Partners can make 'a lot of money' from FireEye-ForeScout alliance, says FireEye CEO

Strategic alliance aims to prevent the Internet of Things becoming a ‘cybersecurity nightmare'

FireEye and ForeScout claim that the channel will be among the beneficiaries of their new alliance, which is aimed at thwarting security threats stemming from the Internet of Things (IoT).

FireEye CEO Dave DeWalt (pictured) said the duo's strategic partnership, announced today, would prevent IoT becoming a "cybersecurity nightmare" by enabling visibility and situational awareness across connected devices.

ForeScout CEO Michael DeCesare said the alliance shows that security vendors can work together for the good of joint customers and partners.

The two firms said a number of customers already use the combined solution of ForeScout agentless visibility, control and automation and FireEye network security. The partnership will now be expanded to include ForeScout integrations with FireEye email protection, end-point and cloud-based analytics platforms.

According to IDC, 90 per cent of all IT networks will have an IoT-based security breach by December 2016.

ForeScout and FireEye said their joint offering directly tackles this issue by monitoring the network for unknown devices, dynamically segmenting them and deploying system-wide responses to defend against advanced threats.

DeWalt said: "With an increasing number of IoT devices connecting into the enterprise as well as critical infrastructure providers, security teams need complete visibility into their networks and the capability to quickly detect and shut down a compromised device.

"The ForeScout-FireEye partnership will enable visibility and situational awareness across connected devices and help keep the IoT from becoming a cybersecurity nightmare."

Michael DeCesare, CEO of ForeScout, added: "The current siloed approach to security simply does not work. This partnership is a great example of how security companies can work together to automate responses to threats that we are battling every day in IT and operational technology."

ForeScout and FireEye's respective reseller bases will also feel the benefit of the alliance, DeCesare claimed.

"We are committed to trying to make sure we include those channel partners in this so they get the benefits of being on the inside helping us with this as well," DeCesare said.

DeWalt added: "What we hear [from partners] is 'give us solutions together' and so by bringing these connectors together, we can provide our channel - the VARs and the disties - with a solution from the two companies and hopefully they can make a lot of money out of this too."