Year: 2021

Matrix Comsec, a leading manufacturer of telecom and security products, was conferred with the prestigious 46th ELCINA Award for Excellence in Research and Development for the year 2020-21 at the glittering award ceremony held in New Delhi on 22nd October 2021. The award highlights Matrix’s commitment to R&D and its track record of launching innovative and cutting-edge products. Commenting on the achievement, Ganesh Jivani, Chief Executive of Matrix said, “We are happy to win the prestigious ELCINA Award for Excellence in Research and Development. We thank the jury for recognizing Matrix for its research, innovation and design capabilities. Matrix offers cutting-edge physical security and telecom solutions in more than 50 countries including many firstworld technologically advanced nations. With 250+ R&D engineers and world-class processes and infrastructure, Matrix is committed to designing cutting-edge high-performance solutions. This accreditation is a validation of our innovation and design capabilities that will go a long way in motivating us towards building world-class solutions.” Electronic Industries Association of India (ELCINA) is one of the largest and oldest associations in the country and was the first in India to institute the Awards for Excellence in Electronics in 1976. It recognizes the remarkable achievements of all the electronics and IT hardware companies having their R&D and manufacturing in India. With the Ministry of Electronics & IT, Government of India (MeitY) extending its support, the ELCINA Awards hold great esteem in the industry circles.  

Fortinet® a global provider of broad, integrated, and automated cybersecurity solutions, recently unveiled the 2021 Global State of Ransomware Report. The survey reveals most organizations are more concerned about ransomware than other cyberthreats. However, while the majority of organizations surveyed indicated they are prepared for a ransomware attack, including employee cyber training, risk assessment plans, and cybersecurity insurance, there was a clear gap in what many respondents viewed as essential technology solutions for protection and the technology that can best guard against the most commonly reported methods to gain entry to their networks. Based on the technologies viewed as essential, organizations were most concerned about remote workers and devices, with Secure Web Gateway, VPN and Network Access Control among the top choices. While ZTNA is an emerging technology, it should be considered a replacement for traditional VPN technology. However, most concerning was the low importance of segmentation (31%), a critical technology solution that prevents intruders from moving laterally across the network to access critical data and IP. Likewise, UEBA and sandboxing play a critical role in identifying intrusions and new malware strains, yet both were lower on the list. Another surprise was secure email gateway at 33%, given phishing was reported as a common entry method of attackers. Organizations more concerned about losing data The top concern of organizations regarding a ransomware attack was the risk of losing data, with the loss of productivity and the interruption of operations following closely behind. In addition, 84% of organizations reported having an incident response plan, and cybersecurity insurance was a part of 57% of those plans. In regards to paying ransom if attacked, the procedure for 49% was to pay the ransom outright, and for another 25%, it depends on how expensive the ransom is. Of the one-quarter who paid ransom, most, but not all, got their data back.   Ransomware Concerns Consistent Globally While concerns about ransomware were reasonably consistent across the board, there were some differences regionally. Respondents in EMEA (95%), Latin America (98%), and APJ (Asia-Pacific/ Japan) (98%) were only slightly more concerned about ransomware attacks than their peers in North America (92%). All regions perceive the loss of data as the top risk associated with a ransomware attack, along with the worry that they will be unable to keep up with an increasingly sophisticated threat landscape. APJ, uniquely, lists the lack of user awareness and training as their top concern. Respondents in APJ and Latin America were more likely to have been victims of a ransomware attack in the past (78%) compared to 59% in North America and 58% in EMEA. Phishing lures were a common attack vector everywhere, while remote desktop protocol (RDP) exploits and open vulnerable ports were top attack vectors in APJ and LatAm. The Need for Integration and Intelligence Almost all respondents view actionable threat intelligence with integrated security solutions or a platform as critical to preventing ransomware attacks and see value in artificial intelligence (AI)-driven behavioral detection capabilities. “According to a recent FortiGuard Labs Global Threat Landscape report, ransomware grew 1070% year over year. Unsurprisingly, organizations cited the evolving threat landscape as one of the top challenges in preventing ransomware attacks. As evidenced by our ransomware survey, there is a huge opportunity for the adoption of technology solutions like segmentation, SD-WAN, ZTNA, as well as SEG and EDR, to help protect against the threat of ransomware and the methods of access most commonly reported by respondents. The high amount of attacks demonstrates the urgency for organizations to ensure their security addresses the latest ransomware attack techniques across networks, endpoints, and clouds. The good news is that organizations are recognizing the value of a platform approach to ransomware defense” Rajesh Maurya Regional Vice President, India & SAARC at Fortinet While almost all of those surveyed felt they are moderately prepared and plan to invest in employee cyber awareness training, it is clear from the survey that organizations need to recognize the value of investing in technologies like advanced email security, segmentation, and sandboxing, in addition to the mainstays of NGFW, SWG, and EDR, to detect, prevent, and limit ransomware. It is important that organizations consider and evaluate these solutions to reduce risk given today’s ransomware tactics and techniques. The most advanced organizations will adopt a security approach for their ransomware protection strategy that is platform-based and provides core capabilities fully integrated with actionable threat intelligence. They must also be designed to interoperate as a unified system and be enhanced with AI and machine learning to better detect and respond to ransomware threats. About the Fortinet Ransomware Survey The report is based on a global survey of IT decision-makers aimed at better understanding how organizations view the threat of ransomware, how they are currently protecting against it, and how they plan to protect against it going forward. The survey was conducted in August 2021 with 455 business leaders from small as well as mid to largesized organizations worldwide. Survey participants are IT and security leaders from 24 different countries, and represent nearly all industries, including the public sector  

