CrowdStrike and NAB aim at SMBs in new deal

Cyber security specialist CrowdStrike has entered into a strategic partnership with National Australia Bank (NAB) to provide its small- to medium-sized business (SMB) customers with complementary access to its Falcon Go platform.

According to the CrowdStrike 2024 Global Threat Report, the financial services industry continues to be heavily targeted by threat actors. The report also showed 60 per cent of SMBs that suffer a data breach go out of business within six months of the attack. 

To help strengthen SMBs cyber security tool kit, NAB is providing access to CrowdStrike Falcon Go, which features next-generation antivirus (NGAV) and device control for USB device protection, which is artificial intelligence (AI)-powered by a single, lightweight agent that can be deployed and managed for smaller organisations.

NAB chief security officer Sandro Bucchianeri said it had an important role to play in educating and assisting SMBs in strengthening their security stack.

“The number of cyber attacks impacting small businesses continues to grow year on year and our research tells us small and medium businesses are one of the least cyber prepared sectors,” he said. 

“By working with CrowdStrike, we’re looking to connect customers with some of the best and most trusted cyber defenses. We’re urging all businesses to evaluate their security before it’s too late.” 

Following the launch of Falcon Go in November, CrowdStrike APJ vice president of channels and alliances Jon Fox said Bucchianeri reached out with interest to provide the security platform to its SMB customers.

“We were impressed with NAB’s vision for offering Falcon Go to their SMBs and worked with Sandro’s team to make this vision a reality,” Fox said. “We’d love to work with more Australian partners who share this vision and protect even more small businesses than we do today.

“The opportunity and vision of NAB represents a strategic, non-traditional channel, whereby we can help secure more of Australia’s SMBs.”

Fox reiterated its mission to protect small businesses with modern, cost effective, high-quality cyber security protection.

“The opportunity to partner with us on Falcon Go is there for everyone, through traditional IT channel partners we have along with new and diverse routes to market like the NAB relationship,” he said.

“We’ve begun working with a select set of motivated partners like NAB, who share our vision and mission for protecting small businesses at scale. If this sounds like an area of interest, we’d love to hear from you and our channel team will help build a win-win partnership.”

CrowdStrike chief business officer Daniel Bernard added the initiative raises the cyber security bar for SMBs across Australia. 

“CrowdStrike Falcon Go is AI-powered and purpose-built to bring modern cyber security to smaller businesses. It’s easy to use and stops breaches,” Bernard said. 

“For NAB to recognise the need to help educate and protect its customers is both innovative and responsible. At CrowdStrike, we talk about cyber security being a team sport and this initiative from NAB is a quintessential example of that in practice.”