Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company (NYSE: HPE), today announced an expansive set of cross-portfolio edge-to-cloud security integrations for Aruba ESP (Edge Services Platform). The new advancements include the integration of the ClearPass Policy Manager secure network access control platform with the Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN edge platform, formerly Silver Peak, the integration of Aruba Threat Defense with the EdgeConnect platform, and the expansion of the Aruba ESP multivendor security partner ecosystem, providing enterprise customers with the freedom to deploy best-of-breed, cloud-delivered secure access service edge (SASE) security components of their choice. Today’s Aruba ESP advancements will enable enterprises to fast-track their digital transformation journey from edge-to-cloud.

As organizations contend with challenges resulting from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and a new “work from anywhere” normal, the adoption of cloud-hosted services will continue to accelerate. This shift is intensifying the urgency to transform conventional data center and MPLS-centric and VPN-based networks to a cloud-native SASE architecture that features more dynamic provisioning of secure network services while protecting data from end-to-end.

In parallel, digital transformation is causing a significant increase of IoT devices connecting to the network, presenting new challenges that are not addressed with cloud-delivered security alone. Since IoT devices are agentless, IT departments cannot install security clients or redirect device traffic to cloud security services; therefore, Zero Trust security must be applied at the WAN edge.

To realize the full potential of the cloud and digital transformation, organizations require a new WAN edge that combines on premises and cloud-delivered security, delivering on the promise of SASE to protect users connecting to SaaS and public cloud platforms, and to safeguard IoT devices that require Zero Trust identity-based security. Through the new Aruba ESP integrations being announced today, enterprise customers now have the ability to apply granular-level, identity-based security policy from edge-to-cloud to safely connect and protect both users and devices.

A recent report from communications research firm 650 Group highlights the growing emphasis on SASE while explaining the need for enterprises to re-examine their security approach in light of the current technology evolution. Chris DePuy, founding technology analyst at 650 Group states, “As enterprises shift toward Zero Trust and SASE architectures, they are increasingly evaluating and deploying multi-vendor cloud-delivered security services, and it’s not necessary for all the SASE components to come from a single vendor. Aruba’s approach strikes a balance between delivering on-premises security functionality at the WAN edge and providing customers with the freedom of choice to integrate leading cloud-delivered security services from partners like Zscaler, Netskope, and Check Point. This multi-vendor partnering strategy provides enterprises with the flexibility to continue working with existing vendors or shift toward ‘best-of-breed’ systems.”

ClearPass Policy Manager Integration with Aruba EdgeConnect

The integration of ClearPass Policy Manager with the Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN edge platform augments application intelligence by adding identity knowledge of users, IoT devices, roles, and security posture to form the basis of a SASE WAN edge. Combining role and security posture intelligence with advanced dynamic segmentation capabilities eliminates the complexity associated with implementing hundreds of VLANs for each class of user and device, dramatically simplifying network administration and management. Integrating ClearPass Policy Manager with EdgeConnect provides a consistent and automated definition of roles that can be enforced network-wide from the user’s device, through the LAN, and across the WAN.

Aruba Threat Defense Integration with Aruba EdgeConnect

The integration of Aruba Threat Defense with the Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN edge platform extends advanced intrusion detection and prevention (IDS/IPS) capabilities to EdgeConnect physical and virtual appliances. This allows the EdgeConnect platform to leverage the Aruba threat infrastructure, sharing critical threat information between Aruba Central and EdgeConnect to deliver full visibility across the network. These advanced unified threat management (UTM) capabilities enable enterprises to deliver east-west lateral security as well as secure local internet breakout from branch locations and can be deployed centrally on premises or in the cloud. By leveraging a common threat infrastructure and threat feeds across Aruba ESP, network and security managers can centrally apply and enforce threat management policies enterprise-wide.

Freedom of Choice through a Multivendor Partner Ecosystem

As enterprises shift toward a Zero Trust and SASE architecture, they are increasingly evaluating and deploying multivendor cloud-delivered security services. A new Ponemon Institute security best practices survey affirms this, revealing that over 70 percent of respondents would opt for a best-of-breed, cloud-delivered security solution over an all-in-one approach,[1] in order to architect a comprehensive Zero Trust and SASE infrastructure.

