Stepping into 2024, Open XDR innovator Stellar Cyber is reflecting on 2023.

Stellar Cyber’s CEO and Co-Founder, Changming Liu, writes:

“Going into 2023, we had four clear objectives: 

1. Deliver an exceptional customer experience from day one.
2. Strive for continuous product innovation. 
3. Expand our “routes-to-market” worldwide.
4. Champion the value and power of Open XDR.”

Let’s break down these four objectives with the company’s results in 2023. How did they do, and what are their plans for 2024?

#1 Exceptional Customer Service

Stellar Cyber licenses its platform to a large portfolio of Managed Security Service Providers. According to Changming Liu, “relentless pursuit of customer excellence directly led to doubling our top 250 MSSP customer base, now up to nearly 50.”

MSSPs have recognized their impact. In the 2023s survey, they rated Stellar Cyber as one of the top three Open XDR vendors.

Beyond licensing, Stellar Cyber provides necessary education and resources for vendors and users.

The company launched two new programs in 2023:

1. The interSTELLAR program for partners
2. The University program for universities, students, and underserved communities

The role of the InterSTELLAR program is to offer the partners sales support, materials, and access to experts.

The purpose of the University program is to train the cyber professionals of tomorrow. At the same time, this program helps communities that lack the resources to protect themselves against a growing number of cyber attacks.

Improved Experience for Users

The company introduced a new feature — Stellar Cyber Chat- to further facilitate the use of their intuitive platform.

This is the company’s first GenAI feature. It helps the users to get answers to their questions faster.

The company is just starting its development in this area and plans to dedicate more time to GenerativeAI in the future.

#2 Continuous Innovation

Stellar Cyber has been developing its Open XDR solution since 2015. Starting, their main goal was to provide security teams with a less complex way of analyzing the overwhelming volume of security data.

Today, their Open XDR platform achieves this. It relies on AI and machine learning to integrate, analyze, and correlate the insights from multiple security tools.

Every year, they improve their Open XDR solution to provide businesses of all sizes with more thoughtful and accurate findings.

The year 2023 was the year of innovation for Stellar Cyber.

For security teams that use the insights from the company’s extended detection and response platform, this means that they can rely on the product that is faster and better at responding to threats.

Role of Partnerships in Innovation

To truly evolve and innovate, they also recognized that they needed to partner up. In 2023, they announced multiple collaborations.

Some of the cybersecurity companies that teamed up with Stellar Cyber are Blackberry, SentileOne, Oracle, and Hitachi.

#3 Expanding Global RTM

One of the set objectives for the company was to widen its route to market all over the globe.

After one year, Stellar Cyber can say that it has important global clients. 

Some of them are from Thailand (Vintcom), Malaysia (PROVINTELL), and the Philippines (NEXTGEN Group, NTT Data Solutions).

#4 Spreading the Word

In 2023, Gartner listed Stellar Cyber as one of the top 10 vendors that offer Open XDR solutions in the cybersecurity market.

Gartner included it in their 2023 Market Guide for XDR, where their services are represented among some of the top cybersecurity vendors.

“Additionally, our company was recognized by Gartner in several other reports (Hype Cycle for XDR solutions for midsized companies, NDR Voice of Customer, SecOps Vendor Hype Cycle,” adds Changming Liu.

Another route the company took to show more people the value and capabilities of its cybersecurity solution is through education.

With recent programs, Stellar Cyber introduces its platform to future cybersecurity experts as well. For example, they launched a University Program that helps future security professionals and underserved universities.

Normally, they wouldn’t have the funds to give their students real-life experiences in cyber security. This program gives them access to Open XDR technology, and it connects them with cyber experts in the field.

As a result, even future security professionals can see the value of Stellar Cyber’s platform. 

The Role of Open XDR in the Future

Going into 2024, businesses are acutely aware of increasing hacking threats. Over the last couple of years, they kept reading about more and more data breaches, and ransomware cases. 

