Showing posts with label Cyphort. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cyphort. Show all posts

Sunday, September 27, 2015

Cyphort vs. FireEye – FireWhy? The Breach Detection, Advanced Persistent Threat Battle




Cyphort is taking a different tact versus the others in the breach detection, Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) market with their Cyphort Advanced Threat Protection solution (claim: complete 360ยบ APT defense!)   Cyphort positions the company as both superior to FireEye and  able to  coexist with FireEye. Getting their nose under the tent for when renewals coming up? Shortening the review cycle when renewals come up?  Coverage for areas of a company where there aren’t FireEye appliances?  Cyphort didn’t participate in the NSS Labs Breach Detection study.
    
 FireEye is the 800-pound gorilla with respect to market revenue and visibility.  The David vs. Goliath analogy won’t work since FireEye’s CEO’s first name is Dave! Cyphort’s 2014 revenue was around $14 million. FireEye’s was $426 million (this includes revenue from the Mandiant acquisition).

Cyphort claims that their solution delivers malware lateral movement detection. They define this as "the ability to combine advanced targeted attacks and Advanced Persistent Threats (APT) detection with lateral movement." They say that their product provides a  picture of the attack as it happens and the potential spread within an organization, in real-time.

The Cyphort solution is delivered as software that can be installed on general-purpose hardware, virtual machines and cloud environments. The solution consists of four core components:

Collector:  Software-based probes deployed at strategic network locations (Internet egress points, data centers, etc.)   to collect suspect objects and communication.

Core:   This is the centralized detection component of Cyphort’s solution; Cyphort Core analyzes the collected suspicious network objects and associated metadata from the Collectors 

Manager: This is a  web-based,  administrative Interface.  It enables someone to manage the distributed deployment and provides access to reports

Threat Network: This cloud service feeds global threat intelligence to the Cyphort Core for enhanced detection of current threats. It aggregates threat information across all Cyphort installations

At RSA earlier this year,  Cyphort's co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer Fengmin Gong  said, "Today, solutions must look at every stage of the cyber kill chain."  

It’s always good to have more competition. Based on press, one would think that the APT market is the exclusive domain FireEye and the other seven companies that are part of the most recent NSS Breach Detection Systems (BDS) test!

 Is FireEye Cyphort’s Friend or Foe?

On the Cyphort site at http://www.cyphort.com/products/firewhy/   there are pair of threads prospects can go down.  

For those who already have FireEye, Cyphort claims that their Cyphort Advanced Threat Protection solution can be used to address gaps in the FireEye solution.  Their pitch is that they enhance protection.

Enterprise-wide Coverage: Unprotected sites and data centers can be covered with a single global license

Enterprise-wide Deployment: Deployment in days using the virtual machine approach

No appliance proliferation:  Cyphort claims that they cover & correlate email/web/file traffic across multiple operating systems, all in one solution

The second thread is for those considering FireEye.  Cyphort claims that they are   “the clear alternative”.  They have a nice (of course, it’s selective) grid containing points of differentiation (FireEye in ( ) :

Detection: Sandbox evasion detection, Data exfiltration detection, Multi-part threat detection, Golden image sandbox for contextual detection.  (no for all four )

Coverage: Distributed/Decoupled Design for Global Deployment using collectors (Monolithic) , Hardware/Software/VM deployment  (hardware only), Integrated Web/Email threat detection for Windows and Mac OSX threats (multiple appliances needed)

Action: Risk-based Threat Prioritization , Containment Using Existing Firewall, Web Gateway and IPS Devices, Endpoint Infection Verification (no for all three)

Scale and Flexibility: Scalability, clustered design to support any load (limited by highest appliance capacity for FireEye );  IT ecosystem Integration, open API (limited); Licensing is enterprise wide by bandwidth (per appliance for FireEye)

The Radicati Group has a  APT market share and  2015-2019 APT forecast  report available for purchase ($3000)  Radicati APT-Protection-Market-2015-2019-Brochure.pdf

For those wanting another company’s view of Cyphort’s and FireEye’s offerings, LastLine has performed  their own analyses:


Products in the Breach Detection Systems (BDS) Security Value Map™ 2015

In the August NSS Breach Detection Systems Test,  Cisco had the highest detection rate, Blue Coat the lowest TCO.  FireEye - lower left in the grid.  As mentioned earlier, Cyphort was not in this study.

Five of the eight received a recommended rating (Those on the upper right corner of the value map). Some of the companies tested have the individual reports available on their web site.  To purchase reports, see below.  For the BDS Security Value Map Graphic:
Participants in the NSS Breach Detection Systems  Study:
 Studies are available on the NSS site. Some are available for free on the participant's site.

Sunday, August 16, 2015

Is FireEye Fireproof?

Addendum - December 7 :  On 12/7 - FireEye reached a fifty two week  low of  $19.76  This is lower than their IPO opening bell price.

To date, FireEye seems impervious to poor test results.  The market has been more interested in revenue growth. In the NSS Labs Breach Detection Systems Comparative Report issued in Augst, five of the eight vendors tested received a Recommended rating. FireEye was not one of them. 
   
FireEye did not test well in the   NSS Labs report, finishing last, with the lowest security effectiveness (in the 50’s, with the next lowest vendor in the 80’s) and the highest TCO per protected Mbps.

September 28 Addendum - FEYE closed at $31.51. Its opening day closing price was around $36.

Cisco had the highest effectiveness of the eight products tested and Blue coast the lowest TCO per protect Mbps.  FireEye protested the testing methodology when NSS first performed this test a couple of years ago.   

A Frost and Sullivan report “Network Security Sandbox Market Analysis, APTs Create a “Must Have” Security Technology”, gives FireEye 62% of the market.

 From a financial perspective, FireEye sales and marketing expenses as a percent of revenue have finally dropped below 100%. Operating cash flow is finally positive. The company is still losing ”tons” of money. The market finally seems to be paying more attention cash flow, margins, and future profitability.  

The company as of mid August is trading in the low $40’s, well off its peak of $97 in March 2014 (giving executives a chance to cash in for a nice gain) and   above the bottom of $25 in October 2014.  The $40’s is in the area of the pop FireEye had when it first went public. The company CFO, Michael Sheridan, resigned shortly after the last earnings announcement to join DocuSign.

 A free copy the Breach Detection Systems Security Value Map can be obtained at https://www.nsslabs.com/bds-security-value-map-graphic  The full report is available for purchase. A number of the vendors in the report are making their individual vendor reports available.  

Cyphort, one of the vendors tested, is aggressive on their website explaining why they would make a great addition to companies already using FireEye and why they feel they’re the “clear alternative” for companies considering FireEye. People can learn about this at http://www.cyphort.com/products/firewhy/  as well as view a (small) capabilities comparison grid.