With a new Service Orchestration provisioning workflow, the Aruba Orchestrator management console, formerly Silver Peak Unity Orchestrator, now includes pre-configured default information regarding the cloud security partner’s proximity-based cloud security services. Network administrators can quickly and easily associate Aruba branch locations with the partner’s points of presence (POPs) and cloud-data centers. Leading security vendors such as Check Point, Forcepoint, McAfee, Netskope, Palo Alto Networks, Symantec and Zscaler are currently a part of Aruba’s extensive technology alliance partner ecosystem.

“The integration of ClearPass Policy Manager and Aruba Threat Defense with the EdgeConnect SD-WAN edge platform allows us to deliver a consistent identity-based policy framework across the Aruba secure edge portfolio,” said David Hughes, founder of Silver Peak and senior vice president of the WAN business at Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company. “This powerful combination will enable customers to move at their own pace, from legacy data center-centric network architectures, with perimeter-based security, to a cloud-centric WAN with security based on the principles of Zero Trust and SASE. Enterprise customers can deploy our on-premises EdgeConnect WAN edge platform to enforce policy from the edge, and easily integrate with leading cloud-delivered security services from the vendor of their choice, all centrally controlled within Aruba Orchestrator.”

Comprehensive Secure WAN Edge Portfolio Spans Hybrid Work Locations 

The Aruba ESP platform offers customers the industry’s most comprehensive portfolio of secure wired, wireless and WAN edge solutions that enable customers to adapt to today’s new normal and tomorrow’s unknowns. The WAN Edge portfolio includes:

• Virtual Intranet Access Client (VIA) – maximum mobility for work-from-anywhere users whether connecting to private or public networks
• Remote Access Points (RAPs) – minimal footprint for mobile, remote and temporary workspaces, delivering secure connectivity to the corporate enterprise network
• SD-Branch – maximum integration and simple unified management across WLAN, LAN and SD-WAN with Zero Trust security
• EdgeConnect – optimal QoE (Quality of Experience) from edge-to-cloud with an advanced SD-WAN edge platform and unified SASE components

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[1] Ponemon Institute, The State of SD-WAN, SASE and Zero Trust Security Architectures, April 2021

Mobile and web digital footprints to detect fraud and credit risk using big data, machine learning algorithms, artificial intelligence and sophisticated algorithms

Qarar, a leading regional credit risk and decision analytics company, announces a new partnership with CredoLab, the most seamless, transparent, and accurate alternative-data credit risk scoring provider in the market today.

Lenders often face a shortage of relevant data to score and assess a big pool of the population. Consequently, lenders are often unable to make decisions on the so-called ‘thin files’ due to a lack of data. Thin file customers then remain excluded from formal finance.

Qarar’s partnership with CredoLab will focus on applying its Embedded Scoring solution to assess credit risk and detect early fraud, relying on alternative Mobile and Web data.  The partnership combines Qarar’s credit risk expertise and market knowledge with CredoLab’s modern approach to risk assessment that provides highly predictive insights to businesses while preserving the privacy and focusing on seamless customer experiences.

Peter Barcak, Founder and CEO of CredoLab said: “We are delighted to welcome Qarar to our growing partner network.  Qarar’s expertise in credit risk management and decision automation tools together with their well-established presence and client base in the Middle East and North Africa will add great value to expansion plans in the region.”

Zaid Kamhawi, CEO of Qarar, commented: “CredoLab has developed an impressive alternative data scoring solution that we believe has particularly strong potential in countries where there is a high transient population and an underbanked population.  Alternative data for credit scoring has proven to help organisations be more inclusive in their lending decisions and accurate in their credit decisions when used alongside traditional scoring models.  Through our partnership with CredoLab, we aim to help our clients expand their acquisition strategies with confidence. ”   

Qarar is the region’s leading decision analytics company. Headquartered in Dubai and serving customers across the Middle East and North Africa, Qarar helps companies in the banking and finance sector to solve business challenges with a mix of predictive analytics, advisory, and decision technologies.

