Not a Question of If But When: Blocking Known Cybersecurity Threats and Identifying Emerging Ones


Brand Story – Comcast Business SecurityEdge™ protects businesses and delivers peace of mind.

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A shocking 90% of US small businesses have no cybersecurity in place to safeguard their data.

The cybersecurity landscape looks nothing like it did a decade ago. Once only the concern of large businesses, online threats now affect organizations regardless of size and industry. Comcast Business SecurityEdge™ helps companies mitigate threats to their business and protect themselves, their clients and their employees.

Fiction Tribe, a loyal Comcast Business customer, is a creative agency for many well-known brands. From product launches to demand generation, they develop multi-layered strategic marketing campaigns.

“Everyone’s at risk,” says James Rice, Owner, Fiction Tribe. “The traditional thinking when you’re a small company is, ‘I’m not Target or IBM, I’m 25 people in Portland, Oregon. I won’t get breached.’ But no one can think like that anymore.”

IMG 3683James Rice, Owner, Fiction Tribe

As Fiction Tribe evolved with the digital landscape, so did its client service agreements, adding more stringent cybersecurity requirements.

“Ten years ago, the cost to comply would’ve been outrageous for a business of my size,” Rice notes. “But today, Comcast Business is bringing those services under one delivery package. They’re protecting the same things that service contracts are requiring.”

“Cyber criminals just have to be right once, and cybersecurity companies have to be right all the time,” says Sukhjinder Singh, Product Manager for Comcast Business. “In addition to blocking known threats, Security solutions need to be equally effective in identifying and blocking emerging threats. SecurityEdge™ threat intelligence is updated every five minutes, blocking emerging threats in a constantly changing landscape.”

Rice and Singh both implore organizations to act now and put safeguards in place, which are possible without a large investment. When it comes to cybersecurity, a little can go a long way. For example, simply using multi-factor authentication can help safeguard a person’s digital identity and assets.

“Take a preventative approach,” Singh recommends. “It’s not a question of if but when. How will you respond?”

Comcast Business brings both prevention and mitigation expertise, protecting any internet connected devices across an organization’s footprint. On the backend, the system constantly updates its threat list, which has grown in recent years.  

A6EABAE8 CC25 4B94 A850 1D44924C020A 1 201 aFiction Tribe office

SecurityEdge™ is a leading cybersecurity solution tailored to meet the unique needs of small- to medium-sized companies. Even companies with a minimal budget that are looking for an affordable security solution can use this service as an added layer of defense for all internet connected devices.

“I don’t want to over-invest in this as a small business, but I need to make sure I’m not disregarding it,” Rice says. “I could have a massively compromised organization in the snap of a finger.”

For larger, more complex organizations, Comcast Business offers actively managed cybersecurity solutions tailored to specific needs, including distributed denial of service (DDoS) mitigation, advanced security solutions and software-defined networking (SD-WAN).

“We want to be a trusted solutions provider to businesses of all sizes. If you’re a small- to medium-sized business, we can get you something effective and affordable,” Singh says. “If you’re a larger business, we can offer advanced security solutions that are fully managed.”

Common attacks today include phishing and botnets. The initial phishing attempt infects the system and paves the way for the bot to enter and launch an attack, capturing keystrokes to steal login credentials or hold databases for ransom.

For companies like Fiction Tribe, this is potentially crippling to the business.

“How much disruption can a small business handle? We’re trying to get as much done in five eight-hour days as we can. We’re already at our limit,” Rice explains. “It’s not about my data being of national interest. It’s the fact that we’re avoiding disruption that could derail me for 30 plus days. It’s about my business and serving customers and building great creative work.”

As a longtime client of Comcast Business internet services, Rice turned to them to quickly implement a simple cybersecurity solution. The “installation” required no additional equipment and the service was quickly activated remotely, providing the Fiction Tribe management team with access to a dashboard for monitoring attempted attacks.

“We hear stories in the media about attacks on school districts or hospital systems, and those have become more frequent,” Singh explains. “More and more people are using internet based, digital technologies to operate their business. The surface area for potential cyberattacks has increased.”

Every Sunday night, Fiction Tribe receives an email compiling all the cyberattacks prevented that week. “I actually look forward to receiving that weekly report,” says Rice. “I get peace of mind from seeing all the cyberattacks we avoided.”  

Comcast’s solutions will continuously evolve to address the current and future needs of its customers.

“In the old days, you would piece together 10 different providers to be compliant. Now, if a new requirement comes out, I’ll just call Comcast and ask if they can make it happen,” Rice says. “I have grown with them. They have matured their offering for me, and that has led me to where I’m at today.”

 


Brand stories are paid content articles that allow Oregon Business advertisers to share news about their organizations and engage with readers on business and public policy issues.  The stories are produced in house by the Oregon Business marketing department. For more information, contact associate publisher Courtney Kutzman.