FireEye steps up as secret weapon against disinformation

NEW YORK • This week hasseenmajorsocialmedia sites step up their policing of online disinformation campaigns.

Google disabled dozens of YouTube channels and other accounts linked to a staterun Iranian broadcaster running a political-influence campaign.

Facebook removed 652 suspicious pages, groups and accounts linked to Russia andIran.

Twitter took similar action shortly thereafter.

What did they have in common? The security firm FireEye.

Best known for its work on high-profile cyberattacks against companies including Target, JPMorgan Chase and Sony Pictures, FireEye Inc. is emerging as a key player in the fight against election interference and disinformation campaigns.

Founded in 2004, FireEye is based in Silicon Valley and staffed with a roster of former military and law-enforcement cyberexperts.

“They’ve really become the Navy SEALs of cybersecurity, especially for nextgeneration cybersecurity threats,” said GBH Insights analyst Dan Ives.

Lee Foster, manager of information operations analysis at FireEye, said his team works within the company’s intelligence outfit, which researches not only “info-ops” — like the Iran-linked social media activity it recently uncovered — but espionage, financial crime and other forms of vulnerability and exploitation. Specialist teams at FireEye focus on particular areas of cyberthreats, each with their own expertise and language capabilities.

“We kind of operate like a private-sector intelligence operation,” he said.

FireEye was founded in 2004 by Ashar Aziz, who developed a system for spotting threats that haven’t been tracked before, unlike older companies that sold firewalls or anti-virus programs that block known malware.

Aziz, a former Sun Microsystems engineer, created a system that uses software to simulate a computer network and check programs for suspicious behaviour, before allowing them into the network itself.

FireEye raised its profile in 2014 by acquiring Mandiant, known for expertise in assessing damage and tracing the source of cyberattacks. Mandiant founder Kevin Mandia, a former U.S. Air Force investigator, is now FireEye’s CEO

While businesses are spending more on information security, FireEye itself has spent heavily on research, development, sales and marketing. That has led to struggles to remain profitable, as heavy investments offset revenue growth.

FireEye Inc.’s secondquarter revenue rose 6 per cent to US$203 million but it lost US$72.9 million, or 38 cents per share. That met Wall Street’s expectations, but its shares fell as investors expected more.