Day: December 5, 2021

Sergey Ozhegov, CEO of SearchInform During these two years of the lockdown being on and off, business processes moved outside the offices and back inside, some security weak spots were disregarded, some of them emerged, some time was spent not working, some – wasted on financial recovery from inevitable slowing down. These factors might play a role in several biggest data breaches and security incidents India has recently faced. Air India had gone through a cyberattack on its servers which was announced in February 2021, Domino’s India’s data breach compromised the details of about 180 million orders exposing a million credit cards and other data in May – the information has recently become available outside the dark net and could be simply Googled by anyone curious. MobiKwik app’s user data was allegedly put up for sale violating the privacy of 110 million people, Facebook put at risk the contacts of 6 million Indians, 2.5 million Upstox clients got their data misused due to a third party failure to secure a data-warehouse. Juspay, payment processor, endangered the processing of records belonging to 100 million of users due to a leaked database in 2020. If last year we talked about going remote, today we see that most organisations leave employees the opportunity to work from home permanently or several days a week. We can see this tendency happens to our clients – if in 2019 the companies had slightly more than 10% of remote employees, and in 2020 they relocated most of the staffers to work remotely, then in 2021 the percentage of remote workers decreased, but not significantly. Therefore, now the information security solutions need to be developed with this factor in developers’ minds. It is well known that the transition to remote work has exacerbated information security problems. After all, it is much more difficult to control employee activity in a hybrid office (a significant part of employees has the opportunity to work at home for a certain amount of time) than in an enterprise in which information circulates exclusively within the corporate network. At the same time, under the influence of the pandemic, the number of hybrid enterprises has increased markedly. For example, according to the IDC survey, if before the pandemic in 38% of the enterprises which took part in the survey no one was allowed to work at home, then after the first wave of the coronavirus the share of such enterprises decreased to 8%. At the same time, under the influence of the pandemic, the share of companies in which over 50% of employees had the right to spend more than half of their working hours at home increased from 15% to 35%. The mindset of information security experts has changed. In the context of remote work, blocking of document transfer (financial documents, information to which the access is limited, personal data, etc.) has become critical. Therefore, the developers have strengthened and expanded the types of blocking in DLP systems. Previously, blocking features were implemented only for specific communication channels and specific applications. However, now insiders have access to hundreds of data transfer and communication channels – zoom, skype, instant messengers, video conferencing systems, etc. Therefore, there is a need for technologies that are not tied to a specific application. We are seeing an increased demand for open-source APIs. Customers want to be able to modify products for their own unique business processes, for rare or self-written software. Companies need seamless interoperability of all IT infrastructure components. We also noted that if previously the topic of moving to the cloud was practically a ‘taboo’ for information security specialists, now the use of cloud technologies for many companies started to be the new normal. The Internet is becoming more reliable and end users have less and less questions about protecting cloud storage. What do insiders leak, where to and in which ways? 80% of companies believe that internal information security incidents are more dangerous than external ones, according to SearchInform analysts based on the company’s research. The cause of these incidents can be both deliberate actions and disregard for the elementary rules of ‘cybersecurity hygiene.’ Moreover, unintentional actions of employees are the causes of information security incidents more often than deliberate and malicious ones. Alexey Drozd, head of the SearchInform information security department, believes that SMB is most exposed to information security risks. The reason is that, as a rule, they do not use specialised software that allows automated control of employee actions and information movement. Therefore, managers can’t assess the likelihood of risks and the effectiveness of possible data protection measures. To dig deeper, SearchInform analysts summarised information received about incidents in 50 SMB companies in six industries (wholesale and retail, manufacturing, services, IT, construction, thermal power), which was collected while outsourcing information security and data protection to professional services. The data collected using DLP systems showed that during the study (it lasted several months), attempts to leak data were recorded in each of 50 enterprises. It also turned out that during the attempts to leak corporate data, employees most often (in 56% of cases) used external media – flash drives, hard drives, mobile phones and other equipment. Also, email (21% of cases) and cloud (19%) follow by a wide margin. “To prevent employees from leaking data while uploading it to external media, the employer may prohibit copying data of a certain format. Or any documents on particular PCs. However, at the same time, there is a risk of slowing down some business processes, because then employees will not be able to perform part of their job duties. Therefore, such a measure must be applied pointwise. It is more efficient to use a data encryption tool – the document will be copied to an external storage, but the user will be able to open it only on authorised PCs, or if there are specific permissions (a password, for example). This will allow employees to share data, but will prevent data transfer outside the company,” as…

“Digital technologies are creating new opportunities for cities to reduce congestion and accelerate incident responses, from smart algorithms that detect and report violations; to all-in-one violation detection devices and cameras that capture high-resolution, fullcolor video – even in the lowest-light conditions” Jayden Xu, Senior ITS Solution Manager, Hikvision The 4 key trends that are shaping the future of the industry and helping agencies and authorities to manage traffic flows, detect violations, and respond to incidents more effectively. These are: Digitized ITS infrastructure delivers improved traffic outcomes Digital technology solutions are creating a range of new opportunities to reduce traffic congestion and emissions, and to improve road safety. This is achieved by sourcing and analyzing data from a range of sources, including roadside cameras and sensors, to enable a 360º view of traffic conditions, including accidents and violations. The resulting insights can be used by traffic authorities and city planners to optimize the design of road networks, and to prioritize investments in road infrastructure. Additionally, traffic police can use real-time traffic and incident data to enhance dispatch of emergency teams, or to guide traffic at key intersections to optimize traffic flow. High-quality color imaging for traffic management and violations, 24 hours a day Improving traffic conditions and road safety requires effective monitoring around the clock, with the ability to identify and react to traffic violations reliably. To achieve this, agencies need reliable video solutions, such as Hikvision traffic cameras with its top-notch imaging technology, which can capture crystal clear, colored video images, even in extremely low-light conditions, or at night. Importantly, agencies’ chosen enforcement cameras must be able capture high-quality images without emitting white light, which creates environmental issues and distracts drivers. Smart algorithms enable ‘pole mounted’ ITS devices – without compromising accuracy I n an ideal world, agencies and authorities would be able to mount roadside ITS equipment on gantries, but these are a rare sight in cities. This means it’s often more practical to take advantage of street light poles or the other available poles beside urban roadways to install ITS devices. Obviously, this places higher demand for devices with onboard algorithms that can recognize vehicle types and read number places (where necessary) with less strict device installation requirements than gantry mounted devices. ‘All in one’ devices combat speeding more efficiently Speeding is a major traffic issue in cities worldwide. But detecting vehicles breaking the speed limit usually require a coordinated effort between different devices – typically, a traffic camera, a radar, and a supplemental light. The latest trend is to increase simplicity, reduce costs, and reduce pressure on roadside mount locations, by integrating these three capabilities into a single device. Hikvision has been exploring this area for years, and we have developed all-in-one equipment for traffic violation detection use that maximizes efficiency – both in terms of space, cost, and support.