ISP BT to Launch New AI Anti-Virus Service for Small UK Businesses

Broadband and telecoms giant BT has announced that they’ve partnered with cloud-based cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike to launch a new AI-powered antivirus service for their small business customers – Business Antivirus Detect and Respond (BADR), which is designed to “proactively stop threats before they become breaches” (every AV solutions could be described this way).

The announcement claims that hackers are increasing their monitoring of UK organisations through company laptops and mobiles, with malicious online scans rising by 300% in a year. For example, BT’s own data indicates that web-connected devices are now scanned over 4,000 times a day by automated bots probing for weaknesses in business networks (accountancy, legal and consultancy firms are the most targeted sectors for things like ransomware etc.).

The new antivirus solution, which is said to be “available exclusively” in the UK through BT and is powered by the CrowdStrike Falcon® Go platform, is thus designed to tackle the aforementioned problem; it does this by extending the availability of CrowdStrike’s normally enterprise-focused service to smaller businesses.

Daniel Bernard, Chief Business Officer at CrowdStrike, said:

“Adversaries are weaponising AI to launch faster, more targeted attacks – and BT’s data shows the scale of that threat is only accelerating. At CrowdStrike, we’ve harnessed AI to stop breaches before they happen. Together with BT, we’re bringing that same AI-powered protection and expertise to UK small and medium-sized businesses, giving them the power to stay ahead of even the most sophisticated adversaries.”

Sadly, the announcement doesn’t include a lot of detail on the new service’s price or features, but we did manage to extract a few basic details through follow-up queries. BADR claims to use “Next-Generation Antivirus technology” to stay one step ahead of viruses and malware. It continuously scans for suspicious activity, automatically blocks potential threats, and quarantines harmful files before they can cause damage.

BADR also includes USB Device Control, which helps prevent unauthorised access by tracking the use of external USB devices and allowing only approved ones to connect, which will be handy in a business environment. Customers are supported in all this by BT’s fully managed security service, which includes: guidance on setup and management; 24/7 support in the event of a cyber-attack; diagnostic tools to understand and assess threats; and access to their customer support service desk.