Verizon opens Asia-Pacific threat, analytic center, provides insights on cyberthreats

Verizon has raised investment in next-generation security capabilities for its Asia-Pacific Advanced Security Operations Center in Canberra, Australia, enhancing its efforts to battle cybersecurity threats.

The newly established Asia-Pacific Threat and Analytics Center is designed to deliver real-time insights into cyber threats for both public and private sector customers.

This facility in Canberra complements Verizon’s nine existing Security Operations Centers (SOCs), which collectively analyze more than 60 billion security events annually.

“Through this enhanced facility, our security experts will be able to collaborate more effectively with our public and private sector stakeholders to deliver more actionable insights,” Robert Le Busque, regional managing director for Australia, New Zealand and India for Verizon. “The increased sharing of intelligence is vital to safeguarding Australia’s physical and online assets.”

RELATED: Verizon, Deloitte jointly deliver cybersecurity services to businesses

Australia is a good location for a new Verizon SOC. The Australian Cyber Security Center 2016 Threat Report revealed that “between July 2015 and June 2016, CERT Australia responded to more than 14,000 cybersecurity incidents affecting Australian business, 418 of which involved systems of national interest and critical infrastructure.”

Verizon provides ICT services to more than 25 federal governments around the world, including Australia, where it provides services to 75-plus Commonwealth and State Government agencies.

The service provider offers a series of managed security services, managed PKI services and Gatekeeper accreditation, delivering high assurance Government digital certificates. Verizon was also appointed to the new telecommunications services panel in December 2016, which provides coordinated telecommunications services to the whole of Australian Federal Government.

Verizon uses these facilities to monitor its own global communications network, and its own and externally provided threat intelligence using big data analytics, along with deep forensic experience.

The service provider combines intelligence from over 200 open source data and multiple commercial feeds that’s gleaned from Verizon’s sharing relationships with law enforcement agencies and global Computer Emergency Response Teams around the globe.