RSM US, the country's fifth largest accounting firm and a leading provider of professional services to the middle market, recently announced an update to its service portfolio. The company's global managed security operations service, RSM Defense, will now leverage Stellar Cyber's Open XDR platform for optimum threat visibility and mitigation.

The inclusion of cybersecurity coverage within RSM's offering speaks to the growing need for robust cyber-protection amongst businesses of all sizes. RSM Defense provides organizations with around-the-clock continuous monitoring, enabling near real-time cyber threat detection and response. The addition of Stellar Cyber's Open XDR technology unlocks new opportunities for RSM US to unify, expand, and control cybersecurity defenses across its global MSSP client network.

Eliminating Data Fragmentation

RSM Defense employs a collection of discrete data sources and security tools; each is focused on a different area of cybersecurity and has its own separate console for management. However, the company had to rely on the talents of its analysts to correlate and normalize the data from these numerous solutions manually. This led to a fragmented view of the threat landscape that made it difficult to detect and respond to incidents efficiently.

Todd Willoughby, Threat Operations Leader for RSM US, discovered Stellar Cyber's platform and found it to be the ideal solution to this issue. "Instead of just putting out another SIEM, they are addressing the challenge of delivering a comprehensive view of security events across our clients' infrastructure under one pane of glass," he said via a press release announcing the partnership. 

Stellar Cyber's technology effectively bridges these gaps in the data landscape, providing a new level of insight and visibility across multiple layers. The team behind RSM Defense can now identify and respond to attacks much faster, as huge volumes of data are automatically parsed and correlated to detect suspicious activities across vectors and prioritize them by severity. 

Embracing the Advantages of Open XDR

XDR is a relatively new technology, and many emerging XDR platforms integrate security tools from a single vendor. While this is useful for businesses with homogenous IT security and infrastructure, it does not suit organizations with client bases as large and varied as RSM's, who do not want to rip and replace existing solutions.

In contrast, the "open" nature of Stellar Cyber's solution gives its partners increased flexibility. The platform can automatically pull and correlate data from a range of security tools to reveal the potential sources of exploits and attacks. The ability to continue using the same tools also preserves prior investments in software licenses and training.

"Because it's an open platform, Stellar Cyber allows RSM Defense to continue using our clients' new or existing EDRs and other security stack tools," said Willoughby. "Stellar Cyber is one of the few cybersecurity vendors trying to address the worldwide talent shortage and high personnel costs."

Additionally, it presents information about potential threats with suggested responses in a single platform to help quickly mitigate threats. The platform comes with next-generation SIEM, NDR, UEBA, and TIP capabilities in a single license and seamlessly integrates with popular security tools. According to Stellar Cyber's customers, adopting the platform has allowed them to detect attacks eight times faster (based on "mean time to detect," or MTTD) and fix any resulting issues 20 times faster (based on "mean time to repair," or MTTR).

What's more, it ensures that both new and experienced security professionals can work in tandem to eliminate threats with the help of machine learning capabilities and robust out-of-the-box detection rulesets. 

This makes it easier to unlock the full potential of a company's security team without investing in expensive training and development. As Willoughby put it, "Finding great senior cybersecurity analysts is tough—even if you can find one, they can cost the business $150,000 plus a year, and most companies can't afford that."

Understanding Provider Needs

Serving hundreds of clients worldwide, RSM US and Willoughby's team needed a platform that made it easy to manage each customer's needs as a distinct case. Fortunately, the Stellar Cyber platform automatically offers multi-tenant features at no extra cost, allowing the RSM Defense team to deliver results quickly and scalably according to each client's unique needs.

Willoughby noted that there's often a gap between what vendors promise to deliver and what they actually do. In addition to seeing value in Stellar Cyber's core product, Willoughby has found that the software company's team has actively implemented changes to its ecosystem based on feedback from RSM US and the firm's clients. 

"Enterprises and MSSPs providing cybersecurity protection for multiple sites or customers need solutions that put them in control with a single pane of visibility, automatic data correlation and analysis, and rapid, bi-directional integrations to client security stack tools," said Steve Garrison, SVP Marketing at Stellar Cyber. "Our platform delivers on those promises like no other solution in the market."

Unlocking Immediate Benefits

Already, Stellar Cyber's platform has helped RSM Defense to save money on licensing fees, reduce personnel costs, and deliver better results to its clients. As RSM US continues to employ Stellar Cyber's technology, the organization stands only to continue reaping the benefits of Open XDR's comprehensive protection.