Former MSSP boss launches vendor into UK

Carlo Minassian sold MSSP Earthwave to Dimension Data in 2013 and is now back with Lmntrix

A former MSSP boss has launched his new vendor in the UK and is on the hunt for partners.

Carlo Minassian previously founded Australia-based MSSP Earthwave, before selling the business to Dimension Data in 2013 and working there for three years.

Minassian has now launched Lmntrix, a vendor that provides a range of security services delivered as a platform.

Explaining how Lmntrix was formed, Minassian said he identified a gap in the market while still at Dimension Data and founded the new company as soon as he left.

"On the back of that experience [at Dimension Data] I saw a lot of loopholes and issues where the attackers continued to infiltrate and stay on customer networks," he said.

"On the back of that I did a lot of research and reverse-engineered their techniques into a platform to detect and respond to advanced threats that routinely bypass the controls.

"Our approach is based on adversary pursuit and makes the assumption that customers are already breached. We don't wait for an alert, we actively go out and hunt."

Lmntrix provides services including threat detection, deception, threat intelligence, monitoring, response and threat hunting.

The solutions are built from a combination of proprietary software, licensed software from other security vendors and customised open-source software.

Before the Lmntrix solution is installed the vendor asks all customers to strip their network bare of all other security products, leaving just a firewall, IPS, web protection and email protection.

Minassian said that a common problem in the security industry is that products are churning out too much data for specialists to be able to monitor.

"In a typical scenario when a customer has an SOC or SIEM, or an MSSP, they're collecting all these noisy logs from their perimeter and their network, and here we are with our technology stack sitting on the network," he said.

"We start seeing things getting through that they cannot see because they're dealing with so much noise. The noise has become the threat at this point. If we're partnering with an MSSP, we extend their capability and we make them shine because we start detecting stuff that they wouldn't."

Channel approach

Minassian said that Lmntrix is in talks with a handful of potential partners in the UK, and has recruited ex-Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Symantec security specialist Ian Murphy to head up the UK operation. He said Lmntrix operates a 100 per cent single-tier channel model.

The Lmntrix offering requires a partner with significant services capabilities, Minassian said, so there is not a real play for traditional resellers. These partners will however be given a referral fee for bringing the business to Lmntrix, which in turn will pass the business to a channel partner.

"In the UK right now we are talking to a very large MSSP," he said. "It's early stages, but they have the traditional MSSP business and they see this as a means to expand to more advanced capabilities.

"There is also a large integrator-outsourcer which again is early days in the discussions. Both of those are on the larger end of town and the rest are really mid-sector integrators and consulting firms."

Minassian said he toyed with the idea of distribution, but found that distributors offered no real value to the type of solutions Lmntrix offers.

"We use single tier because we tested distribution models, but it's so complex that distributors add very little value and all they do really is make an introduction," he said. "Even then when they make an introduction with a larger partner the partner completely doesn't want to deal with them.

"They literally add no value - there's nothing for them to stock, nothing for them to do."