Month: October 2020
Crayon Enters into a Partnership with Check Point Software Technologies to meet Enterprise Cloud Security Needs in India
Crayon, a leading global provider of digital transformation services has been appointed partner by Check Point Software Technologies and will meet enterprise cloud security needs in India with Check Point’s CloudGuard. Check Point CloudGuard, a suite of cloud security solutions, is designed to prevent the latest fifth and sixth generation (Gen V) multi-vector and polymorphic cyberattacks targeting enterprise cloud services. The robust portfolio, part of the Infinity Architecture, includes CloudGuard SaaS and CloudGuard IaaS, giving organizations unmatched protections for cloud infrastructure (IaaS), workloads and software-as-a service (SaaS) applications “Cyber-attacks mostly affect an organizations’ data backup. Once lost, it becomes irreversible for any organisation to make things right and it can be catastrophic for every stakeholder in the business. Hence its pivotal to adopt a strategy that shall help data protect itself. We are happy to have Check Point in our gamut of services, as its cybersecurity solutions spans across network, data, endpoint, cloud and mobile technologies to protect their organizations against the most advanced attacks,” said Vikas Bhonsle, CEO at Crayon Software Experts India. “We are pleased to appoint Crayon India as a partner to help bring to market our cybersecurity solutions in India. Crayon has a demonstrated customer-centric approach and strong commitment to help customers adopt the best solutions to meet their needs. I am confident that this collaboration will help us expand our reach to more organizations seeking the best cybersecurity solutions to prevent and protect more complex and frequent cyberattacks,” said Sundar Balasubramanian, Managing Director, India and SAARC at Check Point Software Technologies.
Infinity Labs Launches Next-Gen Secure SD-WAN Solutions
Integrates Zero Touch Provisioning for quick and easy deployment at user premises I nfinity Labs, a leading provider of technology and network solutions, has recently launched Infinxt Secure SD-WAN, the next generation leading software-defined wide area network solution with inbuilt next-generation firewall (NGFW) powered by Palo Alto Networks, the leading global provider of cybersecurity. Large businesses as well as medium and small enterprises across India will now have access to Infinxt Secure SD-WAN, an indigenously built solution that offers unmatched feature rich technology with ease-of-deployment and ease-of-use coupled with enterprise class security. The next-gen secure SD-WAN solution will help enterprises optimize existing network connections between distributed sites across geographies and achieve enterprise-class network performance, stability, and security for critical applications. The solution also provides centralized management and control for enterprises to steer traffic on an application level basis, or by access type, enabling the remote sites to make efficient utilization of the available pool of bandwidth. Highlighting the launch, Rakesh Goyal, CEO, Infinity Labs said, “Enterprises across segments are increasingly recognizing the business benefits and value addition offered by SD-WAN technology. The high costs of enterprise quality bandwidth coupled with the impact of the pandemic and the subsequent shift towards remote working has further emphasized the need for a solution that provides enhanced network security and enables bandwidth aggregation and optimization. We are proud to partner with Palo Alto Networks to bring Infinxt – an industry leading SDWAN solution that bundles the benefits of dynamic path selection, network optimization and application performance routing. Infinxt will deliver enterprise-class SD-WAN technology with compelling RoI for small businesses across distributed locations and users.” Built on SDN architecture defined in RFC7426, Infinxt SD-WAN offers a series of benefits to customers such as business agility by rapid and easy deployment, inherent economics by offering same level of QoS of MPLS at a fraction of cost and optimized cloud architecture with inbuilt NGFW. This has an added advantage of centralized and easy control & management and ability to have integrated hybrid WAN with traffic prioritization. With the adoption of SAAS and IAAS, WAN has witnessed multiple levels of traffic accessing applications across the globe. The solution provides dynamic routing of SAAS application traffic for faster and efficient delivery and enhanced user experience with optimized performance. The SD-WAN approach to network connectivity helps reduce operational costs and increases resource usage. The partnership with Palo Alto Networks brings next generation firewall capabilities into Infinxt SD-WAN, making it a most agile, feature rich and secure solution available in market today. The solution focuses on delivering high-quality experience with business-centric applications without compromising on security. It combines routing, network security features, and firewalls into a single point network solution improving the overall performance and reliability of the network while also significantly lowering cost of operations. Using an Infinxt SD-Wan solution, a business owner or CIO can get a real time visibility of all network components through streaming telemetry built into the SD-WAN. Another advantage is the zero-touch provisioning and AutoVPN capabilities, which makes equipment deployment quick and easy, barring the need for a specialized IT resource. Access to real-time performance data is facilitated through a simplified cloud-based console and mobile application. Infinxt SD-WAN also provides. portant benefits to multi-site customers. It allows branch offices to easily connect to each other, without building VPN connections, managing routing tables, and other complex networking configurations. The solution has been designed to interoperate and co-exist with existing gateway security investment and provides enterprise with the flexibility to adopt the security features of the Palo Alto Networks solution at a later stage. Keeping multiple enterprise requirements in mind, the Infinxt portfolio currently includes two solutions to provide users the choice to decide on the features, arrangement and security standards. For example, if the enterprise requirement is only to connect branches for bandwidth aggregation and integrate this with a pre-existing security configuration of their own, it can choose the Infinxt SD-WAN solution. Those looking to integrate next generation security along with the Infinxt SD-WAN, can opt for the Infinxt Secure SD-WAN, powered by Palo Alto Networks.
