AT&T has been singled out as a leader by Gartner in the company's Magic Quadrant for MSSPs, North America report. The telecom giant also ranked high in Gartner's MarketScope for Managed Security Service reports for both Europe and the Asia/Pacific region.

Cyber security and IT groups today must go beyond securing the immediate corporate network and increasingly have to secure an array of end devices and users throughout the world. Many businesses turn to a managed security service provider (MSSP) to help with this task, which can place a major burden on internal IT departments.

AT&T has been working in the area of cyber security capabilities for a long time, and AT&T Labs and its cyber security organization work closely to provide advanced security technology solutions. MSSPs must be able to deploy and manage security controls that can be quickly adjusted to identify and fend off constantly changing cyber threats.

The extensive portfolio of managed network security services from AT&T offers a comprehensive approach covering network security, security compliance and business continuity. Tactics include assessing vulnerabilities, keeping data and infrastructure secure, detecting attacks and responding to suspicious activities, enforcing corporate security policies and supporting compliance with federal and industry regulations.

Additional services include protecting e-mail from viruses, worms and spam, and managing Internet access through firewalls to help block Web malware from the corporate network. AT&T also monitors customers' networks and alerts IT staff to possible attacks and the company also provides detailed security-event reporting, information and analysis.

"Most security services react to attacks after they have occurred and attempt to minimize the impact," said Ed Amoroso, chief security officer, AT&T. "However, our preventative approach is designed to help keep customer networks and applications running. We use 'defense in depth' security architecture with security features built into every network layer and every supporting process. Each security service in our portfolio provides a different and enhanced layer of protection."