Lumen’s Defender Plus offers a proactive approach to enterprise cybersecurity threats
Lumen is responding to the need to nip security issues before they become a problem for a business with Lumen Defender Plus.
Leveraging Lumen's network and powered by Black Lotus Labs' advanced threat intelligence capabilities, Defender Plus can automatically block internet-based cyber threats at the network edge—including bots, malware, spam, phishing, Command and Control (C2), and proxy activity—before they ever reach a business's environment.
The timing of the service couldn’t be better. Cyberattacks are on the rise. IDC found that in 2024, 86% of enterprises saw a year-over-year increase in security threats.
Martin Nystrom, Lumen's vice president of Black Lotus Labs and product security, said, “This proactive security solution adds a layer of visibility, control, and protection most businesses don't have today."
Enterprise cyberattacks are on the rise
Enterprises are seeing cyberattacks continue to escalate. According to a recent IDC survey, 86% of respondents indicated their organizations experienced more cyberattacks than they saw in 2023. Notably, 12% said cyberattacks rose over 50% while 46% said attacks rose from 0-24%. The research firm noted that high-profile cybersecurity breaches have continued to set new records. Also, software supply chain attacks, API security risks, and threats to generative AI tools and services are now more of a factor to manage effectively.
An integrated service
While Defender Plus is new, Lumen is luring potential customers onto the service by integrating it with its existing Internet On-Demand (IoD) service. The service can be enabled without manual configurations or extra equipment to manage.
Once activated, the service will automatically block malicious IP addresses using a real-time stream of threat intelligence from Lumen's Black Lotus Labs, which tracks over 2.3 million daily threats.
Another positive aspect is where the service resides. Unlike traditional firewalls or endpoint-based solutions, Lumen Defender Plus operates at the network edge, minimizing the burden on security teams and improving operational efficiency.
But the provider is not stopping here. In the future, Lumen plans to extend Lumen Defender Plus to Dedicated Internet Access (DIA) environments, expanding protection to even more business-critical connections.
Enterprises see utility
Already, enterprises are seeing utility with Lumen Defender Plus.
Apex DataCom, an IT consulting firm specializing in cloud applications and business advisory services, reported a 70-80% decrease in security alerts, plus the immediate blocking of hundreds of brute force attacks conducted by a nation state during a pilot of the service.
During seven days, Lumen Defender Plus analytics revealed that hundreds of thousands of threats—including botnets, malware, and ransomware—were blocked on Apex DataCom's 10 Gbps circuits.
Lumen Defender Plus is freeing up Apex DataCom's internal IT team to focus on more strategic initiatives by automatically mitigating these threats at the network edge.
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About the Author
Sean BuckleySean Buckley
Sean is the Editor-in-Chief of Lightwave. He establishes and executes Lightwave's editorial strategy across its website, email newsletters, events, and other information products. Before coming to Lightwave in July 2023, he served as editor of Broadband Communities. Earlier, he served as senior editor of FierceTelecom and the editor of the former Telecommunications Magazine. He got his start in the optical industry in 1998 when he became the editor of enterprise and optical networks at Information Gatekeepers. He has a BA in English from the University of Massachusetts, Boston, and lives in Dracut, Mass, with his wife, two sons, and his cat, Dove.
