Francois van Hirtum, MD, Obscure Technologies.
Obscure Technologies, which positions itself as a leading cyber security distributor in South Africa, has announced a partnership with SharkStriker, a global cyber security vendor.
Through this strategic partnership, Obscure Technologies will be offering advanced cyber security capabilities to organisations across Africa through "Vantage SOC service" – a next-generation security operations centre (SOC) service that combines human expertise with technological prowess to help organisations across Africa in strengthening their cyber security maturity and compliance confidence.
The service will enable businesses to access enterprise-grade security of their infrastructure without having to take up the complexity and overhead associated with building and managing an in-house SOC.
This collaboration comes at a critical time as African organisations face a staggering rise in ransomware attacks, identity-based threats, cloud security incidents, insider threats and sophisticated threat campaigns targeting critical infrastructure.
It will help organisations keep their reputation secure through operational continuity, improved compliance and round-the-clock security of their precious information assets.
"The cyber security market is crowded with vendors offering new cyber security solutions. But without the right tuning/configuration/management of these solutions, organisations struggle with poor detection, limited incident response and exposure to hidden security risks due to misconfigured tools and an unmonitored stack.
"Our partnership aims to bridge this gap by offering human expertise to help African organisations make the most of their cyber security investments through mature defences and improved compliance. It extends enterprise-grade SOC capabilities to organisations across Africa through a trusted regional cyber security leader," says Ajay Nawani, CEO, SharkStriker.
As cyber threats continue to threaten the African market, businesses require cyber security services that are scalable, outcomes-driven and aligned with operational realities.
"Organisations today don't need just security tools but also a team of human experts who can tune and manage their stack against modern-day threats, ensuring continuous visibility, accurate threat analysis and rapid incident response," says Francois van Hirtum, Managing Director, Obscure Technologies.
The Vantage SOC service is a flexible, vendor-agnostic SOC-as-a-service package tailored to support organisations at different stages of cyber security maturity.
Vantage Core
A foundational package that offers all the necessary foundational SOC capabilities, like:
- 24/7 eyes-on-screen SOC monitoring
- 24/7 incident alert escalation and monitoring
- Vendor-agnostic security integration
- Asset-based pricing structure
- Weekly and monthly security reporting
- Hybrid infrastructure support across cloud and on-premise environments
Vantage Core+
The Core+ package includes all the Vantage Core features with the addition of EDR/XDR functionality for enhanced endpoint visibility and threat detection.
Vantage Pro
In the Pro package, customers get everything in Core+ with the added SIEM for centralised monitoring, logging and log analytics capabilities.
Vantage Pro+
This package combines EDR/XDR and SIEM with advanced capabilities, including:
- Automated host vulnerability assessments
- Automated CIS benchmark-based host security assessments
- Enhanced hybrid infrastructure visibility
Vantage Complete
This is the ultimate package with the most holistic and advanced cyber security capabilities, including:
- EDR/XDR + SIEM integration
- Annual penetration testing
- Proactive threat hunting
- File integrity monitoring (FIM)
- Vulnerability assessments
- CIS benchmark security assessments
- 24/7 SOC monitoring and incident escalation
Modern-day attackers use AI to recalibrate their tradecraft and weaponise identities to come up with high-speed attacks, rendering detection-only defences powerless.
Through Obscure Technologies' Vantage SOC services, organisations will get the 24/7 human expertise to convert insights into decisive action, not just reducing the dwell time of attackers, but also improving compliance and restoring brand trust.
