By Alain Penel, Regional Vice President – Middle East, Fortinet.

Today, a major cybersecurity challenge is the accelerated pace of operations and threats. The velocity, variety and sophistication of threats, and the complexity of today’s networks have outpaced the effectiveness of traditional perimeter-based defenses. Data breaches are now considered inevitable and the practical reality is that it is simply impossible to prevent all attacks. Therefore, the object of the exercise in cybersecurity is implementing a reasonable level of care to identify and manage risk. In practice, this means a balance of prevention and detection to mitigate as many threats as possible. 

This trend is reflected in the findings of the survey Making Tough Choices: How CISOs Manage Escalating Threats and Limited Resources, conducted by Forbes Insights in conjunction with Fortinet. Results show that CISOs currently devote 36% of budget to response, and 33% to prevention. However, as security needs change, many CISOs desire to shift budget away from prevention tactics. An optimal budget would reduce spend on prevention and increase detection and response resources to 33% and 40% of security budget respectively. This shift gives security teams the speed and flexibility they need to react quickly in the face of a threat – especially as 21% of surveyed CISOs believe capabilities of cyber criminals are outpacing their defensive capabilities.

When it comes to keeping pace with the speed of modern cyberattacks, the challenge is that CISOs have limited resources in terms of personnel and budget. The report finds that to overcome these obstacles and attain the detection and response speeds necessary for today’s cyber strategies, CISOs must leverage AI and automation.   

Cyberattacks Move at Machine Speed

CISOs are not the only ones adopting AI and automation – cyber criminals are too. Attacks now move at machine speed, using AI and automation to actively locate and exploit multiple vulnerabilities while evading detection. Without the need for manual input, these attacks can be far more prolific, and faster. With the use of ransomware and malware-as-a-service, they can even be carried out by more amateur cyber criminals.

The result is that even very experienced IT and security teams cannot keep up. No individual can detect and react to a threat at the same speed as a machine. Even so, most organizations do not have the cybersecurity personnel to consider manual response as a primary strategy. With the cybersecurity skills gap continuing to grow, many security teams are understaffed or are still being trained in how to deal with the onslaught of new threats.

Furthermore, most organizations are deploying multiple disparate security tools across their distributed environments. The lack of integration here means that security teams are getting alerts to possible security events from a multitude of devices – which can cause alert fatigue and events to slip by unaddressed for longer periods of time.  

Leveraging AI and Automation

By using AI and automation, CISOs can mitigate the risk brought on by automated cyberattacks with faster response times.

Combat the Skills Gap

Because organizations cannot detect and respond to threats manually, they can use AI and automation to fill these gaps. Solutions enabled by artificial intelligence can learn what normal behavior looks like in order to detect anomalous behavior. For example, certain employees may regularly access a specific type of data, or might only log on at certain times. If the user begins to operate outside of these standard parameters, the solution can detect these anomalies and inspect or isolate the device until it is determined to be safe. If the device is infected with malware or is otherwise acting maliciously, the tool can issue automatic responses. Making these tactical tasks the responsibility of AI-driven solutions gives time back to security teams to develop strategic security initiatives, focus on developing threat intelligence, or hone in on detecting unknown threats.

Increased Visibility and Productivity

As a result of digital transformation, networks are becoming increasingly complex and distributed. Many organizations have deployed multi-cloud environments, hybrid environments, BYOD policies, SaaS apps, connected devices, and more. AI and automation simplify network management across these environments – alerting security teams to imminent threats and responding automatically. Automated tools that leverage machine learning and integration can also alert other areas of the network to a potential threat. For example, a cloud security tool could alert endpoint security solutions of malicious activity to facilitate a faster response in that area of the network.

A key benefit of increased visibility into security alerts across distributed networks is a more productive and efficient security program. If teams feel confident in the ability of AI-enabled tools to monitor the network, respond to threats at machine speed, and collect analytics, they can spend more time honing strategy, performing historical analysis, and building a cyber-aware culture.

If security teams decide to adopt AI and automation, they must be sure the solution chosen can compete with modern threats. In selecting a solution, take time to ensure it is powered by best-in-class threat intelligence and research and analytics technology. Make sure this data is collected from a variety of nodes – both globally and locally to best inform your cyber strategy. Finally, bear in mind that AI is only as effective as the training that went into it. The amount data ingested, the number of nodes and accuracy of analysis are also key considerations.

Final Thoughts

Speed is an essential component of threat management. However, with attacks growing more sophisticated and security resources sparser, organizations are hard-pressed to keep pace. By leveraging solutions that incorporate AI and automation, CISOs can close the resource gap and stay a step ahead of cyber criminals. 

