Technology

With the advent of the Internet of Things (IoT) and the rapidly increasing trend towards the development of smart cities, some the worlds leading cybersecurity visionaries, who participated at the 3rd Gulf Information Security Expo & Conference (GISEC), urged CIOs, CTOs and I.T. managers to ramp up their defences against a widening and increasing threat of sophisticated cyberattacks.

Highlighting key learnings from the much talked-about hacking of Sony Entertainment last year, cybersecurity guru Bruce Schneier, one of the keynote speakers at GISEC, underlined the importance of resilience and better management of incident responses, especially with cybercriminals launching attacks using the same warlike weaponry.

Schneier said while the I.T. security industry knows how to deal with high volume, low-focus attacks, security professionals are having trouble handling highly skilled and focused attackers that use vulnerabilities in software, systems and networks. As such, organisations must create crisis management strategies that would allow them to respond quickly and effectively, while those responsible for these attacks are still being identified, he said.

This years GISEC addressed vital cybersecurity issues and concerns as well as presented solutions on how to better secure I.T. infrastructures against cyberattacks. World-leading cybersecurity expert Dan Lohrmann, ex-Chief Security Officer for the State of Michigan in the U.S.A. stated in his keynote address that partnerships must be strengthened between private organisations and law enforcement agencies in the fight against cyberthreats. A clear understanding of an organisations baseline must be conducted in order to find a solution that applies to specific experiences, he added.

Lohrmann strongly recommended that any cybersecurity strategy must offer solutions that will enable companies and communities to move forward with their set goals and objectives. He added that four strategic response goals must be part of a cyberdisruption strategy, namely: an improved situational awareness, creation of specific response and recovery plans, training of key staff, and the conduct of thorough risk assessment to identify vulnerabilities.

Key recommendations
As a battery of cybersecurity experts revealed and discussed cutting-edge solutions that can help individuals and companies protect themselves against sophisticated cybercriminals, among the key recommendations included the unification of intelligence and defence as well as securing and protecting the connectivity of objects on the internet.

The profits made by cybercriminals have already surpassed the international drug trade, said Peter Clay, Chief Information Security Officer, Invotas. It is therefore mandatory to unify your intelligence and defence, as well as organise your governance, tools, people and data in a single group that can detect, take action, eradicate and report on the threats. This is the best solution to improve your cybersecurity programme today.

On the other hand, with the acknowledgement that more and more devices are getting connected on the I.T. network, Philippe Roggeband, Business Development Manager, Cisco Security Architecture commented that: Protecting the Internet of Things is about protecting the connectivity and making sure that we know what devices are connected and that they are behaving in a secure way. Protecting the Internet of Everything goes beyond that.

Think of all the amount of data that are going to be generated by all of these devices once they are connected to your network. Think about where those data will be stored and think about the protection level that will be associated with those data, he added. That is what the Internet of Everythings Security is all about, its about securing the connectivity of the objects with everything else that are happening in the background.

Transformation of I.T. environments
Wael El Kabbany, Vice President, BT in Middle East and North Africa commented: We are going through an unprecedented transformation of I.T. environments all around the world. The ubiquitous usage of mobile data and devices; the consumerisation of I.T.; the use of social media and the reliance on cloud based services and applications, are some of the exciting developments changing the way we do business. That great transformation comes hand in hand with rapidly evolving security threats.

The technologies that are making it easier for us to do business, also make us more exposed to security risks. Its now time to be rethinking the risk, El Kabbany added. BT is committed to drive that effort everywhere it can. By bringing together security experts of the highest calibre, GISEC is the best platform in the Middle East to help address that challenge. That is why BT is proud to be the lead sponsor of GISEC for the second consecutive year.

As the regions largest and only I.T. security knowledge event, GISEC also organised free-to-attend workshops and security sessions comprised of vendor-run educational presentations, product demonstrations and case-studies.