FortiGuard Labs Reports Cyber Adversaries Are Exploiting the Global Pandemic at Enormous Scale
Fortinet® recently announced the findings of the latest semi-annual FortiGuard Labs Global Threat Landscape Report. FortiGuard Labs threat intelligence from the first half of 2020 demonstrates the dramatic scale at which cybercriminals and nation-state actors leveraged a global pandemic as an opportunity to implement a variety of cyberattacks around the world. The adaptability of adversaries enabled waves of attacks targeting the fear and uncertainty in current events as well as the sudden abundance of remote workers outside the corporate network, which quickly expanded the digital attack surface overnight. Although many compelling threat trends were related to the pandemic, some threats still had their own drivers. For example, ransomware and attacks targeting Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices as well as operational technology (OT) are not diminishing, but are instead evolving to become more targeted and more sophisticated. At a global level, the majority of threats are seen worldwide and across industries, with some regional or vertical variation. Similar to the COVID-19 pandemic, a certain threat might have started in one area but eventually spreads almost everywhere, meaning most organizations could face the threat. There are of course regional differences in infection rates based on factors such as policies, practices, or response. Highlights of the report: Seizing the opportunity in global events Attackers have used subjects in the news as social engineering lures before, but this moved to the next level in the first half of 2020. From opportunistic phishers to scheming nation-state actors, cyber adversaries found multiple ways to exploit the global pandemic for their benefit at enormous scale. This included phishing and business email compromise schemes, nation-state-backed campaigns and ransomware attacks. They worked to maximize the global nature of a pandemic that affected everyone around the world combined with an immediately expanded digital attack surface. These trends were seen with other newsworthy items and demonstrate how quickly attackers can move to take advantage of major developments with broad social impact at a global level. The perimeter gets more personal The increase in remote work created a dramatic inverse of corporate networks almost overnight, which cyber adversaries immediately started to leverage as an opportunity. In the first half of 2020, exploit attempts against several consumer-grade routers and IoT devices were at the top of the list for IPS detections. In addition, Mirai and Gh0st dominated the most prevalent botnet detections, driven by an apparent growing interest of attackers targeting old and new vulnerabilities in IoT products. These trends are noteworthy because it demonstrated the network perimeter has extended to the home with cybercriminals seeking to gain a foothold in enterprise networks by exploiting devices that remote workers might use to connect to their organizations’ networks. Browsers are targets too For attackers the shift to remote work was an unprecedented opportunity to target unsuspecting individuals in multiple ways. For example, web-based malware used in phishing campaigns and other scams outranked the more traditional email delivery vector earlier this year. In fact, a malware family that includes all variants of web-based phishing lures and scams ranked at the top for malware in January and February and only dropped out of the top five in June. This may demonstrate the attempt of cybercriminals to target their attacks when individuals are the most vulnerable and gullible – browsing the web at home. Web browsers, not just devices, are also prime targets for cybercriminals, perhaps more than usual, as cybercriminals continue to target remote workers. Ransomware not running away Well-known threats such as ransomware have not diminished during the last six months. COVID-19-themed messages and attachments were used as lures in a number of different ransomware campaigns. Other ransomware was discovered rewriting the computer’s master boot record (MBR) before encrypting the data. In addition, there was an increase in ransomware incidents where adversaries not only locked a victim organization’s data but stole it as well and used the threat of widescale release as additional leverage to try and extort a ransom payment. The trend significantly heightens the