Fortinet®  (NASDAQ: FTNT), a global leader in broad, integrated and automated cybersecurity solutions, today announced that IndiGo, India’s largest airline, has deployed Fortinet Secure SD-WANsolution across its branch offices to secure its WAN edge.

IndiGo is the largest passenger airline in India with a market share of 46.9 percent as of March, 2019. The airline connects to 58 domestic and 19 international destinations and operates more than 1300 flights every day. It is also the largest individual Asian low-cost carrier in terms of jet fleet size and passengers carried, and the seventh largest carrier in Asia. With a fleet size of 222 aircrafts, IndiGo has served over 300 million customers globally

“Many customers are currently forced to use multiple point products and management consoles to achieve a secure SD-WAN connection,” said John Maddison, EVP of products and CMO at Fortinet

 “This separation of network and security operations is not only labor-intensive, but also makes performance and security a bottleneck to move toward direct internet access. Fortinet’s unique combination of next-generation firewall and SD-WAN in the same offering, managed through a single centralized controller has seen tremendous momentumin customer adoption and received two consecutive SD-WAN “Recommended” ratingsfrom NSS Labs.”

IndiGo’s growing passenger traffic combined with poor MPLS network and Internet quality had resulted in delays for customers accessing their applications for flight booking, call centers, airport counters and flight status checking, adversely affecting their business. To avoid delays  and provide the best possible user experience for business-critical applications, the airline decided to adopt a hybrid WAN model, supporting its 54 airport counters, that would be able to distribute traffic over a variety of links, including MPLS, Broadband and Internet Leased Line. IndiGo selected Fortinet Secure SD-WAN solution to provide best of breed SD-WAN integrated with security capabilities with one single offering. As part of the Fortinet Security Fabric,Fortinet’s Secure SD-WAN solution combines networking and security features, such as routing, WAN optimization, application control and next-generation firewall, enabling IndiGo to manage and configure its WAN and security system from a single-pane-of-glass view. 

IndiGo has also deployed multiple FortiGate Next-Generation Firewallsat 54 airport counters and in their data centers, along with FortiManagerand FortiAnalyzerfor management and analytics. As a result, IndiGo can now map WAN resources directly making the network more efficient and responsive by combining scalability, flexibility, simplicity and cost savings with industry-leading security protection through Fortinet’s Secure SD-WAN solution.

After the SD-WAN deployment IndiGo has benefited from:

• High Application Performance:Automated intelligence, a key feature of FortiOSfor SD-WAN, significantly reduces latency by selecting the most efficient route for business-critical traffic through the tracking of granular WAN path information. This helps IndiGo monitor link quality connecting 2000 users in 54 branches with the lowest latency, supporting comprehensive routing with dynamic failover that ensures high-application availability.

• Best-of-Breed SD-WAN and Security Capabilities in One Console: With an integrated solution, IndiGo manages both SD-WAN optimization and security capabilities using a single interface. This integration of network and security operations makes it easy to tie traditionally network-centric issues such as performance and functionality to critical NGFW capabilites and SSL data inspection. The single console management helps IndiGo better allocate its IT resources to increase productivity and reduce business costs.

• Reduced WAN Opex: IndiGo is able to achieve higher bandwith with lower WAN cost by transitioning from MPLS to a hybrid WAN using Fortinet’s Secure SD-WAN. Fortinet’s Secure SD-WAN capabilities allows IndiGo to leverage WAN link remediation to handle even the most volatile WAN connections and deliver superior application performance for unified communication.

• Simplified WAN Edge Management: FortiManager and FortiAnalyzer helps IndiGo with SD-WAN management and orchestration with a single pane for centralized management with reporting and analytics across the SD-WAN environment.  

• Potential to Scale:With Fortinet’s Secure SD-WAN solution, IndiGo can continue to grow its business and expand operations by easily and securely adding new SD-WAN branches to its expanding network.

“Transitioning to hybrid WAN  was our business priority as our customers and airport counters need seamless application access connecting with a link that has the lowest latency. Fortinet’s Secure SD-WAN solution helps us with application routing, load balancing, performance monitoring and securing our customers data all in a single appliance, which reduces management complexity and delivers significant cost benefits”

– Lalit Gole, Associate – Director  IT – Networks & Infrastructure, IndiGo.

SonicWall today announced its participation at GITEX 2019 where it will exhibit its integrated cybersecurity platform designed to help SMBs, mid to large enterprises and government agencies defend against today’s sophisticated and rapidly growing cybersecurity threats.

