New Deep Instinct partner program targets MSSPs fighting ransomware

Cybersecurity firm Deep Instinct has rolled out a new partner program to provide its endpoint and application protection software to managed security service providers (MSSPs), the company announced Wednesday.

The Stratosphere program was initially announced in April, and designed as a simplified channel program that focuses on expected partner margins, instead of set discounts on the product. Volume-based recognition and “medallion tiers” for sales are out. Instead, the company is offering “loyalty points” for achieving a range of different sales-related goals—like creating leads, getting customers certified, or completing business plans.

According to Deep Instinct, the idea is to provide a strong option for MSSPs to help address their customers’ biggest current security concern—ransomware. The increasing prevalence of remote work means more personal devices, which tend to be less secure, being used to access company resources and creating a potential attack vector for ransomware. The complex nature of the threat makes it difficult for overstretched in-house security teams to defend against.

It’s a particular challenge for small and medium-size businesses (SMBs), which typically have few resources available to combat advanced threats, according to Brian Feeney, Deep Instinct’s vice president for global channels and alliances.

“SMBs cannot keep up with the speed, volume, and sophistication of today’s threats while balancing the needs of the business,” he said in a press release. “Relying on humans as a line of defense will never provide the required protection nor peace of mind that organizations require in their battle against unknown and zero-day threats.”

Deep Instinct says that using its endpoint protection helps save MSSPs money through reduced alerts and a low false positive rate, offers simple management through a single-pane-of-glass control center, and as part of the Stratosphere program, provides support from technical experts at the company. In addition, Deep Instinct offers sales leads to MSSP partners, as well as rebates “to drive additional demand generation activities,” the company said.

Endpoint protection is a crucially important piece of the puzzle for ransomware mitigation, according to Forrester senior analyst Allie Mellen.

“Endpoint protection uses prevention technologies to stop ransomware before it can execute,” she said. “This, in conjunction with IT and security technologies like secure backups, endpoint detection and response (EDR), SIEM, NAV (network access and visiblity), and others (as well as a broader zero trust strategy) help to defend against ransomware attacks.”

MSSPs like Capgemini and Accenture are part of an ongoing trend for security responsibilities to be farmed out to third parties—a practice that’s growing especially fast among SMBs, according to Mellen.

“Outsourcing is a more effective way to get a baseline of security without adding headcount,” she said. “This shift has been happening more with SMBs as we see more high-profile breaches making headlines.”