risks of organizations losing invaluable information or other sensitive data in future ransomware attacks. Globally, no industry was spared from ransomware activity and data shows that the five most heavily targeted sectors for ransomware attacks are telco, MSSPs, education, government, and technology. Unfortunately, the rise of ransomware being sold as a service (RaaS) and the evolution of certain variants indicates that the situation with ransomware is not going away. OT threats after Stuxnet J une marked the 10th anniversary of Stuxnet, which was instrumental in the evolution of threats to, and security of, operational technology. Now, many years later, OT networks remain a target for cyber adversaries. The EKANS ransomware from earlier this year shows how adversaries continue to broaden the focus of ransomware attacks to include OT environments. Also, the Ramsay espionage framework, designed for the collection and exfiltration of sensitive files within air-gapped or highly restricted networks, is an example of threat actors looking for fresh ways to infiltrate these types of networks. The prevalence of threats targeting supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems and other types of industrial control systems (ICS) is less in volume than those affecting IT, but that does not diminish the importance of this trend. Mapping exploitation trends A review of the CVE List shows the number of published vulnerabilities added has risen over the last few years, sparking discussion over the prioritization of patching. Eventhough 2020 looks to be on pace to break the number of published vulnerabilities in a single year, vulnerabilities from this year also have the lowest rate of exploitation ever recorded in the 20-year history of the CVE List. Meanwhile, vulnerabilities from 2018 claimed the highest exploitation prevalence at 65%, and more than a quarter of organizations registered attempts to exploit 15-year-old CVEs. For cyber adversaries, exploit development at scale and distribution via legitimate and malicious hacking tools continues to take time. The urgency to secure the network perimeter extending into the home With the increase in connectivity, devices, and ongoing need for remote work, the digital…
ITC Infotech Chooses LogMeIn’s Bold360 and Rescue Products for its Digital Workplace Center of Excellence (CoE)
ITC Infotech, a global technology solution and services provider, has chosen LogMeIn’s Bold360 and Rescue products for its Digital Workplace Center of Excellence (CoE). ITC Infotech provides business-friendly solutions and services focused on banking & financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, consumer goods, travel and hospitality industries and is a wholly owned subsidiary of ITC Ltd, one of India’s most admired companies. The Digital Workplace CoE by ITC Infotech will leverage LogMein’s Bold360 and Rescue products. The CoE will run proof of concepts (PoCs), a fully automated end user IT service desk and other digital workplace solutions for ITC Infotech’s global clients. The CoE will also incubate solutions to enhance efficiencies across ITC Infotech’s internal departments & processes including HR, finance, projects, admin and travel – to enhance interactions for ITC Infotech’s 8700+ global employees with their service teams. ITC Infotech’s Digital Workplace solution uses extensive automation to enhance the end user experience and LogMeIn’s technology stacks will help drive adoption of new ways of working within well-defined processes, while providing a robust governance framework. The CoE is an integrated platform, which is powered by industry leading technologies and provides optimization and digital enablement to migrate the IT teams from standard service level agreement (SLA) management to ITC Infotech’s unique experience level agreements (eXLAs). ITC Infotech’s Digital Workplace solution also uses rapid deployment processes which are Cloud enabled and offer a customized knowledge base to improve employee experience. “LogMeIn has significant experience in delivering differentiated solutions for consulting companies like ITC Infotech, who offer professional solutions and services to vertical industry sectors globally,” said Rahul Sharma, Managing Director, India & SAARC, LogMeIn, “We are proud to support ITC Infotech and be a trusted partner as part of their digital transformation journey. With our AI-enabled chatbot software like Bold360 and our remote infrastructure support products that