Cybercrime , Fraud Management & Cybercrime , Incident & Breach Response

John Watters on Why Google and Mandiant Are Better Together

Watters Can't Wait To Combine Google's Analytics and Mandiant's Intelligence Engine
John Watters, president and COO, Mandiant

Combining the back-end data analytics of Google Chronicle with Mandiant's ability to identify signals of abnormal behavior on the front-end is an unbeatable combination, John Watters says.

See Also: Digital Transformation: Better Ops, Agile Apps, Faster Business

Search and public cloud behemoth Google agreed in March to purchase threat intelligence and incident response titan Mandiant for $5.4 billion, and the acquisition is slated to close later this year. Mandiant President and COO Watters says the deal will make it easier for clients to implement security operations and respond to threats in an automated fashion by leveraging the SOAR platform of Google's Siemplify (see: The Switzerland of Security: Why Being Independent Matters).

"Having dynamic defense led by intelligence means that every time you have intelligence around a changing threat, tactic or technique, you can integrate that new knowledge and information into that fully operational platform," Watters says. "This allows you to change the way you defend tactically as a threat environment changes around you dynamically, which is a really good combination."

In a video interview with Information Security Media Group, Watters also discusses:

  • How Mandiant will remain vendor neutral as part of Google;
  • How Mandiant has changed since spinning off the FireEye business;
  • The biggest cybersecurity trends to watch at Black Hat 2022;

Prior to joining Mandiant, Watters served as founder, chairman and chief executive officer of iSight Partners from December 2006 to January 2016. He has served in various roles with Mandiant and FireEye since iSight Partners was acquired in 2016, including serving as chairman of the FireEye Advisory Board from April 2020 to April 2021, executive vice president and chief strategy officer from February 2018 to April 2020, executive vice president of global services and intelligence from January 2017 to January 2018, and president of iSight from January 2016 to January 2017.


About the Author

Michael Novinson

Michael Novinson

Managing Editor, Business, ISMG

Novinson is responsible for covering the vendor and technology landscape. Prior to joining ISMG, he spent four and a half years covering all the major cybersecurity vendors at CRN, with a focus on their programs and offerings for IT service providers. He was recognized for his breaking news coverage of the August 2019 coordinated ransomware attack against local governments in Texas as well as for his continued reporting around the SolarWinds hack in late 2020 and early 2021.




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