Security Startup Takes On SIEM

The co-founders of TippingPoint have launched a new startup that security experts say could challenge traditional security information and event management (SIEM) technology.

Marc Willebeek-LeMair and Brian Smith today announced their latest project, Click Security, a startup that is tackling the shortcomings of today's SIEM and other security tools for detecting threats.

The new company is addressing the automation of monitoring, detecting, and analyzing all of the data companies gather but don't necessarily have the resources or time to properly investigate. That's the underlying problem with many organizations being unaware of advanced threats that have infiltrated their networks, according to Click Security. "Click Security is like Netwitness in that it creates actionable intelligence from streams of data. But Netwitness -- and Solera Networks -- are primarily data-gatherers with the addition of customizable filters to extract events from stored data. Click Security is real-time and appears to be much more powerful," says Richard Stiennon, chief research analyst at IT-Harvest.

[Security information and event management tools must catch up with the elusive advanced persistent threat. See APT Shaping SIEM. ]

The startup today unveiled its Linux-based Automated Security Analytics Platform (ASAP), which will ship in April, that basically automates the tasks of security analysts. "It's not a SIEM. It does a set of things SIEM doesn't do: it captures information live to memory and maintains state," for example, says Neal Hartsell, vice president of marketing. The goal is to catch advanced threats that can fly under the radar if they're not sufficiently analyzed, according to Click Security.

ASAP can gather and bring together any security-related data, including metadata, from firewalls, SIEM systems, and other tools: the platform lets an organization share its analytics in-house, or even externally, using so-called modules. The company describes its technology as "active situational analysis."

"The big problems we saw when we launched was that [organizations] don't share enough ... these modules are designed to specifically do that," says Marc Willebeek-LeMair, co-founder and CEO at Click Security. "We're trying to bring a modular approach to the security industry."

Then other organizations or security analysts can grab a module on a new attack and bring it in-house for analysis. An organization that spots a specific threat and wants to share intelligence on it with another organization can provide them a "live data workbook" with the information via their browser to collaborate on build analytics, for instance, or if that organization also has ASAP, it can grab the module from their "library."

"I feel that they [Click Security] are on to something. They have also created the opportunity for crowd-sourced intelligence analysis whereby independent researchers will be able to contribute to the tool set," IT-Harvest's Stiennon says.

Meanwhile, Click Security is working on partnering with security appliance vendors and managed security service providers that want to sell an ASAP-type service, says Willebeek-LeMair.

Have a comment on this story? Please click "Add Your Comment" below. If you'd like to contact Dark Reading's editors directly, send us a message.