The record-breaking cost of data breaches and ransomware was recorded in 2023. This made it more clear that businesses needed solutions such as Open XDR. They help them detect critical threats within the unique content of their infrastructure.

As hackers change their tactics and target companies of all sizes, it’s important to have a security platform built to keep you one step ahead of ever-evolving cyber threats.

Organizations are aware that they need actionable and accurate insights to protect their architecture constantly.

Open XDR has a key role in this. It’s built to prevent overloading teams with alerts and offers insights that help them focus on critical threats instead.

Stellar Cyber’s Objectives for 2024

Stellar has a busy year ahead. The company plans to continue to look for new and innovative ways to deliver its Open XDR platform to MSSPs and enterprise clients. 

Then, they intend to further improve their security product and streamline how data sources are integrated.

In addition, they will improve AI and machine learning-powered correlation and detection of possible threats for even more accurate insights — to minimize false positives.

In 2024, this cybersecurity company will hone automation that continually responds to high-risk exploits.

Similar to 2023, their objectives are aligned to make a detection and response solution as accurate as possible.

The post Stellar Cyber: A Year in Review appeared first on Information Security Newspaper | Hacking News.

If we only consider the financial damage of security incidents, the data shows that the cost of cybercrime is expected to double by 2027.

In 2023, the global cost of cybercrime worldwide is estimated at $11.50 trillion. In four years, the projected financial damage will likely total $23.82 trillion USD.

The technology security professionals use constantly changes. It evolves to keep up with emerging cyber exploits. And a large number of hacking threats.

The systems that businesses rely on change as well — increasing already large attack surfaces.

To protect their assets, companies need security experts who have the right skills to reduce the chance of a costly attack.

Most universities don’t have the time or funding to teach these skills to their students. For future cybersecurity professionals, this means that it takes longer than it should to get that first job out of college.

Open XDR innovator Stellar Cyber has launched the first program that helps students get hands-on cybersecurity experience.

How does the Stellar Cyber University Partnership Program help universities, students, and disadvantaged communities?

Helping Universities Free of Cost

“Stellar Cyber is proud to offer this comprehensive, collaborative education program free of charge for those training our cyber warriors of the future,” said Jim O’Hara, Chief Revenue Officer at Stellar Cyber.

When Stellar Cyber collaborates with a university on their new program, they offer:

• Access to technology, i.e. their Open XDR platform
• Instructor-led training for the use of the platform
• Mentorship through their network of cybersecurity professionals and partners

Stellar Cyber has been developing its Open XDR (Extended Detection and Response) platform for almost a decade.

Combining the functionality of several key cybersecurity solutions (including SIEM, TIP, IDS, NDR, and UEBA), the platform offers united security in one place.

Using machine learning and AI, it analyzes and correlates large volumes of data arriving from once-disconnected security tools.

Enrolled students use Stellar Cyber’s Open XDR in the university lab to seek threats and react to them before they escalate.

The platform is intuitive and created to facilitate security analysis for smaller businesses, but the instructions help students optimize this security solution.

Stellar Cyber also offers ready-made instruction-led training. Because it’s too costly for universities to alter their curriculum as often as they should.

As students use the platform and learn more about it, they also have access to coaching and experienced mentors who have a long history of working in the industry.

Preparing Students for Careers in Cybersecurity

After they obtain a degree, students often aren’t sure:

• Whether cybersecurity is the right career path for them
• What kind of opportunities do they have in this growing industry
• How to breach the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical skills

The program provides the students with insight into one aspect of cybersecurity, giving them a glimpse into the role of the security expert.

They’ll use the Open XDR platform to detect threats, investigate possible high-risk incidents, and respond with suitable measures.

During training and threat hunting, they get the skills that companies actively hiring security experts today genuinely need. With it, the program is bridging the gap between theory and practical skills common for new graduates.

