No coincidence that we have become one of Norway's leading competence centers for Palo Alto Networks

Building Norway's leading expertise in Palo Alto Networks doesn’t happen overnight. It involves hours of training, skill development, and certifications. But it also relies on a steadfast belief in a technology that can help move the world forward. The main person behind this unwavering belief is CTO Jarle Tiller Bjørntvedt. His journey with Palo Alto Networks began long before almost anyone else had recognized the innovation coming out of Silicon Valley...

From start-up to global giant

Palo Alto Networks’ story begins, like many other tech companies, in Silicon Valley, California. From its humble beginnings in 2005 with just a handful of employees, it has grown to become the most valuable cybersecurity company in the world, with 15,000 employees and a staggering market value of $104 billion. Jarle was one of the first in Norway to recognize Palo Alto Networks’ potential. He initiated a collaboration with them 16 years ago, following a meeting with founder Nir Zuk in Oslo.

– When we established Netsecurity as one of the few pure cybersecurity companies in Norway, we wanted to offer something that didn’t yet exist in the Norwegian market. Palo Alto Networks was founded on the same mindset. They have revolutionized the industry – first in firewall technology, but now in IT security in general. The fact that we share the same company ideology makes it especially interesting to collaborate with them, explains the CTO.

American technology delivered by a Norwegian company

Palo Alto Networks was the first to introduce next-generation firewalls. Traditional firewalls had primarily focused on ports and protocols. Suddenly, it became possible to control traffic at the application level, providing a completely new level of visibility and control over traffic. In the years that followed, they also developed advanced solutions for threat detection and response, cloud security, and automated security management tools.

Starting a collaboration with Palo Alto Networks early on has undoubtedly had an impact: Netsecurity is one of the few companies that has certified experts in all three pillars of Palo Alto Networks: Strata, Cortex, and Prisma Cloud. Netsecurity was also the first in Europe to achieve Diamond Partner status:

“It’s no coincidence that our very first customer for Palo Alto Networks here in Norway recently renewed their contract for the 5th time. I believe our customers feel that having us as their security partner, with Palo Alto Networks technology behind us, provides a great sense of security,” explains Jarle.

Want to learn more about us as a Palo Alto Networks security partner? Read more here.

Norwegian SOC platform and Norwegian support center

Netsecurity is a "Palo Alto Networks Authorized Support Center" (ASC), which means we can handle support cases ourselves. Many customers greatly appreciate having access to a Norwegian support center 24/7. It’s not just about availability, but also about speaking with someone who speaks Norwegian and, most importantly, “understands Norway.” CTO Jarle believes this closeness means a lot to many Norwegian customers:

“We are among those who score the highest in Europe for the number of cases we handle ourselves,” says Jarle. “The cases we can’t resolve ourselves, we escalate to 3rd line support at Palo Alto Networks, ensuring a quick response for our customers.”

Netsecurity also has a security monitoring service that is staffed 24/7 and is one of the few providers that runs both the service and the platform from Norway:

“Delivering both the SOC service, platform, and support from Norwegian soil is unique to Netsecurity,” explains Jarle.

A security partner that helps when you need it

A large portion of Netsecurity’s employees have expertise in all or parts of Palo Alto Networks’ portfolio. Bjørntvedt explains that the combination of expertise and certified experts at Netsecurity provides customers with confidence that they are making the right choice when investing in new technology and are maximizing its potential.

– Many people think that as long as I’ve invested in a technical solution, I’m secure. You can invest in the world’s best technology and the most expensive solutions, but if you don’t have a security partner who helps you set it up correctly and supports you all the way, you risk a false sense of security.

Filip Vamnes, Cyber Security Engineer & Analyst

Filip is one of those who work operationally with the Palo Alto Networks platform. Security technology is not security. "It's what you use the technology for, and how you use it, that determines whether you achieve good security," explains Filip.

