Digital Defense has deepened the way they assess and score risk, with new machine learning capabilities, providing a GPA-style score that indicates defense posture and clearly demonstrates value
Bob Layton, Digital Defense’s SVP and Chief Revenue Officer
Today, vulnerability assessment platform provider Digital Defense is releasing Frontline Threat Landscape, an additional capability within their vulnerability management technology that improves the prioritization of critical vulnerabilities that can be exploited. It will ultimately be a paid option for customers, but it is launching as a free trial for all.
“This is a further extension of our prioritization, and an enhancement of our existing superpowers,” said Bob Layton, Digital Defense’s SVP and Chief Revenue Officer. “What we are doing is bringing enhanced context and greater relevance to the alerts.”
They do this by leveraging machine-based learning to provide threat intelligence data to provide a more granular determination of risk for vulnerabilities identified in an organization’s network.
“You can’t chase every rabbit around the field,” Layton said. “You have to focus on what’s most exploited, and which are the top priorities. The security team really needs that.”
The new capabilities, which are Accessible within Digital Defense’s Frontline.Cloud SaaS security assessment, deepen and improve something that was already in the product previously.
“We actually came out with some tech that gave us the ability to provide scoring back in 2010,” Layton said. “That was our first entry into priority scoring. Later patents in 2015 and 2017 enhanced this. But this still didn’t have all the scoring that we funnel in now. Before, we looked at whether there was a known exploit, and whether it was in your environment. Now we can show if it’s being exploited. The context is important to pick up on.”
Layton also stressed that the results are now presented in a way to be immediately meaningful to the customer and their security people.
“The industry as a whole is so technology driven today that sometimes it forgets about operational aspects,” he said. “This brings a new level of prioritization that differentiates us in the market, rather than everything being a threat that you have to be scared of. The machine learning shows specifically what is of the most concern and enables prioritization.”
It does this using a GPA score rather a more abstract type of scoring.
“We use GPA scoring to take the tech double talk out of it,” Layton said. “It shows that right now, you are say, a C-, and this is what you need to do be a B+ or an A. It humanizes things and brings it into boardrooms with the GPA, and takes the mystery out of it.”
Layton said that the old channel axiom of where there is mystery, there is margin is giving way to proof of value.
“Especially in light of the pandemic, customers want to be shown the value that they get from you,” he stated. “This is especially valuable with people increasingly consuming managed services from MSSPs or MDR providers. This better shows proof of value to a customer. Showing you solved 20 of 50 tickets in 50 minutes doesn’t do it any more. Showing a customer that you made improvements to raise their score from D to a B is a better indication of what you are doing for them.”
Frontline Threat Landscape is now available for trial. The eventual pricing has not yet been determined.
“Digital Defense is engaged with MSSPs across the US and Canada right now and they say that the operational solutions mean the most to them today – not the technology,” Layton conclude. “Today, everyone’s technology is mature. It’s the operational solutions that will raise eyebrows.”
