European Electronique takes Attivo to the public sector

Attivo Networks has started to win business in the public sector as a result of relationships forged with its emerging channel base.

The vendor set out its stall to recruit security partners to take its deception technology to market at the start of the year and has managed to seal some success with those resellers that have got behind the vendor.

One of the partners that started working with Attivo was European Electronique, which has a strong public-sector reputation and a portfolio that already includes some firewall vendors. Its decision to get behind Attivo has resulted in a significant council customer win.

“We are always looking for new products that will address new challenges in the martketplace,” said Yolanta Gill, CEO of European Electronique. “Reliable firewalls are important but the deception technology goes beyond that.”

She added that the channel player was always looking for new technologies that would fit around its expertise in networking and security.

“The council was our first order and we are looking to a number of other organisations and we will hopefully be successful,” said Gill.

Mark Howell, vice-president of UK and Ireland operations at Attivo Networks, said the firm had been gaining interest in its deception technology, which fools cyber criminals into believing they have accessed real assets when they remain at arm’s length from the information.

“It is a matter of when, not if, attackers will get in and you need to use every tactic and one is deception,” he said. “We insulate an organisation, but to the attacker, everything looks real.”

Howell said he had worked with European Electronique in former roles and knew the firm was very strong in the public sector – one of the key verticals that Attivo is targeting.

Fears about ransomware have been heightened across the public sector since the WannaCry attacks of 2017 and customers have been keen to ensure they do not fall victim to the same types of attack. The coronavirus has also increased the volume of attacks and made it increasingly difficult for customers who are at full stretch.

Matt Hawkins, senior business development manager at European Electronique, said a lot of public-sector customers faced challenges around resources and getting staff who could help protect networks.

“Some customers don’t have the resources to respond to all of the noise of the alerts and the false positives,” he said.

Howells agreed there was a real challenge for users responding to alerts and many also had to contend with staff turnover and fears of internal threats.

He added that the last few months have seen a surge in the number of attacks trying to exploit Covid-19. “I would be very surprised if, over the next six months, we don’t see some very high-profile names and organisations that during Covid had issues that have had to become public.”

Gill said many employees working from home relied on the IT support services that they could normally access on the corporate site, and they were more vulnerable in an isolated setting.