Paul Lomax

With many employees continuing to work from home during the lockdown, a new service from bluedog Security Monitoring offers a fast and low-cost way for companies to monitor remote devices and manage their cyber security. Enhanced cyber security The Microsoft Office 365 monitoring service can detect risks ranging from suspicious account logins and data downloads to phishing emails arriving in an employee’s inbox. The service, which is the only one of its type that is overseen by a live cyber security team, costs from just £1 per user per month and can be switched on remotely. The bluedog service integrates with the Azure Active Directory and matches the company’s internal network data with its Office 365 usage to identify abnormal behaviour. Any suspicious incidents will automatically alert the team at its security operations centre who can then investigate and act upon it. Microsoft Office 365 monitoring service Office 365 monitoring service offers a quick and easy way to effectively bring these into the network from a security perspective" Launched in 2019, bluedog aims to revolutionise the cyber security market by making monitoring services accessible to businesses of all sizes. The company Co-Founder, Paul Lomax said that the Office 365 monitoring service was developed before the lockdown but its launch has been timely. “The sudden switch to homeworking has caused a headache for many companies as it is very difficult to monitor devices which are not on the company premises,” explains bluedog Security Monitoring Co-Founder, Paul Lomax, adding “Our Office 365 monitoring service offers a quick and easy way to effectively bring these into the network from a security perspective.” Detecting breaches in cloud-based systems Paul said, “It will also detect breaches of cloud-based systems which would not trigger conventional defences such as anti-virus solutions and firewalls. The service highlights unusual login locations or lateral movement so the team will be able to spot the attacker navigating across the network.” Lomax adds, “Having a human on hand to check and interpret data can make all the difference in circumstances like this. Our Office 365 monitoring service is the only one of its type that is backed by an expert team who has full sight of all alerts and can make an informed decision.” Restricted data access The service also allows companies to see which files and emails have been accessed, downloaded, deleted and from which account and location so they can check if data has been stolen. To ensure companies’ privacy, bluedog is only able to see the filenames and locations, and not the contents of files. According to the Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2020, which was carried out before the global lockdown, corporate staffs in 53% of the businesses were regularly using their own laptops or devices. Rethinking IT security Paul Lomax further stated, “The use of employees’ own devices has long been a problem for businesses. However, with home working likely to become the norm in the foreseeable future, they now need to rethink their IT security. Microsoft Office 365 monitoring offers a low-cost and convenient solution for the post-Covid world.”

A new cybersecurity service brings professional 24-hour monitoring within reach of SMEs for the very first time. bluedog Security Monitoring, which has been launched by Freeparking.com founder Paul Lomax and cybersecurity expert Tim Thurlings, offers smaller firms the type of managed detection and response service previously only available to large corporates. Highly trained cybersecurity team The launch of bluedog comes as SMEs face increased pressure from customers, regulators and investors The London-based company has developed a low-cost device called Sentinel which plugs into a customer's network and uses machine learning to spot unusual activity. It then alerts bluedog's security operations centre, where a highly trained cybersecurity team can analyse and respond to potential threats. The bluedog service can detect both external and internal threats, such as phishing emails or the download of video or audio files packed with malicious malware, which often bypass traditional endpoint security and firewalls. It not only offers enhanced security and rapid response to incidents, but also helps companies comply with standards such as GDPR, Cyber Essentials or ISO/IEC 27001:2005 and keeps a full audit trail for reporting purposes. The launch of bluedog comes as SMEs face increased pressure from customers, regulators and investors as well as cyber criminals seeking ‘soft' targets. Firewalls and endpoint protection The UK government's Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2019 shows that while the number of businesses being attacked has been falling - down from 46 per cent in 2017 to 32 per cent this year - the number of attacks each victim suffers has risen from two to six over the same period. It suggests businesses with weaker defences are being targeted repeatedly. bluedog's CTO Tim Thurlings, a former ‘ethical hacker' who helped develop the EU's TIBER threat intelligence framework, says: "Firewalls and endpoint protection which SMEs have traditionally relied on are no longer adequate as experienced hackers can easily find ways round them. SMEs need to take their cybersecurity to the next level, yet at present few have a dedicated professional.” Bluedog's innovative model combines machine learning and human expertise to offer exceptional service" "bluedog gives them 24/7 access to a whole team of cyber experts for less than the cost of employing one part-time staff member. Bluedog's innovative model combines machine learning and human expertise to offer exceptional service and peace of mind." Analyst firm Gartner believes that by 2020, 15 per cent of organisations will be using services such as managed detection and response, compared to less than 1 per cent today. Combining machine learning and human expertise bluedog CEO Paul Lomax, whose Freeparking.com business was the UK's first self-service domain registrar, and who has also founded two hosting companies, says bluedog is targeting a gap in the market for SME monitoring services. "While technology is becoming more sophisticated, it still requires people to analyse the data and act on it," he explains. "Ideally all businesses should have 24/7 monitoring but with salaries for skilled professionals running into six figures, it is an expensive resource that up until now has been limited to blue-chip firms.” "With bluedog, we have developed a smarter model which enables us to revolutionise pricing and bring services within reach of SMEs for the first time. This is a $10bn untapped market and no-one else is offering a solution. bluedog's model gives us a competitive advantage and makes us well placed to become a global leader."