The ability of attackers to prey on human emotions now represents one of cyber’s most under-rated threats, LevelBlue’s channel leader claimed as he reflected on its journey to becoming the world’s largest MSSP.
The LevelBlue brand was born in June 2024 when AT&T span out its cybersecurity and MSSP division.
LevelBlue unites cybersecurity brands including Trustwave, Cybereason, Alert Logic, Stroz Friedberg and Elysium Digital.
This brings together extensive expertise and intelligence-led security services leveraging front-line insights from more than 9,000 investigations and incident response engagements.
In episode one of this special IT Channel Oxygen podcast, Cian Harrington, Global Director MSSP & Channel at LevelBlue, talked through his own journey at the company, which began when he joined SIEM vendor AlienVault in 2017.
“In 2019, [AlienVault] got acquired by AT&T, and we became AT&T Cybersecurity. A lot of people don’t realise that AT&T had actually been providing cybersecurity services since the 90s,” he told host Sara Driscoll.
“I don’t think it’s spoken about enough”
Asked about the threats that are most flying under the radar, Harrington picked out not only AI, but also the increasingly emotional subtext of attacks.
“I don’t think it’s spoken about enough,” he said of the latter.
“Attackers are trying to elicit an emotional response from their targets. They’re using that response to try and get the target to do what they need them to do.”
Harrington also dished out his top advice to partners, which he characterised as “an extension of our business”.
Partners need to start thinking about services more than products, he claimed.
“How is a customer going to reduce risk? How are they going to prepare for the inevitable?,” he said.
“Ten years ago, we were talking about the ‘if and not when’. It’s the exact same now, except it’s been multiplied by a million.”
Don’t miss episode 2 of this special IT Channel Oxygen podcast, where LevelBlue and its partners will be discussing the AI threat.
This article was produced in association with LevelBlue and is classified as partner content. What is partner content? See more here.
