In life there are coincidences, and today is no exception. Living in the Northeast (U.S.), I am sitting in complete darkness, as a storm took out trees and power. Today was also when I was going to have some time to recap my recent attendance of the McAfee MPower show, whose slogan was “Together is Power”. As it is for me personally today, it is also true of cybersecurity.
Throughout the show, McAfee’s message to the audience was, “we can do it all, just not by ourselves.” What they meant by that mantra was that they have a solid library of cybersecurity related software, but understand that there are some technologies they don’t have, or even some they do, but their customers may use a competitive product. This, like the message last year, is not common for companies. Aren’t we supposed to push people to use our, and only our, software? No.
As a business, of course we want you to use our PowerBroker and Retina line of products to address your least privilege, enterprise password management, or vulnerability management needs. At the same time we have all been on the other side of the table as customers of software vendors. Sometimes we purchase new technology, and other times we use what’s in place. Life isn’t set it stone, and being able to adjust to changes is critical.
One of the highlights of the event was McAfee naming BeyondTrust as their Runner Up for Most Innovative Partner of the Year. We joined the SIA Program last November, and have been working tirelessly to spread the word about our privileged access management solution integrated with McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator. Being recognized for innovation so early in our partnership in a category with long-standing partners was an honor.
Outside of attending sessions, I spent a lot of time during the show speaking with McAfee employees. The primary topic of conversation was around McAfee’s Data Exchange Layer, (DXL). For those not familiar, it’s an information bus allowing different products, even those from different vendors to talk with, and even react based on this data from various sources. This isn’t brand new technology for McAfee, but it is something that BeyondTrust is exploring.
Think about the possibilities for a moment. Based on the information from PowerBroker for Windows, (e.g. a vulnerable app was launched), a vulnerability scan from our own Retina or another product could automatically be kicked off. Or perhaps, if it’s the first time someone was using Password Safe to remote to a machine, you may want an automated workflow to occur to make sure everything checks out, in terms of security, before allowing it. Cybersecurity technology that works together would be a powerful tool to protect organizations from breaches.
And speaking of power, mine’s still out. Today it will take the help of the local Fire Department and other responders to clear the roads of downed trees, Police to help navigate traffic, and the utility company to restore power to my neighborhood. In business, especially in securing our networks, it also takes different specialists working together to get the job done. So here’s to working together, and together is power.
For more information on how McAfee and BeyondTrust work together to increases security and reduce complexity, check out our white paper "McAfee and BeyondTrust – Unified Endpoint Least Privilege and Security" or contact us for a personalized demo.
Jason Silva, Sr. Solutions Architect
Jason Silva is a Senior Solutions Architect focused in Privilege Access Management (PAM), Identity and Access Management (IAM), and Least Privilege. Jason brings over 25 years of experience in solutions management to BeyondTrust's Privileged Access Management Solutions enforcing Privileged Password Management and Privileged Session Management, Privileged Endpoint Management, and Secure Remote Access which utilizes a single pane of glass for all management aspects including Automated Account Discovery, Privileged Management and Elevation, Audit and Compliance, and Reporting.