include rescue and rescue lens, LogMeIn has delivered solutions that create user experiences providing highest level of dependability.” “We are delighted to have partnered with LogMeIn who is one of the leading employee and customer experience companies in the world,” said Prasad Natu, Sr. Vice President & Head – CIO 360, ITC Infotech, “This partnership will further strengthen our dedicated Digital Workplace CoE, which already uses extensive automation to enhance the end user experience. LogMeIn’s tech stack & solutions will strengthen our Digital Workplace solution and redefine how the industry manages end-user computing.” ITC Infotech is a leading global technology services and solutions provider, led by Business and Technology Consulting. ITC Infotech provides business-friendly solutions to help clients succeed and be future-ready, by seamlessly bringing together digital expertise, strong industry specific alliances and the unique ability to leverage deep domain expertise from ITC Group businesses. The company provides technology solutions and services to enterprises across industries such as Banking & Financial Services, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Consumer Goods, Travel and Hospitality, through a combination of traditional and newer business models, as a long-term sustainable partner. LogMeIn, Inc.’s category-defining products unlock the potential of the modern workforce by making it possible for millions of people and businesses around the globe do their best work, whenever, however, and most importantly, wherever. A pioneer in remote work technology and a driving force behind today’s work-from-anywhere movement, LogMeIn has become one of the world’s largest SaaS companies with tens of millions of active users, more than 3,500 global employees, over $1.2 billion in annual revenue and more than 2 million customers worldwide who use its software as an essential part of their daily lives. The company is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts with additional locations in North America, South America, Europe, Asia and Australia.
La Maison Royale Chooses Matrix Telecom Solutions for Multi-Site Connectivity
La Maison Royale, Nairobi, is a 4-star superior boutique business hotel with a ‘French taste,’ state-of-the-art facility and close to the entertainment in the Westland neighborhood, La Maison Royale is a unique experience. La Maison Royale prides itself with the friendly staff and the practical touches that make being away from home easier, whether a person books their rooms by day, week or longer. Travelling for business, looking for temporary or corporate housing, needing short-term housing during relocation, or planning a weekend getaway, La Maison Royale has a solution that will fit everyone’s budget. Challenges La Maison Royale has their prominent presence across several locations in Nairobi. Considering this, they required seamless connectivity within sites. A system for call accounting, budgeting and routing with hospitality features was their primary requirement. Furthermore, a comprehensive and scalable solution that does not need a transformation in the coming years was their main challenge. The hotel infrastructure required a centralized communication management of all business communication. Besides, they were looking for a multi-site connectivity with call accounting and call budgeting. Solution Matrix addressed these challenges by proposing SARVAM UCS, which is a unified communication server for modern enterprises that manages all business communications from one place. SARVAM UCS is an enterprise-grade unified communications solution that offers La Maison Royale the much needed collaboration, communication, messaging and mobility between multi-locational sites. Unifying all the communication networks and devices provides users with the flexibility of accessing the calls, messaging and voice mails from any of the devices irrespective of their location. Results Unified Communication for workforce collaboration and better customer responsiveness: Call management and the ability to connect from anywhere, anytime and with anyone. Simple administration and management due to webbased configuration. Enhanced customer responsiveness to customer/ clients. Scalability to expand their business footprints in the future. Leverages existing infrastructure and connect on a common communication platform. IP-solution at core and application upgradation paths that renews and extends investment.
