IBM Security invests 200 million dollars in major expansion

These investments include a new global security headquarters, which features the industry’s first physical Cyber Range for the commercial sector, where participants experience preparing for and responding to cyber-attacks using live malware and real-world scenarios, according to a statement here. IBM also invested in expanded capabilities and capacity for its global network of IBM X-Force Command Centres. These security operation centres are staffed by 1,400 professionals who will use cognitive technologies like Watson for client services, including chat sessions and data delivery, as well as Watson for Cybersecurity to quickly address cyber security events.  

The new capabilities are also part of expanded security analytics capacity to IBM centers in Atlanta, Bangalore and Poland, which now handle over 1 trillion security events per month.  These facilities are complemented by previously modernised IBM command centres in Costa Rica and Tokyo, creating a scalable global network of defense for clients. 

IBM also launched a new elite incident response and intelligence consulting team called IBM X-Force Incident Response and Intelligence Services (IRIS).  IBM’s investment also includes its acquisition of Resilient Systems earlier this year, a pioneer in the incident response market. A new Ponemon Institute study on Cyber Resilience, sponsored by IBM found that 75 per cent of IT and security professionals say their organisation does not have a modern incident response plan applied across the entire enterprise. 

This lack of planning and coordination makes responding with the speed and precision required to contain the costs of from an incident difficult. For example, in 2018, companies in the UK must report data breaches to regulators within 72 hours or face fines up to 4 per cent of their global annual turnover.