Unisys creates Stealthy cybercrime channel

New software program for resellers.

Unisys is extending its “Stealth” solution suite of cybersecurity software through a new channel program, essentially moving the company from a partner mode to a vendor mode.

The announcement is being formalised at this week’s Interop in Las Vegas.

Under the new channel initiative, resellers will be able to market the Unisys Stealth security innovations to industry segments targeted for cyber attacks such as financial, healthcare, telecommunications, and legal services as well as federal, state and local government agencies.

“Cyber security continues to be a disruptive trend,” said Steve Vinsik, VP and partner, Global Security Solutions at Unisys. “The network is a hostile environment, and customers are looking for embedded security. We want to drive the security capability into those vertical industries and solutions in order to make it easy to integrate security into an otherwise non-secure offering.”

In essence, Stealth is an AES-256 encryption protocol with management capabilities, positioned between layers two and three of the OSI stack. The product’s cryptographic engine is FIPS 140-2 certified through the use of SecureParser, made by Security First Corporation.

Rights are established through “communities of interest” that can access given categories of data, as defined by the company. This process is designed for ease-of-use, potentially by non-experts, and is managed through Active Directory or LDAP.

“You don't need different people to handle VLAN segmentation and separate firewall rules, for example,” Vinsik added. “You don't need that kind of expertise on hand to be able to do that in a fast and real-time basis. If they are part of the community of interest, they have access to that particular data regardless of where they are on the network.”

Unisys first developed Stealth about five years ago, in response to the security needs of the federal government, most notably, the Department of Defense. At the time, the DoD was looking for ways to collapse three separate physical infrastructures into a single infrastructure that could securely accommodate multiple levels of classified data.

The product is certified by the National Security Agency to carry secret data across an unclassified network, according to Vinsik.

Unisys’ break into the channel

The new channel program represents Unisys’s first official foray into partner-led sales, though some level of informal channel collaboration has been in place for some time.

Unisys has developed a variety of software assets over the years, and success with the Stealth/channel initiative is expected to lead to an expansion of products to be made available through indirect sales.

The program includes both sales and technical training, as well as technical materials, marketing resources, demo resources, and access to the Unisys engineering team to support troubleshooting and to gather information for future enhancements.

To lead the new channel initiative, Unisys has hired industry veteran Tom Zorn as vice president, software channels. Zorn has more than 25 years of experience with indirect sales strategies. He co-founded Alternative Technology, a distributor of security, networking and virtualisation products, which was later acquired by Arrow Electronics.

Zorn will be joined by software channel director John Stubbs, who previously served as vice president of business development strategies at Arrow Electronics, after working with Zorn at Alternative Technology.

This article originally appeared at crn.com