Sanjivani Group of Institutes Ensure Health and Safety with Prama Hikvision’s Advanced Temperature Screening Solutions
Maharashtra’s pioneering educational institution, Sanjivani Group of Institutes, has ensured the health and safety of all the stakeholders through Prama Hikvision’s advanced temperature screening solutions. It is one of the finest examples of back to the business applications being successfully implemented in the education sector during the COVID-19 pandemic situation. With Empowering thousands of young students through education in the rural Maharashtra as the mission, Sanjivani Group of Institutes situated at Kopargaon, Ahmednagar, is a premier institute for MBA, Engineering, Pharmacy, Nursing and Diploma studies. The Sanjivani Rural Education Society (SRES), was established by Hon’ble Shankarrao Genuji Kolhe in 1983, at Kopargaon, rural domain in Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra, India. As the educational scenario changed and evolved with time, the management understood the need and added a number of courses under the umbrella of the Sanjivani Rural Education Society (SRES), which subsequently established the Sanjivani College of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, Sanjivani Senior College, Sanjivani Junior College, Sanjivani Group of Schools including Sanjivani International school, Shirdi and Sanjivani International school, Navi Mumbai. Health and Safety challenges When the pandemic crisis occurred, there were a lot of discussions and deliberations among the Sanjivani Group’s management. They were getting prepared for it, by analysing all the challenges faced during the lockdown and specific criteria for the situation. “We are sure the educational institutes in the post lockdown scenario will be facing a whole new set of health, safety and security challenges related to temperature screening, social distancing and crowd flow control. These challenges are relatively new challenges compared to the traditional education security challenges. We decided to take these challenges head on, to match up to the expectations of all our stakeholders,” said Amit N Kolhe, Managing Trustee, Sanjivani Rural Education Society (SRES). Technology innovations The management was looking for a temperature screening solution that can be used for teaching faculty, staff, students and visitors to comply with the health and safety guidelines. The request for the proof of concept was floated in the market. It was a pleasant surprise, the OEM and SI partner were ready within a shortest possible time. They offered a robust solution, the effectiveness of the temperature screening solution for operational safety was unmatched. The AI detection function ensured that there were no recurring false alarms. Temperature screening installations Many advanced artificial intelligence (AI) enabled temperature screening solutions were installed in Sanjivani Group of institutes to comply with health and safety guidelines. The seamless integration of these solutions was done to ensure students, faculty and staff should be safe in the ongoing pandemic situation. Win-win experience The Sanjivani Group of Institute’s association with Prama Hikvision has evolved over the time. It was a win-win experience for both the sides. Advantages The management did extensive study and research, they found out what are the critical requirements. The Sanjivani Group of institutes’ campus on a regular day had 8000 students present, it was a gigantic challenge for the management. The temperature screening solutions provided by Prama Hikvision really helped to do the temperature screening of the visitors. It also helped in bifurcating and identifying the unauthorized visitors coming to the campus. Being on the management side, it was important for us to make sure that best of the best technologies was given to students and stakeholders. We have given maximum focus on safety and security of the education ecosystem. We think it worked very well for us. We are really thankful to Prama Hikvision for providing all the solutions and lots of value added services. Installing security system is one aspect, but service is another, which is really an important factor. Prama Hikvision supported us by giving the excellent service “We have ensured that proper training is given to our security personnel and staff to handle the security systems, solutions and IT solutions back end. The temperature screening solutions worked very well for our requirements. Earlier we had to screen the students and staff one by one, which was quite cumbersome. Now with the latest AI enabled temperature screening solution we are able to screen a large number of students and staff at a much faster rate. It has really helped us a lot,” said Amit N Kolhe. “Temperature screening solutions project for Sanjivani Group of Institutes, Kopargaon was a great learning experience. We value Prama Hikvision’s experience and expertise in providing the latest and innovative security solutions. They work very well with vendor partners to deliver solutions that suit the requirements. Their professionalism and quality services are always appreciated. We find their objective advice very valuable, while designing security solutions and selecting equipment to install,” said Hemant Rokade – Director Sales, OM Agency, Prama Hikvision’s System Integration Partner.