Features PureNote^TM Driver Technology Offers Accuracy and Clarity

Soundcore​, Anker Innovations’ premium audio brand, today introduces the next generation in its popular Liberty true-wireless earbud line, the ​Liberty Air 2 Pro, featuring​ ​advanced active noise-cancellation (ANC), transparency and PureNote driver technology.

DESIGNED BY ENGINEERS FOR EVERYDAY LIFE

The Liberty Air 2 Pro was designed to sound great, even with noise-canceling turned on. To do this, Soundcore engineers developed PureNote driver technology, that utilizes ten hardened nano layers to make up the 11mm driver in each earbud, offering accurate sound and clarity at all frequencies. Soundcore then worked to tune the earbuds, both with ANC turned on and off, to make sure that music always sounded like artists originally intended.

“In 2019, Soundcore launched the Liberty 2 Pro, the first in the company’s Pro line of earbuds,” said Faraz Mehdi, General Manager Sales – MEA for Anker Innovations “The focus then, was to bring premium sound to the true-wireless headphone space. Today, we launch our new Liberty Air 2 Pro earbuds and unveil a new noise cancelling experience that doesn’t compromise the sound in any environment. With an assortment of user customizable elements, from sound profiles to customizable ANC and transparency modes, the Liberty Air 2 Pro allows users to get the best sound for themselves.”

MULTI-MODE ANC FOR DAILY LIFE

The Liberty Air 2 Pro offers users the ability to change between three noise cancellation modes including Transport mode​, when needed to block out low frequency noises from airplanes, trains or city buses; Outdoor mode​, which use a less powerful ANC setting but wider bandwidth to block out street noise, and finally ​Indoor mode​, which primarily reduces mid-range frequencies to help block out voices that are commonly found in an office or at a café.

Additionally, the Liberty Air 2 Pro also features ​Transparency​ ​mode​ with two different settings. Mode 1 is for total transparency which helps enhance all ambient sounds. This is ideal for runners and bicyclists that need to safely hear noises around them on a city street. The second transparency mode focuses on vocals to enhance voices in the immediate vicinity while simultaneously reducing background noise. This mode is ideal for users who may be waiting for a flight or a bus but still need to hear announcements from a P.A. speaker or flight attendant.

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• 

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CUSTOMIZED LISTENER EXPERIENCE

Using the updated Soundcore app, the Liberty Air 2 Pro, offers users HearID 2.0, the next generation in audio frequency customization. After performing a simple hearing test with the earbuds, the Liberty Air 2 Pro tunes the sound for the individual to ensure the best possible listening experience. New to version 2.0, users can make changes to these individualized audio settings, or can choose from one of the preset sound profiles.

KEY FEATURES

● PureNote Driver technology with 11mm drivers for accurate sound and clarity at all frequencies.

● Multi-mode ANC with Transport, Indoor and Outdoor settings for customizable usage levels

● Two transparency modes enhance the environment including voices without removing earbuds.

● 7-hour battery in earbuds with ANC off / 6-hour battery with ANC on

● Qi wireless charging case with 26-hour battery with ANC off / 21-hour battery with ANC on as well as USB-C charging.

● Anker Fast Charging technology – 10 minutes charging earbuds = 2 hours of playtime

● Premium call quality using 6-mic uplink noise reduction helps optimize voices and minimize background noise.

● Customizable user touch controls to set preferences for play/pause, track advance, volume, etc.

● Voice-assistant compatibility with Siri^®​ ​at launch and other popular voice-assistants in the future.

● Nine sets of silicone ear tips, ranging from XXXS to XL and L+ in ensure a proper fit.