“SonicWallhas been working relentlessly with our partners to better understand and serve our customers in the region,” said Mohamed Abdallah, Regional Director for Middle East & Turkey, SonicWall. “While businesses continue to be a prime target for cybercriminals, we have seen organizations demonstrating a clear maturity and readiness for the next level of cybersecurity. We look forward to demonstrating the depth of our growing solutions portfolio, including our patent-pending Real-Time Deep Memory Inspection™ (RTDMI) technology that has discovered 104,000 never-before-seen attack variants from January to August alone.”  

Present in the Sheikh Rashid Hall on stand number SR-B20, SonicWall will showcase its networking and security solutions, including next-generation firewalls, RTDMI™, next-generation endpoint protection, secure SD-WAN, secure Wi-Fi, Security-as-a-Service, Cloud App Security (CAS), WAN acceleration, web application firewalls, securityanalytics, email security and secure remote access. 

“SonicWall solutions help drive and secure our customers’ digital transformation journey,” said Mohamed Abdallah. “With our single-pane-of-glass integrated security management, coupled with analytics and real-time threat intelligence protection across our ecosystem, we are providing partners with a complete cybersecurity portfolio to meet every security need.” 

The company monitors, collects and analyzes millions of malware threats per day in real-time in more than 215 countries and territories to protect customers 24/7/365. The SonicWall Capture Labs Threat Networkoffers industry-leading insights about the threat landscape and has sophisticated analytics to break down data geographically to inform customers, partners and governments, so they can act rapidly against emerging threats.

Mindware today announced it has been appointed by Citrix as the Authorized Citrix Service Provider (CSP) Distributor in the Middle East region. 

Under the Citrix Service Provider Distributor program, Mindware would provide product and service fulfilment, technical and business enablement and support to the Citrix Service Providers in the Middle East. 

The Citrix Service Provider Program is a Citrix partner program designed specifically for service providers who provide paid third party hosted software services to end-user customers. In addition to complete Desktops-as-a-Service offerings, many Citrix Service Providers host a single application or applications for an ISV who does not have a SaaS-based offering, provide NetScaler as a service, mobility (mobile device management) as a service and/or managed services to their clients.

With Mindware becoming the Authorized CSP Distributor in the Middle East region, integrators that aim to become Citrix Service Provider would benefit from more than 15 years of product, technical and licensing expertise as a Citrix Distributor. They would also get access to skilled consultants and experts as well as to the Citrix Cloud lab environments to demonstrate the value of Citrix SaaS solutions to customers.

Supporting Quotes

“Mindware is delighted to be appointed as an Authorized Citrix Service Provider Distributor for the Middle East. Our Distribution relationship with Citrix has grown over the years. This new program is a natural extension as the technology adoption matures from on-prem to the cloud. With Citrix, our partners/ service providers will have all the elements to create scalable, reliable, private or public cloud-based offerings. This will help our partners to be more productive & profitable.” 

• Philippe Jarre, CEO, Mindware

“As a Citrix Service Partner Program Distributor, Mindware will help manage and support the service providers in the region who want to build and deliver complete hosted service portfolio (hosted desktops and hosted apps, mobile device management and secure file share, infrastructure for self-service provisioning and secure networking). Mindware will also support in the hosted workspace activities of these partners and ensure on-time reporting for their products.”

• Piotr Faderski, Partner Director, Emerging Markets, Citrix

Role will oversee overall partner sales and go-to-market programs for customers and partners 
with cutting edge portfolio of technologies for the multi-cloud era   

Nutanix(NASDAQ:NTNX), a leader in enterprise cloud computing, has appointed Cyril VanAgt to lead its Channel and OEM activities in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region. Mr. VanAgt will oversee all of Nutanix’s go-to-market relationships with resellers, distributors, regional system integrators and technology partners in the EMEA region, providing them with the capabilities needed to apply the company’s cutting-edge technologies.

In particular, Mr. VanAgt will be responsible for driving the Nutanix Channel Charter, a strategic initiative to strengthen the company’s relationships with the reseller community by empowering them to succeed throughout both the sales cycle and their own customers’ technology lifecycles, ultimately enabling all participants to compete in the modern era of multi-cloud needs and capabilities.