Remote Working Made Safer Using Access Gateway
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many organizations to adapt to a new reality where much of the staff have to work from home. This poses significant challenges because the existing VPNs the companies had in place were not designed to handle a sudden explosion of remote workers. With infrastructure becoming expensive it’s a good opportunity to have remote access with zero trust architecture to provide a safe and secure remote working environment for employees. Many organizations that had been reluctant in moving towards remote access were found to be completely unprepared to tackle the sudden lockdown, which negatively impacted their businesses. To overcome situations like these, different business units, project groups, partners, contractors and guests require secure and different levels of remote access and often require a user experience tailored to employees unique requirements and devices. Mobile devices and bring your own device (BYOD) present additional challenges in providing on-demand connections in a manner that keeps data secure in the corporate network and limits exposure. But with just remote access there also comes the vulnerability of an opportune moment for the hackers to execute cyber-attacks and gain access to sensitive data of commercial value. The increasing global spike in the number of phishing emails from last few months is not new to anyone. These have been indicating a serious and targeted attempt to exploit the anxiety related to the pandemic. Remote access in combination with zero trust is the perfect solution to counter such threats. With Array’s Network ADC, SSL VPN and WAF solutions, organizations will be at an advantage. This combined with zero trust – a security concept centered on the belief that organizations should not automatically trust anything inside or outside its perimeters and instead must verify anything and everything trying to connect before granting access gives organizations an edge like never before Array’s secure remote access solutions provide greater levels of security, a greater range of access methods, a broader range of device support and the ability to provide differentiated, identity-based access tailored to the needs of multiple communities of interest. Besides, with Array’s secure mobile access solution, sensitive data remains protected on the enterprise network and is accessible anytime, anywhere, so BYOD becomes an advantage rather than a threat to security. Mitigating risks associated with business continuity events and realizing gains through higher employee productivity are driving increased demand for remote access. While traditional VPNs are well suited for giving remote access to employees they are not as adept at supporting office workers. Remote access can be cost-effectively scaled for as many workers as needed even from a single appliance. It’s not just employees, even third-party vendors who work remotely have the advantage of being under the protection of Array’s remote access solutions. What’s more, because data never leaves the network, security is assured. The Covid-19 situation has led to a significant rise in phishing attacks and social engineering scams. Threat actors are using Covid-19 themes to trick users into clicking on malicious links that spread ransomware, harvest credentials and so on, and to fight these threats organizations need rigid security measures. They need to keep in mind that a zero trust framework cannot be implemented without a secure tool for remote access. Zero trust has many benefits when combined with remote access. It can help organizations cut back on complexity, reduce its attack surface, and increase visibility for auditing and compliance. There are a few best practices when configuring remote access within a zero trust framework like strict authentication rules, restrict authorization and auditing. The zero trust architecture is similar to one-toone segmentation and helps in preventing DDoS attack, server scanning, application exploits, man-in-the-middle attacks and SQL injection. It is all the more important now to have a network security model that verifies the user for the organization at every step of the way and all the time. With the combination of remote access and zero trust, organizations find an answer to the security concerns during the pandemic times.
Milestone Systems Announces Thomas Jensen as New Ceo
After an extensive search for the right candidate for the CEO position at Milestone Systems, the Board of Directors is delighted to announce that Thomas Jensen has accepted the role. With his background in Hewlett-Packard and most recently in Europe’s largest IT integrator company Bechtle, Thomas Jensen is an executive leader with a strong global footprint that includes P&L responsibility for international businesses in software and hardware. He has deep business experience with IT and technology, and an understanding for the dynamics of business communities, technology partners and integrators. People are at the core of Thomas Jensen’s leadership philosophy, which resonates well with Milestone Systems’ Scandinavian leadership values and People First approach to management. Thomas Jensen said, “I am both humble and very proud to become part of Milestone Systems. Their strong focus on people was crucial to me when I accepted the position and I’m determined to continue with this as CEO. Combine this with Milestone Systems’ influence in transforming how video technology is used, both in security and in new applications beyond the industry, makes this a dream job for me.” Milestone is a strong company with a strong leadership team. Adding Thomas’ broad experience in strategy and execution puts us in a great position to achieve our goal of long-term sustainable growth for our community partners and for Milestone Systems Thomas Jensen will join Milestone from Bechtle, Europe’s largest B2B IT service provider, where he was Executive Vice President and member of the Management Board. Before this, he was Head of Worldwide Channel Sales Strategy for HP Inc. in Palo Alto, California, United States, where he drove the global channel development. During the separation of Hewlett-Packard into HP Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, Thomas led the channel separation, and was responsible for preparing the new strategy and organization for the indirect revenue of HP Inc. Before moving to the United States, Thomas was General Manager for Hewlett-Packard’s PC & Print Division in Denmark. Thomas Jensen has also held leadership positions in Vestas Wind Systems and Maersk Line. He holds a Master of Science in International Business Administration from the University of Aalborg and has completed the Executive Board Program at INSEAD in France. Milestone Systems is a leading provider of open platform video management software; technology that helps the world see how to ensure safety, protect assets and increase business efficiency. Milestone enables an open platform community that drives collaboration and innovation in the development and use of network video technology, with reliable and scalable solutions that are proven in more than 500,000 installations worldwide. Founded in 1998, Milestone is a stand-alone company in the Canon Group.
