Start-up KSR offers managed security services aimed at remediation, risk management

Start-up KSR will make its debut this week with a portfolio of managed security services focused on remediation and risk management for corporate networks.

At the helm is CEO and co-founder Mark Iwanowski, who is a former CIO at Oracle. “We’re offering remotely managed services for servers, applications and databases to address problems not being addressed in the marketplace today,” says Iwanowski, who co-founded KSR in January with Becky Bace, chief strategy officer, and Bill Yeack, COO.

Rather than tackle management of firewalls and intrusion-detection systems — a well-established practice among managed-security service providers — KSR is taking on a wide range of tasks to ensure the uptime and performance of applications managed remotely.

“At Oracle where I was formerly CIO, I had to worry about viruses attacking my network or databases not working,” Iwanowski says. Some organizations aren’t in the position to outsource security, but for the ones that are, “We are going to take a proactive approach to ensure things are working properly.”

KSR, which is short for the company’s slogan “knowledge, security and risk management”, will handle installation and remote management of authentication, identity management and endpoint security. It will offer specialized services including patch management and database repairs, as well data-leak prevention using equipment from vendors such as Tablus that can be leased by customers rather than purchased outright.

To enable remote monitoring of corporate IT resources, KSR installs its Centris management services software on host computers. Centris provides a dashboard view of systems and devices under management and is based on software KSR gained in its acquisition of SiteLite.