eEye Digital Security today will roll out its first-ever security service offering.

The privately held company -- best known for its vulnerability research and vulnerability assessment and endpoint security tools -- will kick off a new security intelligence services offering called Preview. eEye is offering three tiers of service under Preview, from a one-way, portal-based service at the low end to more customized services at the high end that provide organizations a heads-up on undisclosed vulnerabilities and threats.

Preview represents the third "pillar" of eEye's business, says Marc Maiffret, CTO and chief hacking officer for eEye, joining its flagship Retina Network Scanner and Blink endpoint security software. eEye made a name for itself after discovering, and naming, the infamous CodeRed worm in 2001.

This is eEye's first official services offering, and Maiffret says it will be a key part of the company's strategy going forward: "I think it's [Preview] going to become a substantial part of our business," he says. Maiffret says eEye has been quietly offering an unbranded version of the security intelligence service at the high end to some of its largest customers for about a year and a half.

"We saw a demand where our customers wanted more access to the research we were doing and more access to what was going on behind the scenes with the things we were reporting," he says, adding that the service helps them with Patch Tuesday decisions, for instance, as well as helping them plan security as they move toward new technologies such as virtualization.

The lower-end Preview Essential is aimed at small- to medium-sized businesses. "A number of SMBs don't need stuff on global vulnerability knowledge... but [they do need information] before they patch, or if they are looking at different technologies and want opinions and research data for us what they should be thinking about when they developing for the future."

Maiffret says eEye's service will be different from that of an iDefense or Symantec, which he says mostly "regurgitate" daily feeds of vulnerabilities that get discovered. "Preview is different because it funnels things to you that matter to, and are tailored to, your business." eEye's Preview so far has been competing with both VeriSign's iDefense and Symantec's services, he says.

Preview Elite, the mid-tier version, and Preview Exclusive, the high-end version, both include direct access to eEye researchers and analysts, as well as access to research data that isn't public, or has been patched yet. The Exclusive service also includes access to eEye's own vulnerability research in the pre-public phases, plus confidential infrastructure reports for the organization.

eEye's existing tools are part of the service, of course, but Preview also draws on custom tools the company develops to help the customer. Maiffret says he can't reveal any of the company's initial Preview customers at this time, but did say the company is in discussion with some major managed security services providers interested in using the service, as well as some large enterprises.

All three service levels of Preview are now available, starting at $50,000 for Preview Essential.

— Kelly Jackson Higgins, Senior Editor, Dark Reading