As organisations increasingly adopt Internet of Things (IoT) strategies, CIOs, CTOs and I.T. managers will need to rethink how the resources are allocated to ensure that they have robust security solutions and policies in place to avoid network vulnerability, said Anthony Perridge, Security Sales Director, Cisco. Todays attacks have become even more sophisticated while security capabilities are more fragmented and difficult to manage. Our focus at GISEC 2015 was to highlight the importance of security for IoT and how organisations could achieve the immense business benefits by having a water-tight approach to their security.

Enterprise Mobility
Meanwhile, the first-ever Gulf Enterprise Mobility Exhibition & Conference (GEMEC), co-located in this years GISEC, also ended on a high note as it received C-level professionals and senior executives from across a range of industries. GEMEC discussed key I.T. security concerns and challenges along with ways to employ cutting-edge business tools that will secure enterprise mobility.

Transformations in mobile technologies have upended the old way of doing business in the Gulf region, said Khaled Kamel, Head of Department at Enterprise Business, Samsung Gulf Electronics. GEMEC allows Samsung and our competitors to address emerging challenges with new solutions.

At this years GEMEC, we leveraged our appearance to introduce the new Samsung Galaxy S6 Enterprise offerings, a refined mobile experience that offers a new level of productivity to both employers and end-users, he added. The positive response to our new enterprise solution was a strong signal that businesses are intrigued by our strong track record as a global leader in consumer electronics and is interested in employing our solutions in the B2B space.

Also commenting on GEMEC, Rohan Tejura, Asst. Vice President, Focus Softnet said: GEMEC was an interesting event considering that, for the first time, there was a dedicated platform for companies to showcase their mobile apps and solutions to customers from across the GCC markets. Historically, Focus Softnet has always been on the cutting edge of technology, and already had in its arsenal, a plethora of mobility apps to enhance the functioning of its core ERP suite of solutions on the Android and iOS platforms. Thanks to GEMEC, we were able to showcase our mobility oriented applications which bring core enterprise capabilities into the pockets of our users.

The conversations and response that we have seen at GEMEC have been of a very high quality and we are certainly excited to see the level of interest that the mobility consumers of the region have shown to solutions providers like us. We look forward to GEMEC becoming a mainstay event and grow year on year so that it can continue to empower the mobility sectors of the GCC markets, Tejura concluded.

Latest cybersecurity products and services
With over 6,000 trade visitors in attendance from around the region at GISEC, key exhibitors launched their latest and innovative security products and solutions to keep abreast with the continuous onslaught of cyberattacks against public and private organisations. Among the products highlighted at GISEC include Ciscos Incident Response Services; Spire Solutions CSGIs Security Orchestrator; BT Assure Cyber; Fortinets Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) framework; and FireEyes purpose-built, virtual machine-based security platform.

Trixie LohMirmand, Senior Vice President at the Dubai World Trade Centre said: The 3rd edition of GISEC served not only as a ideal launch-pad for companies to introduce latest I.T. products and solutions, but also provided a knowledge platform gathering industry experts from around the world to share best practices and expertise on how to outsmart cybercriminals by combating security breaches.

We are very pleased with the overall outcome of the event with a record number of exhibitors and regional trade visitors including I.T. security professionals, Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) and Chief Information Officers (CIO), LohMirmand added.

Key sponsors of GISEC include BT Global as the Lead Sponsor; GBM as Diamond Sponsor; CISCO and Spire Solutions as Platinum Sponsors; and Etisalat, Paladion Networks, Palo Alto Networks as Gold Sponsors; and Fortinet, Guidance Software, Paramount and Qualys as Silver Sponsors. Key exhibitors also include Airwatch, Airbus Defence & Space, Neustar, Bit 9, Cyberroam, Splunk, Lancope and Mindware.

Powered by GITEX TECHNOLOGY WEEK, the regions leading technology event, GISEC and GEMEC are strictly trade-only events and are open to business and trade visitors from within the industry only. GISEC and GEMEC took place from 26-28 April 2015 at Sheikh Rashid Hall at Dubai World Trade Centre and the fourth edition will be held from 2-4 May 2016. Visitor attendance is free of charge. For more information, please visit www.gisec.ae.

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