● Bluetooth version – 5.0

● Waterproof rating – IPX4

● Available in Four Colors: Onyx Black, Titanium White, Sapphire Blue, and Crystal Pink

● Earbud size // Case size – 1.47” x 0.87” x 0.91” // 2.44” x 2.35” x 1.18”

● Earbud weight / Case weight – 0.37 oz // 1.78 oz

The Liberty Air 2 Pro will be available today in four colors including Onyx Black, Titanium White, Sapphire Blue, and Crystal Pink with an RRP of AED 529 which is available at Sharaf DG, Jumbo, Virgin, Emax, Carrefour & other electronics stores and online on Amazon.ae and Noon.com

Global market report reveals struggle to protect the explosion of Office 365 data

Barracuda, a trusted partner and leading provider of cloud-enabled security solutions, today released key findings from a report titled The state of Office 365 backup. Commissioned by Barracuda, the research surveyed global IT decision makers to capture their opinions and perspectives about Office 365, data security, backup and recovery, SaaS solutions, and a variety of related topics. 

Overall, the findings indicate that the worldwide shift to remote work during the pandemic has intensified the challenges associated with protecting Office 365 data. Highlights from the report include: 

• Protecting data against attack and loss—both from outside actors and inside sources—is a key concern. 
• 72% of respondents are concerned that their Office 365 data could be the target of ransomware.
• 52% say their organization has experienced a ransomware attack.
• Organizations want granular restore and other functionality not available in Microsoft’s native capabilities.   
• 77% of IT decision makers agree that granular restore of Exchange, SharePoint, OneDrive, and Teams is important to them.  
• 79% want to be able to recover mailboxes to another location or user.
• Data protection is both a security and a regulatory concern. 
• 69% of respondents are concerned about data being backed up outside their geography (geo residency).
• More than 7 in 10 respondents are concerned about compliance with data privacy requirements.  
• Organizations prefer a SaaS solution that is fast and easy to get up and running. 
• 74% of the IT decision makers surveyed say that SaaS backup for Office 365—i.e., no hardware or software to maintain—is important to them. 
• Roughly 8 in 10 want to be able to start running their first backups immediately upon signing up for a new data protection solution.

“With the rapid shift to remote work dramatically increasing reliance on SharePoint, OneDrive, and Teams over the past year, protecting Office 365 data is a more crucial requirement than ever before—and more challenging,” said Tim Jefferson, SVP, Engineering for Data, Networks and Application Security, Barracuda. “That’s why organizations are looking for comprehensive, easy-to-use backup solutions that are fast to get up and running and include capabilities like granular retention that aren’t included in Microsoft’s native functionality.”

The survey, conducted by independent market researcher Censuswide, includes responses from 1,828 executives, individual contributors, and team managers with responsibility for their organization’s cloud infrastructure. They came from organizations in companies with 50 or more employees in the U.S., EMEA, and APAC.

Veeam plans an additional multi-million dollar investment in the EMEA ProPartner Program for VARs to further increase support for subscription-based IT and improve the customer value proposition

Veeam® Software, the leader in Backup solutions that deliver Cloud Data Management™, has enhanced its ProPartner Program for Value-Added Resellers (VARs) across EMEA with an additional multi-million dollar investment. Aligned to Veeam’s 2021 channel strategy, the enhancements will reward partners that demonstrate core competencies and see Veeam strengthen its joint network of VARs, Veeam Cloud & Service Providers (VCSPs) and System Integrators; enable partners to leverage the growing market adoption of subscription licensing; and offer solutions that extend partners’ value proposition to customers.

Veeam’s sales motion, which is 100% through partners, serves all customers through its ProPartner Network. Veeam recognises that the move to cloud architectures and transition to agile OpEx and subscription-based IT is driving substantial change. Modern businesses need more than implementation and require strategic advice, higher levels of service and ongoing consultancy. To support its partners in meeting the changing needs of customers and to accelerate their business and strengthen their revenue, Veeam is driving competencies, simplicity and consistency so partners can ensure customer success and meet their business objectives. Since the initial competencies were introduced in H2’20, 43% of participating partners have already converted their earned points to incentive rebates, which enhances their profitability.

“We conduct 100% of our sales through the channel and our partners are critical to the acceleration of our Act II journey into the hybrid cloud. We are committed to continually investing in our partners, helping them to extend their own customer value propositions and increase profitability,” said Daniel Fried, General Manager (GM) and Senior Vice President (SVP), EMEA, and Worldwide Channels, Veeam. “With customers focused on maximising ROI through digital transformation and de-risking by adding more robust data protection and cybersecurity measures, subscription-based IT will become the norm. The key element will always be the customer. The decisions and investments they make are ultimately based on the advice and actions of the intermediary parts between vendors and them. Veeam is enabling partners to offer higher levels of service beyond just implementation and deliver against these accelerating customer needs in a manner that is commercially viable and helps build stronger, more strategic relationships.”