Mr. VanAgt joined Nutanix in October 2014 and has been responsible for channel sales in the Southern European territories of the EMEA region since then. In four years he structured the Nutanix distribution network and built a strong channel ecosystem in this part of EMEA. The organization established by Mr. VanAgt enabled the readiness and autonomy of Nutanix channel partners in France, Italy, Iberia, Switzerland and French-speaking Africa, turning this region into a model for collaboration between Nutanix and its channel network. Mr. VanAgt’s responsibilities were expanded further in 2018 with addition of OEM and alliance partner management.

Commenting on Mr. VanAgt’s appointment, Sammy Zoghlami, Senior Vice President of Sales for the Europe, Middle East & Africa region, said: “I am delighted to have Cyril lead our Channel and OEM operations in EMEA. These relationships are critical routes to market for Nutanix and its solutions, and Cyril’s vast experience in technology partnering and implementation, will see these partners gain maximum benefit and value from what these innovative products have to offer them.”

Mr. VanAgt joined Nutanix following a 14-year career at NetApp in France. He was educated at the ISEN Institut Supérieur d’Electronique et du Numérique, France, gaining a degree in micro-electronics, computer sciences and telecommunications engineering. He also holds a postgraduate qualification from the Télécom Paris institution in Image Processing & Television Systems.

The Sennheiser TeamConnect Ceiling 2 microphone is now certified for Microsoft Teams Rooms when deployed with Microsoft-certified DSPs. The ceiling array microphone, which offers easy installation and patented dynamic beamforming technology, will be available from Microsoft as a solution for Microsoft Teams Rooms complete with a Microsoft-certified DSP.

TeamConnect Ceiling 2 delivers flexibility and performance thanks to automatic, adaptive beamforming. This technology, patented by Sennheiser, automatically focuses on the active speaker and follows their voice no matter where they move in the room.

“With TeamConnect Ceiling 2 we set web and video conferences free – making them simpler and more productive, while ensuring optimum audio quality for remote participants,” said Jens Werner, Portfolio Manager Business Communication at Sennheiser. “We are very happy to take this pursuit of simplicity, performance and reliability even further with a TeamConnect Ceiling 2 bundle that ensures a seamless experience for Microsoft Teams users.”

“The certification indicates that this solution meets the highest specifications outlined in the certification program to provide the best experiences, compatibility, and reliability when used with Microsoft Teams products,” explained Microsoft’s Ilya Bukshteyn, Head of Product (Partner Director), Microsoft Teams Devices.

Created with the ability to combine multiple ceiling tiles to serve medium and large meeting rooms, Sennheiser’s adaptive beamforming technology automatically follows the active speaker’s voice, letting people speak naturally – whether they are sitting, standing or moving around the room. Hence, with TeamConnect Ceiling 2, the meeting room can be used in a totally flexible way: Tables are free from cables and microphones, chairs and tables can be arranged as desired, and the meeting participants can move about the room freely.

TeamConnect Ceiling 2 also offers exceptional flexibility as it can be used together with existing analogue audio equipment as well as integrated into fully digital systems, where it can be controlled and monitored via the IP network. The ceiling array microphone supports Power over Ethernet (PoE), Sennheiser Control Cockpit, Dante Domain Manager and third-party control solutions such as the Crestron control platform.

HID Global®, a worldwide leader in trusted identity solutions, today announced that its IdenTrust™ digital certificates are now certified members of the Adobe Approved Trust List (AATL) program, the world’s largest trust service for electronic documents. AATL certification allows millions of users to create digital signatures that are automatically identified as being trusted whenever the document is signed with Adobe® Acrobat® DC, Acrobat Reader® DC or Adobe Sign.

“We are very pleased to be part of Adobe’s trust initiative for its ubiquitous Adobe Document Cloud solutions that are used to process more than six billion electronic and digital signature transactions each year,” said Brad Jarvis, vice president and managing director with HID Global, Identity and Access Management. “When authors sign their Adobe documents with IdenTrust certificates, they can now provide recipients who open those documents using Adobe Acrobat and Acrobat Reader the confidence that the signatures can be trusted without requiring any specialized software or custom configuration.”

When using Adobe Acrobat DC or Acrobat Reader for digital signing, the digital signature that has been created using an identity-based certificate can be validated each time the document is opened. If multiple digital signatures are applied to the same document, each signature is validated independently when the document is accessed. In addition to confirming that users can trust the sender’s identity, the Adobe software also verifies that the IdenTrust credential was valid when the signature was applied and that any changes to the document met the document author’s specifications.

The world’s leading digital Certification Authority, IdenTrust has more than 5.7 million certificates in active production and supports more than 18 billion validations per year. Its digital certificates establish the basis for trusted identity solutions recognized by financial institutions, healthcare providers, government agencies and enterprises around the world.