IBM Forms Global Security Testing Team to Help Businesses Avoid Cyber Attacks

IBM has created a team of security professionals and ethical hackers to offer testing services intended to help enterprise clients identify system vulnerabilities and avoid breaches.

The company said Tuesday IBM X-Force Red will operate under IBM’s security services unit and be led by Charles Henderson, IBM’s global head of security testing and threats.

“Having a machine scan your servers and source code is a great step to help prevent data breaches, but the human element of security testing cannot be overlooked,” said Henderson.

“Elite human testers can learn how an environment works and create unique attacks using techniques even more sophisticated than what the criminals have,” he added.

X-Force Red comprises security professionals who are based in various countries such as the U.S., Australia, Japan and the U.K. and have provided penetration, ethical hacking and social engineering and physical security testing support to businesses and government agencies.

The company noted the team aims to share intelligence with IBM’s X-Force Research group as well as X-Force Exchange threat sharing platform and Security AppScan.

X-Force Red will focus on the application, network, hardware and human aspects of security tests, IBM added,

IBM offers security test services through individual projects, a subscription-based model and managed testing programs.