Key enhancements to the Veeam ProPartner Program for VARs include:

Reinforcing the partner network

To achieve the strategic objective of strengthening its network of tier-1 partners, Veeam is extending the benefits range for VARs, VCSPs and System Integrators on its ProPartner Programs. This will include additional measures designed to help Gold and Platinum partners increase profit margins when selling Veeam, as well as stronger deal registration incentives to reward partner performance and loyalty.

Optimising for subscription-based licensing

Customers are increasingly looking to consume IT services through subscription-based licensing and OpEx pricing models, paying for services as they are used rather than making up-front purchases on a CapEx basis. Veeam is supporting its partners by enabling them to generate higher margins when selling subscription-based services.

VAR and VCSP partnering

Veeam is providing additional support for VARs looking to adopt a hybrid reselling model by partnering with VCSPs — adding some of our VCSP cloud services in their portfolio to better meet their customer’s cloud services requests and generate an additional revenue stream.

Rewarding loyalty and performance

Veeam has introduced two new competencies to its ProPartner Program for VARs: rewarding partners leveraging tools provided through Veeam’s Marketing Centre and those driving deals for specific products within Veeam’s strategic portfolio.

Veeam is also investing in its VARs and distributors via a Management by Objectives (MBOs), rewarding top-performing partners based on a variety of performance-related metrics.

Veeam is introducing a tiering of enterprise partners who will be rewarded among others for their contribution to developing new deals through an influencer fee program.

The revamped program is built with the needs of end-customers in mind and will equip partners to answer accelerating customer demands around digital transformation, data protection and cybersecurity. Furthermore, Veeam will provide additional benefits and protection to partners, as well as reward its top-performing VARs and distributors.

“With the ever-increasing data growth in organizations, it is imperative that our channel ecosystem is delivering the best possible value proposition to end customers. Veeam is a 100 per cent channel business and we take great pride in always ensuring that the ProPartner Network is concurrent with today’s market demands. Our program helps to position simple, flexible, and reliable solutions that facilitate the modernization of IT strategies and architectures alike. For 2021, Veeam has set the stage for partner success and growth on all levels by enabling a highly skilled and engaged local partner landscape. There has never been a better time to join forces with Veeam!” concluded Claude Schuck, Regional Director, Middle East at Veeam.

SUPPORTING QUOTES

“The acceleration in digital transformation spend presents an opportunity for partners, but challenges them to support a broader range of solutions and service consumption models than ever before. As the role of VARs evolves to deliver more services and become the de facto digital transformation partners in the minds of their customers, vendors must reimagine the way they engage and reward partners. Veeam understands the culture of partnerships and has recognised this shift to evolve its ProPartner Program for VARs to reward loyalty and equip them with the tools and expertise to create more strategic relationships with their customers.” — Chris Webber, Research Director, Strategic Alliances, IDC

“Our partnership with Veeam continues to deliver real value by extending our sales opportunities through joint solutions with other vendors, increasing profitability and enabling us to successfully support subscription-based sales. As the market trends towards a more subscription-based ARR model, it is great to see that Veeam is rewarding partners for driving that business in the right direction and supporting customer retention. We are committed to investing in our partnership with Veeam and taking advantage of the support provided to VARs in its ProPartner Network such as the opportunity to upskill our sales team in new data protection solutions as well as leverage rewards based on loyalty and performance.” — Joe Hepburn, Head of Data Management, Bytes Software Services Ltd UK, a Platinum Veeam Value-Added Reseller

“ITEC has worked with Veeam as a strategic partner for over six years. The ProPartner Program for VARs has helped ensure ITECs sales and technical teams are fully equipped to deploy and support Veeam products. The partner program has continued to evolve over time and provides regular updates on product roadmaps, sales and technical enablement and how Veeam partners can create new opportunities to use Veeam in both new and existing customers. The ProPartner Program for VARs has provided ITEC with resources from Veeam to help develop solutions and support customer engagements.” — James Arscott, Head of Data Centre Services, ITEC Connect, a Silver Veeam Value-Added Reseller and Silver Veeam Cloud & Service Provider

Find out more information, visit https://propartner.veeam.com/partner-levels-program-reseller.

