Intrado deploys AI-driven cybersecurity to safeguard critical infrastructure

So Intrado could achieve an around-the-clock defensive posture without building an expensive internal 24/7 capability, the company integrated Unit 42 Managed Detection and Response to directly support its Cortex environment. Today, Unit 42 acts as an extension of Intrado’s security team, combining AI-driven operations, proactive threat hunting, expert-led investigations, and response to help protect critical infrastructure. By offloading high-volume alert analysis and response activities to Unit 42, Intrado transformed its security operations from reactive maintenance to proactive innovation.

To support its dual attack surface of legacy landline and next-generation IP networks, Intrado plans to upgrade from Unit 42 MDR to Managed XSIAM. The move adds dedicated Unit 42 SOC engineers to codevelop custom detections, threat-hunting queries, automation playbooks, and security controls tailored to its unique public safety environment. MSIAM also extends visibility across native and third-party EDR environments and includes a built-in 250-hour Breach Response Guarantee, providing access to Unit 42 incident response experts if a major incident occurs. The enhanced customization ensures highly sensitive 911 call data remains protected within Intrado’s own tenant while supporting strict FCC requirements.

"The Unit 42 Retainer gives us the ability to have IR teams that are on the bleeding edge of our technology—and who understand the latest adversarial attacks—supporting us when we do have an incident," explains Gifford. Throughout the year, Intrado actively leverages its retainer credits to conduct threat modeling against nation-state tactics, perform deep-dive digital forensics to validate data protection mechanisms, and run simulated tabletop exercises that proactively test and improve daily operational processes.

Intrado relies on cloud-native environments to deliver critical public safety infrastructure at scale. To strengthen the security of these environments, Intrado upgraded from Prisma^® Cloud to Cortex Cloud to unify application security, cloud posture security, and runtime protection on a single platform. By eliminating silos between SecOps, cloud, and development teams, Cortex Cloud gives Intrado a shared understanding of risk across the organization, enabling teams to identify risks earlier and accelerate threat detection and response. Additionally, security engineers are now able to proactively address configuration issues across the development pipeline, credential exposures, and compliance violations before they impact production environments.

To manage the high-stakes transition from legacy 1970s copper infrastructure to modern Next Generation 911 (NG911) IP-based frameworks, Intrado is pursuing an even greater rollout of its Next-Generation Hardware Firewalls. Davenport notes, “Moving to a modern, public-safety-grade IP network will enable tremendous enhancements in the services we provide to the citizens of this country.” Having trusted these firewalls for many years, the Intrado team treats them as critical pillars of its next-gen infrastructure, confident it can rely on them daily to protect the environment and maintain total operational uptime.

While Intrado maintains separate networks for emergency services and enterprise clients, these firewalls secure the data center perimeters and shield the private pathways routing emergency calls—all from a single console. Operating across legacy and next-gen systems simultaneously, the firewalls deploy Cloud-Delivered Security Services to block threats instantly. This provides real-time visibility into the global threat landscape (such as active exploits emerging in Europe) and automatically applies those insights to safeguard the US 911 environment. Armed with Advanced Threat Prevention and Advanced WildFire, Intrado can seamlessly defend against unknown command-and-control (C2) activities and evasive malware.