. 19 new MSSP partners were added in 2014 alone.

AlienVault’s security management platform is aimed at mid-market organisations, which are primarily those with US$50 million to US$500 million in revenues, or 250 to 5,000 employees. Such organisations often have limited security staff and budgets. It also targets its services at federal agencies in the US. Although AlienVault has a large roster of customers named on its website, few of them are household names owing to the customer segment targeted.

AlienVault’s security management platform is designed to be as easy as possible to set up, with all components pre-integrated. Its focus is on providing simplicity and reliability.

The security management platform is provided as an appliance that can be deployed on-premise, in the cloud through Amazon web services or hosted by an MSSP.

AlienVault offers what it calls “Lightspeed” support for those customers that have an active support and maintenance contract. It offers both online and classroom-based training. It has recently added a health check service to ensure that its unified security management platform is working properly and is configured correctly. This is offered as a basic one-hour free check or a more extensive diagnostic review.