This move is another sign of the company’s deepening commitment to the region and follows closely on the heels of the company establishing a physical office in Dubai in Q1 2021

With the rapid digital transformation in the Middle East being threatened by a shortage of skilled IT resources, Kissflow, one of India’s Top 5 SaaS Software companies whose products are used by organizations in over 160 countries, has set its sights on an aggressive expansion in the region, as it looks to empower employees at all organizational levels. Tasked with leading this strategy in the region is the company’s newly hired Regional Sales Director, Vaidy Panchabikesan who takes on the responsibility for expanding Kissflow’s presence in the region, extending its partner network, and ultimately driving enterprise sales for the industry-leading no-code, low-code work management platform.

The company’s regional ambitions mirror its broader global expansion which saw it scale its workforce by 50% through the height of the pandemic as a result of businesses turning to low code and no code solutions to increase agility and productivity while reducing costs.

“Currently, 40% of companies have moderate to major skills gaps. The resulting digital inefficiency can be profound, costing as much as 20% in lost productivity,” explained Vaidy. “While organizations across the Middle East have been early adopters of digital transformation, it is imperative that they have the technology infrastructure and in-house skill sets to ensure the success of these initiatives. Guided by our ‘Power of Simple’ philosophy, Kissflow addresses this pressing need by democratising IT, empowering business users to build applications, and enabling developers with pluggable low coding extensions helping them to further expand the application needs for customization.

Vaidy brings with him 12+ years of sales and leadership experience and a proven track record in technical sales. Having previously led regional sales for Outsystems, his passion for Low code and No-Code platforms continues to keep him at the forefront of the industry as he now takes leadership of Kissflow’s regional operations.

A key focus for Vaidy will be the strengthening of the company’s channel partner network across the MEA region. “Our direct presence in the region is supplemented by an ever-growing community of partners that is committed to working with us to ensure our customers realize the full potential of our solutions. There is a tremendous market momentum for low code and no-code platforms which is set to continue as organizations embrace hybrid workforce models. Consequently, there is tremendous potential for channel organizations to grow their business together with us,” said Vaidy.

Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, today announced the appointment of Ahmed ElSayed as Regional Channel Manager for Middle East and South Africa (MESA). In this new role, Ahmed will drive the company’s growth and expansion in the region by assuming overall responsibility for the channel partner ecosystem, including distributors and managed service partners. He will spearhead strategic and tactical sales planning, partner recruitment and training and enablement.

Commenting on the appointment, Sherifa Hady, VP, Channel Sales, at HPE Aruba says, “Enterprises today are accelerating their digital transformation plans in the light of remote working which has become a business imperative brought on by the pandemic. Against this scenario, Aruba’s AI-powered cloud-native solutions that transform the network to support innovation and the future of work, is seeing a huge amount of interest from regional customers. With the high growth potential that we see in the market, we decided to appoint a result-oriented channel leader like Ahmed. We believe that through his inspiring vision and strategy, partners will be able to deliver Aruba’s value proposition in line with customer’s business priorities.”

Ahmed has worked at Aruba since 2012 and has a wealth of knowledge, skills and experience.  He has successfully held a number of positions within the company, ranging from Channel SMB Account Manager in GCC, Pakistan and Iraq to Middle East Distribution Manager which expanded to the larger MEMA/ MESA region. Prior to joining Aruba, he was the Partner Account Manager for Saudi Enterprise and SMB market at Cisco.   

Over the years at Aruba, Ahmed and his team have managed to drive consistent double-digit growth on Aruba Instant On (AIO) portfolio business, building Aruba’s Application Acceleration Service (AAS) foundation in multiple countries, accelerating SMB channel-led business by a double digit YoY growth, driving transactional revenue growth and developing and executing strategies for Aruba ESP (Edge Services Platform), a key solution in the company’s portfolio.

