RSA, Juniper Team Up In Threat Intelligence-Sharing

SAN FRANCISCO -- RSA CONFERENCE 2013 -- RSA, the security division of EMC, and Juniper Networks here today announced that they have teamed up to share threat intelligence -- and the partnership ultimately will include sharing intel about attacks targeting security vendors as well.

"We have to do a better job cooperating" as an industry to leverage all of the threat intelligence gathered today, says Art Coviello, CEO of RSA. "We can't just rely on internal data: We need external data as well. If criminals and rogue actors can get together, why can't the good guys? ... It's important that we [vendors] gather and share intelligence."

RSA and Juniper will collaborate and share intel from RSA's Live threat intelligence and Juniper's newly unveiled Spotlight Secure intel service. Juniper also said it will embed RSA's mobile authentication technologies into its Junos Pulse SSL Secure product.

Coviello says RSA already has been doing some intel-sharing with other vendors via its Antifraud Command Center. "When you're talking about intelligence-driven security ... the more sources of intelligence, the better," he says. He says that over time, the intel-sharing would also encompass vendors' firsthand attack threat information.

Even so, Coviello says the threat data vendors gather from other attacks is especially valuable. "We [vendors] might be a juicy target, but there are juicier targets," he says.

Nawaf Bitar, senior vice president and general manager of the security business unit at Juniper Networks, says Juniper and RSA's partnership is a natural fit. "Our strength is in enforcement ... and they understand threats," Bitar says. Teaming up will help stop more APT-style and other attacks, he says.

Meanwhile, RSA also announced Authentication Manager 8, its next-generation authentication solution that blends the company's SecurID one-time password token technology with risk-based authentication that verifies and authorizes users. Authentication Manager 8, which will ship this quarter, is the core of RSA's Adaptive Identity & Access Management family.

"With the number of significant breaches we've seen this year, it's no secret that static authentication solutions are falling short," says Jason Malo, research director at the Tower Group. "Next-generation authentication solutions must be able to adapt as risk levels change and threats become more sophisticated. Merging big data analytics with strong authentication technologies is a good first step."

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