“We are honored to do our part to help shrink the worldwide cybersecurity skills gap and provide security services to communities in need. It’s our objective to scale as broadly as possible and to assist universities as they prepare their graduates to enter the cybersecurity workforce.”

Besides technology, training, and mentorship, Stellar Cyber also offers a certificate. Stellar Cyber Certification Program is another way to separate themselves as job candidates once they complete their degree in cybersecurity.

Offering Enrolled Students Job Opportunities

The students who complete the program will be known as reliable future professionals who have the right skills and the practice to show for it.

Stellar Cyber has built a large network of partners and customers who need security professionals who are well-versed in the Open XDR platform.

“All too often, students graduate from college without being exposed to the fantastic career opportunities in the cybersecurity industry,” said Paul Levasseur, Vice President of Customer and Partner Enablement at Stellar Cyber.

Students who participate in the program will not only have a better understanding of what a security role entails and what kind of roles are available. 

They’ll also be linked with direct opportunities.

Having access to Stellar Cyber’s private LinkedIn group, they’ll be the first ones to know about the internship and hiring opportunities within the Stellar Cyber community.

Protecting Underserved Communities

The impact of this program goes beyond the universities and even after a grad career. Students get hands-on experience in the field by helping underserved communities that lack the technology that can safeguard them against evolving cybersecurity incidents. In most cases, such communities don’t have the resources to hire their own security operations team to manage their security.

The program changes that by protecting communities in need with the latest cybersecurity technology.

“Attackers look for targets that cannot easily defend themselves,” Levasseur added. “Our hope is to ensure that these previously underserved communities get the protection they deserve.”

How Can Universities Apply for the Program?

The partnership program is an invite-only opportunity, and it’s the first of its kind. Universities that do quality for it have to:

• Provide the students with a certificate or a degree in cybersecurity
• Utilize the Open XDR platform in their educational labs
• Allow Stellar Cyber to use their details for promotion purposes
• Agree to provide underserved organizations with security operations free of cost

Also, this is a great way to stand out as a university. That is, become an institution that provides the students with real-life experiences and programs that help them build foundations for a career in cybersecurity at the university.

The post Stellar Cyber Launches Field-Proven University Program, Provides SOC Services to Underserved Communities appeared first on Information Security Newspaper | Hacking News.

A VPN is a complex technology with a lot of myths surrounding it. So, let’s take a closer look.

MYTH # 1: a VPN slows down your Internet connection speed

Some VPN users say that their connection speed becomes slower as far as a VPN is turned on. The fact is that using a VPN can be a reason for an insignificant speed drop. The first thing to understand is the speed is affected by the server location. The further the server is, the lower is the speed.

Moreover, your connection speed is affected by the chosen protocol. For example, L2TP and OpenVPN is not the best solution for those who intend to view video streaming content but guarantee the highest security level. If you like Netflix serials or enjoy torrenting, a VPN with SmartDNS will be the real deal.

MYTH #2: a VPN allows you to do whatever you want on the Internet

Some users naively believe that a good VPN can guarantee their 100% anonymity, so nobody can identify their personality. In very deed, even if most providers claim that they don’t keep logs, this cannot be true. Otherwise, how do they provide technical support or send you the latest offers?

Virtual private networks provide a high level of privacy and anonymity on the Internet. This means that all your connections are almost impossible to detect, extremely difficult to intercept and decrypt that make them unacceptable both to hackers and censorship. Although let along with VPNs, there are other ways to hide IP addresses.

MYTH #3: VPNs are only for advanced users

Some PC users still believe that VPNs are difficult to install and configure. That said, while in the past it was not an easy task to set up a VPN, these days it is easy-peasy. The fact is most VPNs do not require any user interaction (besides choosing a location and protocol). Moreover, almost all of them have applications for installing on a smartphone in a matter of minutes. 

There are many more common VPN myths floating across internet on different social media platforms, like Only paranoid people use a VPN, I don’t need a VPN because I don’t do anything illegal, I become 100% anonymous when I use a VPN and others.

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