A Safety Working Day With LANXESS
Monday morning in the office. Fabian starts his working day as usual by booting up his computer and in the meantime he’s preparing a latte in the coffee kitchen. As a municipal administrative employee Fabian works in the city hall of his hometown. All public buildings have particularly high fire safety requirements. But Fabian doesn’t think about that at all; he feels completely safe at his workplace. Various elements play an important role in building fire protection. Many details are specified in building regulations. Apart from the building design, which determines the escape routes, it is mainly the type of materials used and the use of fire detectors and sprinkler systems. The fire behaviour of numerous building materials is optimised by the targeted addition of flame retardants. These ensure that the materials are initially less flammable, and in the event of a fire, further slow down the spread of the fire. The choice of the appropriate flame retardant depends on the type of material and its use within the building. Fortunately, our LANXESS flame retardant experts have the necessary know-how to provide safe solutions. For example, the various insulating foams used in the construction industry are supplemented with the appropriate flame retardant products from LANXESS, such as Levagard® or Emerald Innovation® 3000. Equipment safely connected Fabian does not work alone in the city hall, of course, but together with numerous colleagues. Accordingly, many electronic devices are in continuous use here for many hours of the day. Therefore, not only are the building materials in a public building subject to strict fire protection regulations, but the electronics must also be safe. After all, cables, plugs and housings of computers, printers, copiers and more are exposed to the highest stress in everyday office life. How safe these devices are in terms of fire protection is already decided when the basic materials are put together. So it’s all the better if the right LANXESS flame retardants are added to these different products. Plugs, cables and electrical and electronic housings are made of different plastics – polyamides, polyesters, PVC and other polymers or rubber. Products from our Firemaster® or Uniplex series ensure operational reliability in the manufacture of connectors, as do Disflamoll® or Reofos® in cable production. As highly effective flame retardants in the housings, numerous manufacturers worldwide rely on LANXESS Firemaster 2100® and BA-59P™. For Fabian, this means that he can spend his daily working hours in the office without having to think about fire safety measures – and also get a sure caffeine kick from the office coffee machine at any time. Fire protection in the floor Today Fabian is going home a little early. His grandmother is in hospital with a broken leg, and he wants to visit her quickly before dinner is served. In clinics and hospitals, safety is of course the top priority. This also includes fire protection as an extremely important safety aspect in the building. One focus is also on what is under the feet of patients, doctors, nurses, caregivers and visitors – the floor coverings. Here in the hospital, it is not only the robustness against mechanical stress that counts, but above all the resistance against fire and heat. Typical requirements for the materials of floor coverings are low flammability, slow flame spread in case of fire and low smoke density development. In order to gain valuable rescue seconds for all persons in an emergency and to secure escape routes as well as possible, highly effective LANXESS flame retardants such as Disflamoll® or Reofos® are added to the floor coverings. And Fabian and his grandmother? The two of them don’t even notice all the protective additives in the flooring, because they fulfill their safety mission in secret. So Grandma Grete is simply happy about the visit of her grandson – and Fabian is happy that he made it to his grandmother’s hospital as planned before dinner time. Every second counts So that people like Fabian can rightly place their trust in the modern products of our time, we at LANXESS are working systematically on safe and sustainable material solutions. Preventing and suppressing fires therefore plays a crucial role in material development. That’s why our research and development teams work every day to ensure compliance with strict fire safety standards in order to reduce the harmful effects of fires on people, property and the environment as far as possible in advance. This is because flame retardants are not only intended to prevent fires from starting, but also to slow down the spread of fire in the event of a fire. This creates saving seconds or minutes for escape from the danger zone and the deployment of auxiliary personnel. Such a time window can make all the difference in saving lives. We offer one of the world’s most comprehensive ranges of flame retardants and our development, consulting and sales teams support manufacturers in a wide range of product areas. LANXESS is a leading specialty chemicals company with sales of EUR 6.8 billion in 2019. The company currently has about 14,300 employees in 33 countries. The core business of LANXESS is the development, manufacturing and marketing of chemical intermediates, additives, specialty chemicals and plastics. LANXESS is listed in the leading sustainability indices Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI World and Europe) and FTSE4 Good.