AT&T shook up the world of cybersecurity last summer by announcing its acquisition of security company AlienVault, bringing together a network giant with a major player in cyber.

In this Channel Partners Fast Chat, our T.C. Doyle sits down with Mike LaPeters, VP of global channels, AT&T Cybersecurity, to talk about the impact of the acquisition on the industry, what differentiates the newly created AT&T Cybersecurity business unit from the competition, and how such a large company can be responsive to the needs of SMBs and midmarket customers.

On AT&T’s acquisition of AlienVault: “AT&T has always been focused on helping organizations be more secure, but they wanted to take this to the next step, especially with the rapid proliferation of threats … with the combination of services that AT&T provides with the product that AlienVault has, with unified security management, it formed this new business unit called AT&T Cybersecurity,” LaPeters said.

On differentiation: “Everybody has a game-changing piece of technology … there are all kinds of gaps that exist between these products and services. The challenge is, this is where the hackers play. So what we’re working to do is put together both services and products that enable us to deliver security truly without those [gaps].”

On meeting every customers’ needs: “AT&T Cybersecurity is founded with the thought that security is a right, not a privilege. You shouldn’t have to be the richest of the rich or the biggest of the big company in order to be able to take advantage of some of these advances in security. The premise is, let’s work together in a way that best fits your capability and your needs.

Watch the video above for the entire conversation.