Block Communications Commercial Telecom Teams Up with Corero to Reinforce Network Security

Block Communications Commercial Telecom Teams Up with Corero to Reinforce Network Security

The integrated communications provider forms strategic partnership to offer first line of defense against DDoS attacks to customers.

TOLEDO, OHIO, US –December 1, 2015 – Block Communications commercial telecommunications divisions, Telesystem (www.telesystem.us), and Line Systems (LSI) (www.linesystems.com), announce the joint alliance with Corero Network Security, a leading provider of Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) defense solutions.

Corero delivers real-time DDoS protection via the SmartWall® Threat Defense System (TDS) with SecureWatch® Analytics, a connected suite of security applications that delivers comprehensive DDoS defense services. DDoS attacks are attempts to make online service unavailable by overwhelming it with traffic from multiple sources. The attacks, according to Eveland Morris, Director of Engineering at Line Systems, are extremely difficult to defend against. “Identifying a single assailant against a backdrop of valid users to your network is manageable with adequate monitoring tools, but when hundreds or thousands of attacks are bombarding you at once it takes a significant amount of time, money and resources, usually against diminishing bandwidth, to stop the attack,” explains Morris.

Telesystem owns and operates two data centers with seven Tier 1 interconnects which provide all of the Internet bandwidth for the company’s customers. The solution provides increased visibility into attack traffic on Tier 1 links that promotes high levels of customer confidence in Telesystem’s service. "We have received alerts from the Corero SOC team to let us know about events that were going on. When a major attack does come in, Corero gives us a courtesy notice to tell us it's already being blocked or in mitigation. It has minimized the negative impact to our service availability. Corero's solution does exactly what we hoped it would do," says Stephen Clark, Director of IP Networks at Telesystem.

Line Systems’ IP-based private network is supported by multiple geographically diverse data centers as well as four Tier 1 interconnections.  This partnership and the alignment it represents across Telco business units with Corero, delivers equally reliable security services to support LSI’s network infrastructure and in turn further protect end users. “The partnership was attractive as it was a complete, plug-and-play defense solution that really puts us at the front of the security curve. The solution not only improves protection against DDoS attacks but the monitoring environment further strengthens our response intervals,” states Warren Reyburn, Executive Vice President at LSI.

The Corero SmartWall TDS is now available and actively mitigating DDoS attacks for the for the joint customer base. Looking toward the future, Telesystem and Line Systems plan to use the new DDoS mitigation capabilities to create new service offerings that would benefit customers with enhanced service level agreements supported by further secured Core networks.

ABOUT TELESYSTEM

With a customer-centric mission, Telesystem is the dominant communications provider for commercial customers primarily in the Northwest/North Central Ohio and Southeast Michigan areas. Established in 1994, Telesystem maintains superior customer satisfaction by providing a wide array of integrated communication services and solutions delivered across their highly-advanced fiber and carrier-grade Ethernet core network. Utilizing Session-Initiated Protocol (SIP), offerings such as Hosted Stations (Hosted IP-Centrex), SIP Trunks, high-definition voice and a growing suite of application solutions are available virtually anywhere in the world through the advancement of the Hosted VoIP product portfolio.

ABOUT LINE SYSTEMS

Founded in 1999, LSI is a full-service, integrated communications provider serving the national and international market space across its platform of Voice, Data and Cloud services. LSI helps commercial and wholesale entities expand their voice and data network presence as well as leverage multiple switching platforms to stay in front of the technology curve. LSI offers Hosted PBX, SIP Trunking, and Cloud application solutions as well as more traditional voice services for a truly holistic, one-invoice service solution.  For more information, please visit www.linesystems.com, call 855-733-1000, or e-mail info@linesystems.com.

ABOUT CORERO NETWORK SECURITY

Corero Network Security, and organizations First Line of Defense® against DDoS attacks and cyber threats, is a pioneer in global network security. Corero products and services provide Online Enterprises, Service Providers, Hosting Providers and Managed Security Service Providers with an additional layer of security capable of inspecting Internet traffic and enforcing real-time access and monitoring policies designed to match the needs of the protected businesses. Corero technology enhances any defense-in-depth security architecture with a scalable, flexible and responsive defense against DDoS attacks and cyber threats before they reach the targeted IT infrastructure allowing online services to perform as intended.

For more information, visit www.corero.com