KDDI America and KDDI Europe have launch a new Managed Detection and Response (MDR) service with a 24/7 AI-powered security operations centre (SOC) serving the US, Europe, Middle East and Africa.
KDDI has designed the new service to bring enterprise-grade agentic AI-driven security and compliance capabilities to more businesses, but without the overheads normally associated with cutting-edge technology.
Delivered in partnership with Exaforce, the pioneer in agentic AI security, the new service provides cutting-edge threat detection, intelligent triage, rapid investigation and accelerated response.
Its advanced capabilities cover endpoints, networks, SaaS and identity access management, from a single platform. Overstretched IT teams can manage high volumes of alerts, improve visibility and respond to AI threats with greater speed and clarity.
This new MDR service has been developed to help businesses deal with the growing pressure from AI-enabled cyber-attacks, fragmented visibility, slow detection in hybrid environments and more intensive regulatory reporting and response obligations.
“Increased risk, compliance gaps and reduced protection”
Tetsuya Nakamura, Chief Technology Officer of KDDI America said: “While organisations face increased regulatory demands, cyber-criminals are using AI to launch more sophisticated attacks at higher volume and speed.
“SOCs relying entirely on human skill struggle to keep pace amid a shortage of talent, causing alert fatigue, blind spots and slower response times.”
Nakamura continued: “IT teams must either triage alerts manually or rely on conventional detection tools with narrow scope.
“Without more advanced capabilities it is difficult to coordinate incident reporting across dispersed locations while fulfilling the requirements of local regulators.
“The result is increased risk, compliance gaps and reduced protection.”
Managed Detection and Response Service
The company revealed that the new 24/7 SOC service enables businesses to address these challenges from one context-aware detection and response platform.
Its agentic AI matches the speed and scale of AI-powered cyber-threats, with certified analysts providing judgment, context and accountability.
Unlike traditional approaches, which often analyse events after an alert has been generated, the new service correlates identities, files, permissions and resource provenance as data arrives.
This enables faster, more complete investigation.
The company explained that the result is more consistent security outcomes at enterprise scale, but without the cost and complexity associated with legacy SOC models.
With the new service’s advanced capabilities, KDDI is helping more organisations standardise threat detection, triage, investigation and response.
This dramatically reduces false positives, enabling IT teams to focus on more strategic projects.
As a next-generation solution, it sits at the centre of a holistic service that spans the full cybersecurity lifecycle, beginning with consultation and risk alignment, progressing through system design and implementation to culminate in continuous operations, KDDI added.
“Scale, speed and sophistication”
Nakamura later added: “The launch of our new MDR service shows KDDI America is committed to democratising enterprise-level protection for thousands of businesses.
“We are opening up access to far more advanced AI-native security, enabling businesses of all sizes to transform their security and compliance.
“With our new service, organisations gain critical infrastructure-grade protection against the scale, speed and sophistication of AI-driven threats.
“At the same time, it enables them to meet the increasing demands of regulation. We are making tomorrow’s security available today,” Nakamura concluded.
Regulations
According to the company, regulations such as NIS2 and GDPR in Europe, or CCPA and HIPAA in the US, demand faster reporting, clearer accountability and demonstrable reporting capability.
However, legacy SOC models are ill-suited to the shorter reporting windows of such regulations, and enterprise-level AI-driven solutions are beyond the financial resources of many businesses.
“Increased oversight and accountability”
Ken Tsutsui, Deputy Managing Director & Chief Technology Officer of KDDI Europe said: “Businesses are up against it, whether the pressures come from regulation, international expansion, talent shortages or a digital footprint that has outgrown their internal IT.
“Traditional SOC services were built for large global organisations, often expensive and were never designed to cope with the speed and scale of AI-driven attacks.
“Our new service harnesses AI, placing humans not just ‘in the loop’ but ‘on the loop’ for increased oversight and accountability.
“This is the only credible posture against adversaries skilled in the use of AI, and we are excited to bring these capabilities to many more customers,” Tsutsui concluded.