“I am excited to officially take over as channel manager for MESA. Our partners are a big part of our success as an organization and I look forward to deepening our engagement with them and taking our channel ecosystem to the next level,” concludes Ahmed.

The global leader in hands-free wearable computing for industry, RealWear, today announced that strong customer demand has accelerated its number one position, reporting triple (3X) year-over-year growth.  The company also announced a broad global expansion to support customers, including opening a new Customer Experience Centre in Dubai Internet City to meet growing demand for its products and services in the Middle East, and new offices in other major markets. The company has also achieved a milestone of shipping wearable devices to more than 3,000 unique enterprise customers worldwide in a wide range of industries.

The pandemic meant engineers were no longer able to travel to factories and facilities to support onsite technicians in person, RealWear quickly became the wearable device of choice for virtual, remote collaboration for troubleshooting equipment and performing quality checks, audits, inspections, plant tours, and product and factory acceptance tests (FAT). Leading collaboration companies — including Microsoft, Cisco, and Zoom — have custom-tailored their software to fully leverage RealWear’s assisted reality wearable solution that is the choice of frontline workers at some of the world’s prominent industrial brands. 

“RealWear’s momentum is real and accelerating, with encouraging feedback from our customers about the transformative nature of our remote collaboration offerings for industry,” said Andrew Chrostowski, RealWear Chairman and CEO.  “As a result, we’ve seen 3X our 2019 sales in 2020, with that momentum carrying into 2021.  Our customers view us as the ‘gold standard’ solution to meet the daily needs of frontline workers and their management teams in key industry sectors such as Energy, Manufacturing, Food and Beverage, Automotive and Telecommunications. RealWear’s unique, fully ruggedized form factor, full-shift battery life, and unmatched relationships with Microsoft, Cisco, Zoom and a host of other leading ISV partners is driving our market leadership.”

New Demonstration Centre in Dubai

RealWear has opened its initial physical presence in the Middle East including an onsite demonstration facility in Dubai’s Internet City, which will provide customers and partners in the region the opportunity to get ‘hands on’ with RealWear’s flagship head-mounted wearable, the HMT-1. This initial physical presence is timely, not only to meet increased customer demand, but also as Middle East businesses adapted to new ways of working to drive worker safety and productivity.

RealWear already has a thriving business in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), with diverse customers spanning aerospace, insurance and oil and gas. Its growing list of clients in the region includes Marsh, and Saudi Arabian public petroleum and natural gas company, Saudi Aramco. When Saudi Aramco began using RealWear’s intrinsically safe product, HMT-1Z1, it recorded a 70% increase in safety compliance on top of a 10% improvement in workforce productivity.

According to ABI Research, from 2020-2025 smart glasses hardware unit shipments in the industrial and healthcare sectors is expected to grow globally by a factor of 12.8.  Additionally, between 2020-2025, unit shipments to the top three verticals, representing key segments for RealWear – manufacturing, logistics, and energy & utilities – are projected to grow by a factor of 10.8.

Threat actors weaponizing cloud storage, advanced cloud-based tools to create record ransomware attack effectiveness, volume

The pandemic’s work-from-home reality resulted in an unprecedented change for organizations as they fought to defend exponentially greater attack surfaces from cybercriminals armed with powerful cloud-based tools, cloud storage and endless targets. As working environments evolved, so did the methods of threat actors and other motivated perpetrators, as detailed in the latest 2021 SonicWall Cyber Threat Report. 

“2020 offered a perfect storm for cybercriminals and a critical tipping point for the cyber arms race,” said SonicWall President and CEO Bill Conner. “The pandemic — along with remote work, a charged political climate, record prices of cryptocurrency, and threat actors weaponizing cloud storage and tools — drove the effectiveness and volume of cyberattacks to new highs. This latest threat intelligence offers a look at how cybercriminals shifted and refined their tactics, painting a picture of what they are doing amid the uncertain future that lies ahead.”

