Webinar: CrowdStrike Falcon Complete – what we learned

Posted October 12, 2021

by cliff

 

As we all get half a dozen invitations to online webinars and workshops daily, we had modest expectations for our first online deep dive into CrowdStrike’s Managed Detection and Response service, Falcon Complete.  So, we were blown away when over 60 people registered for the webinar.  We were surprised by what participants told us too.

 

Before we get into what we learned from the webinar participants, let me address two reasons why I think the webinar was such as success.  First, was the overwhelming interest in the subject matter.  Ransomware attacks and data breaches are becoming so common that no company big or small can ignore the issue.  Furthermore, the legal and regulatory environment in Singapore concerning management and notification of data breaches is tightening.  Companies operating in Singapore now have a legal obligation to assess a suspected breach and if necessary notify the Personal Data Protection Commission, regulators, and affected individuals.  Yet, the growing need to take proactive steps on how to respond to data breaches is difficult to meet when there is a global shortage of personnel with the skills and training required to hunt and respond to threats that continually increase in sophistication.  Hence, the interest in outsourcing this responsibility to professionals who do this daily.  The Pantropic Sales and Marketing team did a great job in getting the word out and customers were eager to listen.

The second factor responsible for the large turnout was perhaps our first ever collaboration with Singapore’s own Creative Labs.  We figured customers were tired of getting food vouchers for attending webinars, so we teamed up with Creative to offer free headsets, exclusive discounts, and a bespoke experience to hear their latest Dolby Atmos® Speaker System soundbar with SuperX-Fi built-in.  The response was so good, we hope to do this type of promotion again.

 

So, what did we learn from participants through the questions they asked?  Well, firstly we learned that if the webinar is engaging, Singapore participants are more than willing to stay online for well over an hour and actively participate in a Q&A session.  The questions ranged from technical to legal.  It seems quite a few people were interested in the Breach Prevention Warranty. This warranty, managed by a third party insurance company, pays out up to $1M USD to a Falcon Complete customer if they suffer a breach.  So far, no Falcon Complete customer has ever been breached.  Some in attendance were interested in the sensor data the Falcon agent collects and whether it complies with local and EMEA regulations such as GDPR.  CrowdStrike does of course gather event data needed to identify, understand, and respond to attacks – but nothing more. They have numerous customers in Singapore and Europe and do not have any known issues with privacy regulations in these jurisdictions.  Another interesting question was whether CrowdStrike had an advisory service that could do a one-off security assessment.  The answer to that is yes.  The Services team can perform a Compromise Assessment to identify any ongoing or past attacker activity.  Falcon Complete also includes the cyber hygiene module used for exposing potential gaps in your cyber defences.  The impression we got from these and other questions asked after the webinar was that, at least in Singapore,  compliance is becoming as much a driver for investment in cybersecurity as protection from bad actors.  Yes, this came as a bit of a surprise to us because we see the threat from bad actors almost daily as we respond to customer requests.  However, it’s now becoming clear that those companies that may have delayed making a strategic investment in cybersecurity are now taking a second look.   The implication is that we need to be able to better advise customers on what solutions help them meet what specific regulations.  This topic is worthy of it’s own webinar.