SensePost has inked an exclusive partner agreement that will see it recognised as the world's first "Approved Maltego Solution Provider" (AMSP) and the only such provider in the UK and southern Africa.
As an AMSP, SensePost will provide integration, consulting, support and training for the Maltego products, with support and assistance directly from Paterva.
Built by Paterva, Maltego is an open-source intelligence and forensics application that is used for data mining, link analysis and data visualisation, allowing the user to extract large volumes of data from diverse sources and then analyse it to reveal underlying patterns and relationships, essentially converting data into insights for decision making.
The toolset is used extensively in open source intelligence-gathering, infrastructure analysis for penetration testing, cyber attack analysis, fraud detection and investigation, security intelligence, information security management as well as research.
Charl van der Walt from SensePost says the need to gain real visibility out of huge masses of data - so-called "actionable intelligence" - is driving the development of solutions like Maltego.
"Security professionals are overwhelmed by the sheer volumes of data that is coming at them, from both internal systems and external sources. Visualisation tools literally allow one to draw the picture that this data represents, and Maltego is one of those tools. By extracting meaningful data points and showing how they connect we can 'join the dots' for security managers and empower them to make sense of data, prioritise what's important and make ultimately make good decisions."
He says currently, the popular application of this is in threat intelligence, but there are myriad other uses cases for the concept, from network discovery on the one hand to fraud detection on the other.
"This strategic alliance perfectly fits the 'Assess-Detect-Protect-Respond' framework that drives the way we design, sell and deliver our service. It's the perfect evolution of our growing services offering," adds Etienne Greef, CEO of the SensePost group holding company SecureData, who's strategy is at the core of this new initiative.
According to SensePost, the partnership builds on the roots and intellectual heritage shared by itself and Paterva, and will allow both companies to serve their customers and fulfil their respective missions better.
SensePost believes that adding Maltego to its stable will round off its core services, namely penetration testing, training, vulnerability management and consultancy, nicely. "This new capability, combined with an existing wealth of information security skills and experience, uniquely positions SensePost to advise and support clients seeking to exploit the unique strategic advantage the Maltego toolset can offer," says SensePost.
"We recognise that the threat landscape is constantly changing and that new and more complex realities necessitate the use of sophisticated new skills, tools and techniques with which to support our clients," the company concludes.