Google forms Cybersecurity Action Team to support customer security transformation

Google has announced the formation of a cybersecurity action team to provide support to governments, critical infrastructure, enterprises, and small businesses. The Google Cybersecurity Action Team will consist of cybersecurity experts from across the organization and will guide customers through the cycle of security and digital transformation.

“The Google Cybersecurity Action Team is part of our ongoing commitment to be the best partner for our enterprise and government customers along their security transformation journey,” said Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud. Cybersecurity is at the top of every C-level and board agenda, given the increasing prominence of software supply chain exploits, ransomware, and other attacks, he added.

How Google’s Cybersecurity Action Team will support customers

Google says the effort will begin within Google Cloud, building on its partnerships with organizations of all sizes, and will evolve to bring Google security to more companies as it progresses. As part of its long-term mission, the cybersecurity team will provide a range of services to support customers including:

• Strategic advisory services for customers’ security strategies, including transformation workshops and educational content. This function will advise customers on the structure of their digital security transformation and provide program management and professional services support.
• Trust and compliance services that map Google’s global compliance certifications to industry control frameworks, enabling customers to simplify compliance.
• Security customer and solutions engineering that deliver blueprints and architectures for deploying Google Cloud products and services securely and in accordance with regulatory requirements, as well as solutions for autonomic security operations and cyber resilience.
• Threat intelligence and incident response services, which include threat briefings, preparedness drills, incident support, and rapid response engagements to stay on top of the evolving security landscape.

Benefits of Google’s cybersecurity expertise

Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) director Jen Easterly champions Google’s decision to form a team dedicated to offering its customers services and guidance around security transformation. “It’s great to see a large company like Google Cloud orient itself to support the cybersecurity of all organizations large and small through its Cybersecurity Action Team, and as part of the JCDC [Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative] and other initiatives, we look forward to partnering with them and other tech companies in this vital effort,” she said in a press release.

Forrester VP and principal analyst Jeff Pollard concurs, telling CSO that offering expertise at such scale is an intriguing and ambitious approach on Google’s part. “The incentives make sense for Google. The Security Action Team should facilitate and accelerate the adoption of Google Cloud Platform and Chronicle, and it puts Google at the forefront of security thought leadership for the clients that turn to it,” says Pollard. Customers get access to Google caliber experts that understand cloud, software development, DevOps, and scale in ways that are hard to find when hiring on your own, he says. “In addition, traditional consulting firms’ advisory offerings don’t understand cloud – or cloud security – the way Google does. Those firms think about cloud and cloud security as a project to migrate and implement, not as a strategy.”