The 2021 SonicWall Cyber Threat Report highlights how COVID-19 provided threat actors with ample opportunity for more powerful, aggressive and numerous attacks, thriving on the fear and uncertainty of remote and mobile workforces navigating corporate networks from home.

“There is no code of conduct when it comes to cybercriminals, their methods of attacks and the selection of their targets,” said Conner. “Technology is moving at an unprecedented rate. Threats that were once thought to be two or three years away are now a reality, with do-it-yourself, cloud-based tools creating an army of cybercriminals armed with the same devastating force and impact of a nation-state or larger criminal enterprise. Organizations must remain vigilant and proactive in hardening their cybersecurity posture.”

The 2021 SonicWall Cyber Threat Report goes inside the stories that headlined 2020, and takes a closer look at new and disruptive cyber threats to provide insight into the evolving cyber threat landscape. Major findings of the new in-depth SonicWall report include:

• Ransomware reaches new heights with increasingly targeted attacks: A 62% increase in ransomware globally, and 158% spike in North America, points to cybercriminals using more sophisticated tactics and more dangerous variants, like Ryuk, to earn an easy payday.
  
  
• Ryuk ransomware rises from obscurity, sees astronomical increase: First identified in August 2018, Ryuk did not appear outside of North America, Europe or Asia as late as January 2020. The following month, Ryuk began climbing the charts, eventually overtaking top-ranking Cerber ransomware. With 109.9 million cases detected worldwide, Ryuk was logged nearly every eight seconds in September alone.
  
  
• More ‘never-before-seen’ malware variants identified: SonicWall’s newly patented Real-Time Deep Memory Inspection™ (RTDMI), a component of the company’s Capture Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) sandbox service, discovered 268,362 ‘never-before-seen’ malware variants in 2020, a 74% year-over-year increase. RTDMI™ is proven to proactively detect and block unknown mass-market malware, including malicious Office, and PDF file types.

• Malicious Office files surpass last year’s preferred PDFs: SonicWall research shows the shift to employees working from home full-time could be directly linked to the increased utilization of Office files and PDFs as malicious vehicles armed with phishing URLs, embedded malicious files and other dangerous exploits.New SonicWall data indicates a 67% increase in malicious Office files in 2020, while malicious PDFs dropped 22%.

• Cryptojacking returns as cryptocurrency breaks records: Once thought to be a dying attack vector after the industry’s major mining operation boarded its online service, cryptojacking is back thanks to rising cryptocurrency values and its appeal of concealed payouts. Total cryptojacking for 2020 set records with 81.9 million hits, a 28% increase from last year’s 64.1 million total.

• IoT malware increases as pandemic creates potential network of disruption: In March 2020, masses of employees packed their personal office belongings and equipment to work from home for months on end, simultaneously creating an explosion of new attack vectors. In 2020, SonicWall Capture Labs threat researchers recorded 56.9 million IoT malware attempts, a 66% increase that showed shifting tactics for lurking cybercriminals.
  
  
• Intrusion attempts up as attack patterns change: The distribution of intrusion attacks took on an entirely new character as a result of the changes brought on by the pandemic. In 2020, Directory Traversal tactics (34%) took over the top spot after a tie with remote code execution (21% for both) in 2019.

• Retail, healthcare and government face mounting ransomware volume: Industry-specific ransomware data reflects the impact cybercriminals had on retail (365%), healthcare (123%) and government (21%) sectors over the course of the pandemic.

The annual 2021 SonicWall Cyber Threat Report arms enterprises, small- and medium-sized business, government agencies and other organizations with actionable threat intelligence
collected by the SonicWall Capture Labs threat research team. In-house researchers work collectively with other industry experts, over 50 industry collaboration groups, research teams and freelance security researchers.

Data for the report is gathered from over 1.1 million sensors strategically placed in over 215 countries and territories around the world as well as cross-vector, threat related information shared among SonicWall security systems, including firewalls, email security devices, endpoint security solutions, honeypots, content filtering systems and the SonicWall Capture Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) multi-engine sandbox.

To download the complete 2021 SonicWall Cyber Threat Report, please visit www.sonicwall.com/ThreatReport.