Lisa Croel
2024 has been a big “events” year for DataBee as we’ve strived to raise awareness of the new business and the DataBee Hive™ security, risk and compliance data fabric platform. We’ve participated in events across North America and EMEA including Black Hat USA, the Gartner Security & Risk Management Summits, FS-ISAC Summit, Snowflake Data Cloud Summit and AWS re:Inforce, and of course, the RSA Conference. At RSA, we introduced to the community our sweet (haha) and funny life-size bee mascot, who ended up being a big hit among humans and canines alike.
Participation in these events has been illuminating on many important fronts. For the DataBee “hive” it’s been invaluable, not only for the conversations and insights we gain from real users across the industry, but also for the feedback we receive as we share the story of DataBee’s creation and how it was inspired by the security data fabric that Comcast’s Global CISO, Noopur Davis, and her team developed. In general, we’ve been thrilled with the response that DataBee has received, but consistently, there’s one piece of attendee feedback that really gives us pause:
“Why would Comcast Technology Solutions enter the cybersecurity solutions space?”
In other words, “what the heck is Comcast doing here?”
This statement makes it pretty clear: Comcast might be synonymous with broadband, video, media and entertainment services and experiences, but may be less associated with cybersecurity.
But it should be. While Comcast and Xfinity may not be immediately associated with cybersecurity, Comcast Business, a $10 billion business within Comcast, has been delivering advanced cybersecurity solutions to businesses of all sizes since 2018. With our friends at Comcast Business, the DataBee team is working hard to change perceptions and increase awareness of Comcast’s rich history of innovation in cybersecurity.
Let’s take a quick look at some of the reasons why the Comcast name should be synonymous with cybersecurity
Comcast Business
Comcast Business is committed to helping organizations adopt a cybersecurity posture that meets the diverse and complex needs of today’s cybersecurity environment. Comcast Business’ comprehensive solutions portfolio is specifically engineered to tackle the multifaceted challenges of the modern digital landscape. With advanced capabilities ranging from real-time threat detection and response, Comcast Business solutions help protect businesses. Whether through Unified Threat Management systems that simplify security operations, cloud-based solutions that provide flexible defenses, or DDoS mitigation services that help preserve operational continuity, Comcast Business is a trusted partner in cybersecurity. Comcast Business provides the depth, effectiveness, and expertise necessary to enhance enterprise security posture through:
- SecurityEdge™
- Offering advanced security for small businesses, SecurityEdge™ is a cloud-based Internet security solution that helps protect all connected devices on your network from malware, phishing scams, ransomware, and botnet attacks.
- SD-WAN with Advanced Security
- Connect users to applications securely both onsite and in the cloud
- Unified Threat Management (UTM)
- Delivered by industry leading partners, UTM solutions provide an integrated security platform that combines firewall, antivirus, intrusion prevention, and web filtering to simplify management and enhance visibility across the network.
- DDoS Mitigation
- Security for disruption caused by Distributed Denial of Service attacks by helping to identify and block anomalous spikes in traffic while allowing for desired functionality of your services.
- Secure Access Service Edge (SASE)
- Integrating networking and security into a unified cloud-delivered service model, our SASE framework supports dynamic secure access needs of organizations, facilitating secure and efficient connectivity for remote and mobile workers.
- Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)
- Help safeguard devices connected to your enterprise network, using AI to detect, investigate, remove, and remediate malware, phishing, and ransomware
- Managed Detection and Response (MDR)
- Extend EDR capabilities to the entire network and detect advanced threats, backed up with 24/7 monitoring by a team of cybersecurity experts.
- Vulnerability Scanning and Management
- Helps identify and manage security weaknesses in the network and software systems, a proactive approach that helps protect potential entry points for threat actors.
Comcast Ventures
Did you know that Comcast has a venture capital group that backs early-to-growth stage startups that are transforming sectors like cybersecurity, AI, healthcare, and more?
Some of the innovative cybersecurity, data and AI-specific companies that Comcast Ventures has invested in include:
Recently, cybersecurity investment and advisory firm NightDragon announced a strategic partnership with Comcast Technology Solutions (CTS) and DataBee that also included Comcast Ventures. As a result of this strategic partnership, CTS, Comcast Ventures and DataBee will gain valuable exposure to the new innovations coming from NightDragon companies.
Comcast Cybersecurity
As I write this, Comcast Corporation is ranked 33 on the Fortune 500 list, so – as you might guess – it has an expansive internal cybersecurity organization. With $121 billion+ in annual revenues, over 180,000 employees around the globe, and a huge ecosystem of consumers and business customers and partners, Comcast takes its security obligations very seriously.
Our cyber professionals collectively hold and are awarded multiple patents each year. We lead standards bodies, and we participate and provide leadership in multiple policy forums. Our colleagues contribute to Open-Source communities where we share our security innovations. We are an integral part of the global community of cybersecurity practitioners – we present at conferences, learn from our peers, hold multiple certifications, and publish in various journals. We are a contributing member of the Communications ISAC, and the CISA Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative. A sampling of internal research and development efforts within Comcast’s cybersecurity organization include:
- One-time secure secrets sharing
- Security data fabric (Note: the inspiration for DataBee®)
- Anomaly detection
- AI-based secrets detection in code
- AI-based static code analysis for privacy
- Crypto-agility risk assessment
- Machine-assisted security threat modeling
- Scoping of threats against AI/ML apps
- Persona-based privacy threat modeling
- PKI and token management systems
- Certificate lifecycle management and contribution to industry IoT stock
- R&D for BluVector Network Detection and Response (NDR) product
The Comcast Cyber Security (CCS) Research team, “conducts original applied and fundamental cybersecurity research”. Selected projects that the team is working on include research on security and human behavior, security by design, and emerging technologies such as post quantum cryptography. CCS works with technology teams across Comcast to identify and explore security gaps in the broader cyber ecosystem.
The Comcast Cybersecurity team’s work developing and implementing a security data fabric platform was the inspiration for what has become DataBee. Although the DataBee team has architected and built its commercial DataBee Hive™ security, risk and compliance data fabric platform from “scratch” (so to speak), it was Comcast’s internal platform – and the great results that it has, and continues, to deliver – that proved such a solution could be a game-changer, especially for large, complex organizations. While DataBee Hive has been designed to address the needs and scale of any type of enterprise or IT architecture, we were fortunate to be able to tap into the learnings that came from the years and countless person hours of development that went into building Comcast’s internal security data fabric platform, and then operating it at scale.
DataBee Cybersecurity Suite
Besides being home to the DataBee Hive security data fabric platform and products, it’s worth noting that the DataBee business unit of Comcast Technology Solutions is also home to BluVector, an on-premises network detection and response (NDR) platform. Comcast acquired BluVector in 2019, which was purpose-built to protect critical government and enterprise networks. BluVector continues to deliver AI-powered NDR for visibility across network, devices, users, files, and data to discover and hunt skilled and motivated threats.
Comcast and cybersecurity? Of course.
So, the next time you come across DataBee, from Comcast Technology Solutions, and you think to yourself “why is Comcast in the enterprise security market with DataBee?!” – think again.
From small and mid-size organizations to large enterprises and government agencies; and from managed services to products and solutions; and from on-premises to cloud-native… Comcast’s complete cybersecurity “portfolio” covers the gamut.
Want to connect with someone to determine what’s right for your organization? Contact us, and in “Comments”, let us know if you’d like to evaluate solutions from both DataBee and Comcast Business. We’ll look forward to exploring options with you!