Advanced Technology Requires Good Advisors on the Team

Hiring in-house security consultants is not so easy today. The job and tools have become so advanced that it requires someone who can sit and analyze the data and follow up continuously. The response must happen immediately – if an alarm goes off on Sunday evening, it’s not enough to follow it up on Monday morning.

“In addition to a significant investment in tools, there is also a large investment in competence building. Our consultants can handle any challenge related to Palo Alto Networks; they can solve technical tasks, perform configurations, and design setups as needed. By using a security partner, you ensure that you are optimizing your technology. Not least, you avoid a false sense of security," explains Filip.

A World-Class Response Time

At Netsecurity, we have connected our Security Operations Center (SOC) with Cortex XDR, which is Palo Alto Networks' platform for managing endpoints, identity, cloud, and network/firewall. Bjørntvedt explains that this allows Netsecurity to have one of the world's fastest response times with an average resolution time of under 5 minutes from when an alarm goes off until the case is resolved and closed, known as MTTR (Mean Time To Resolve):

“This is almost five times faster than one of the largest SOC providers in the world. What makes this possible is Cortex XSOAR (Extended Security Orchestration, Automation & Response) from Palo Alto Networks combined with our own developers.

"Fight AI with AI"

Netsecurity was the first in Norway to adopt Cortex XSOAR, which, along with Cortex XSIAM, is ranked as the market's best SOAR platform.

“The reason it is the best on the market is the combination of automation, machine learning, and AI found in the solution," explains Bjørntvedt.

On top of the technology from Palo Alto Networks, Netsecurity has its own developers who continuously produce and fine-tune so-called playbooks, which are rules for detecting anomalies. “There are two advantages to this," explains Jarle. “One is our extremely fast response time, and the other is that we avoid false positives. When an incident is resolved, we know it’s correct."

Also read: Kristiania has professionalized IT security with Netsecurity on board

Automated Security Monitoring and Response

– We have worked with this solution since it came to Norway; it is one of our greatest strengths. Just like in sports, you only get good if you train often enough and long enough, says Filip, who is himself highly certified on Cortex.

Many solutions are designed to block viruses and malware. The strength of Cortex lies in identifying what we call allowed traffic. This means that with 'endpoint detection and response,' you extract data and logs from the endpoints, allowing us to detect deviations from normal allowed traffic within an approved framework. "For example, if you are a sales manager but your user account suddenly uploads large files to Dropbox, which it usually doesn't do, it is classified as a deviation from your normal behavior, even though it is a legal activity in principle," explains Filip.

In addition, the SOC checks the activity against the user's calendar. If there is a geographic deviation or unusual activity, access will be blocked, and the user will be logged out of all systems, with the password being changed as well.

"It is an extremely secure system. We have had cases where customers hired penetration testers to identify security holes, where we were told to turn off the agents because the testers couldn't get past Cortex XDR," explains Filip.

Advantages of Having a Security Partner on Your Team

Filip has extensive experience assisting customers with the implementation, setup, and design of Palo Alto Networks solutions. What advantages does he see for the customer?

"First and foremost, I believe they appreciate having a partner with long-standing and comprehensive knowledge of Palo Alto Networks products, where we can tailor solutions to the customer's needs. They also gain access to state-of-the-art technology combined with Norwegian expertise; the proximity to us as a partner is something many customers value."

"Yes, and we should probably also mention how fast we are," adds Jarle Tiller Bjørntvedt. "Netsecurity's automated security monitoring means we are among the best in the world in terms of the time it takes from detecting an incident to resolving and closing it. That is perhaps the best assurance we can give our customers," concludes the CTO.

Skrevet av Netsecurity

No coincidence that we have become one of Norway's leading competence centers for Palo Alto Networks

No coincidence that we have become one of Norway's leading competence centers for Palo Alto Networks

From start-up to global giant

American technology delivered by a Norwegian company

Norwegian SOC platform and Norwegian support center

A security partner that helps when you need it

Advanced Technology Requires Good Advisors on the Team

A World-Class Response Time

"Fight AI with AI"

Automated Security Monitoring and Response

Advantages of Having a Security Partner on Your Team

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