Business

Atos announced the opening of a new next-gen Security Operations Center in Sofia, Bulgaria, as part of the continuous expansion of its cybersecurity activities. The new centre is Atos’ 16th next-gen SOC worldwide.

It is designed to rapidly identify and limit the impact of security incidents for large organisations globally via 24/7/365 threat monitoring, detection, and targeted response supported by state-of-the-art technology with Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) – ultimately strengthening Atos’ powerful global SOC network.

Atos intends to meet the sovereignty needs of public and private organisations, notably those operating in critical and sensitive industries, by offering them an additional AI and ML powered SOC located in Central Europe, in addition to those in Croatia, Poland and Romania. This is in line with the recently launched Atos OneCloud Sovereign Shield which helps clients regain complete control over the data they produce and exchange and effectively deal with legal dependencies.

With the opening of the new centre, Atos expects to hire more than 50 cybersecurity professionals in Sofia in 2022, which will join the 1,500 Atos employees already working in Bulgaria and its worldwide network of 6,000 Atos security experts. In the upcoming years Atos plans to expand the centre’s capabilities with up to 300 digital specialists.

“With the expansion of the demand of clients based in Europe, including in Bulgaria, it seemed natural to open a new SOC and base it in Sofia, where we already have a strong team of digital transformation experts,” said Chris Moret, SVP, Global Head of Cybersecurity services at Atos. “Atos is the top player in cybersecurity services in Europe and has the ambition to grow its local cybersecurity business further. Our new next-gen SOC is powered by the latest AI and ML technologies and will provide key innovative security services to our customers in the region.”

The multiplicity of Atos SOCs around the world, all interconnected, enables information on cyber threats to be shared more effectively, to better prepare for them, and also to share key cyber expertise and best practices. The wide network of SOCs increases redundancy reliability to face the increasing complexity of cyber-attacks and their globalisation.

As cyber threats increase, Atos’ global network of SOCs processes 31 billion security events per day. The new SOC will complement this line of defence and offer all managed security services, including Managed Detection and Response (MDR) which provides threat intelligence, threat hunting, security monitoring, incident analysis, and uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to investigate, auto contain threats, and orchestrate response. Atos recently launched a ‘sovereign data’ version of its MDR service, ensuring client data remains in the same geography.

Atos in Bulgaria is presented by two legal entities. Atos IT Solutions & Services supports 20+ business functions and 1000+ processes by providing end-to-end services to Atos’ entities. In addition, the company delivers business communication services for customers in over 40 countries around the globe. Atos Bulgaria Competency Center offers innovative IT solutions for international companies in the consumer-packaged goods sector and food and beverage industry, including world-class SAP solutions for corporate clients. Both entities are among the leading employers in Bulgaria and are recognised as “Great Place To Work” companies by the International Great Place to Work Institute for four years in a row.