Anil Puri CMD, APS group A first generation serial entrepreneur, thought leader and an action catalyzer rolled into one – Anil Puri is a rare combination of a visionary, an innovator and a strategic thinker. He has used this combination to innovate and implement on-ground many new business ideas. His rich experience in various businesses has enabled him to nurture & mentor innovative ideas and scale them up. INTRODUCTION Safety and security lie at the heart of the prosperity of any nation. Citizens want to feel safe (protected from risk or injury) and secure (free from danger or threat). States have a primary duty of protecting the security of their citizens and all persons within their jurisdiction, maintaining and promoting crime prevention and community safety. Today, security is being challenged in many dimensions including physical, digital and economic. Accepted social norms of behavior are also being challenged. Added to this is deteriorating trust in public institutions and in leaders who should be a primary source of safety for citizens and businesses. Governance is becoming increasingly difficult and national and international unity is becoming harder to achieve. As a result, even in stable countries, a large cross section of citizens feel or perceive to be unsafe. As the graph of insecurity rises, more and more people are turning to the private security to ensure their personal safety and that of their families and properties. This demand is seen to rise due to a state’s inability to provide adequate security to its people. Consequently, private security agencies working for governments, local communities and the corporate sector have been identified to play an important complementary role in preventing crime and enhancing community safety. In this new reality, security, broadly defined, needs to be front and centre of government agenda – nationally, regionally and locally at the municipal level, as well as internationally – to deliver solutions that make the world a more secure place, so people trust institutions and the services they provide and so they both feel and are safe. Given that the threats come from many areas, this will require a much higher level of collaboration than we see today, both within government departments and among governments. Traditional security services such as the police, intelligence agencies and defence organizations will need to work with non-government organizations, businesses and citizens. With so many factors influencing perceptions of security, this type of collaboration needs across length & breadth of vision that is too often lacking and a level of organizational expertise that challenges current ways of working. In this new realm, national, regional and local governments need to view citizen safety (and security) in a holistic perspective and work across borders to achieve it. CONCEPT OF SAFE SOCIETY Societal Safety may be defined as ‘the society’s ability to maintain critical social functions, to protect the life and health of the citizens and to meet the citizens’ basic requirements in a variety of stress situations.’ The notion of security applies to anything we would want to make ‘secure’ from a perceived risk or threat. This includes digital and data security, national security, border security, food security, water security and social security, to name a few. All these are interconnected. In broader terms, therefore, security can be defined as the ‘alleviation of threats to cherished values.’ At a basic level, a society is nothing but a collection of people of different community. Individually each one is unsafe. But once networked, suddenly the concept of safety starts acquiring collective overtones. The concept of community is intrinsically linked with the intelligent design and architecting of urban spaces. It’s only through the integration of public and open spaces with the spaces of work, living and recreation that a vibrant community can be developed. An empowered community is a natural buffer and allows for proactive action to create an enabling environment for all sections of a society to lead their daily lives without fear and violence. The holy grail of a safe society assumes reality only when the quality of life naturally and automatically lends itself to creating an environment of empowerment, enablement and safety. ROLE OF THE POLICE The role of police in India is – The maintenance of Law and Order and the prevention & detection of crime. Currently, the police service is understaffed, under paid, over worked and dogged by accusations of corruption and inefficiency. Recently, it is characterized by increasing incidents of criminal activities, collusion between the police and the criminals in acts of lawlessness and a growing mistrust from the members of the public. It is observed that this disconnect between the police and the community members is best demonstrated by the phenomenon of rising number of private security companies and the demand of security by individuals, companies and institutions on the PSI. ROLE OF PSI The private security is driven by the profit motive. Their main service product is the protection of their clients’ interests at a profit while the police aim at protecting the public and their property as an obligation and public good. In general, the role of the private security providers is seen as providing security while maximizing on profits. The private security in India adopted the methodology of detect, deter, delay, and report. The security personnel don’t need to make arrest, but have the authority to make a citizen’s arrest, by requesting a police officer. The main duty of security guards is to enforce company rules and act to protect lives and property for which they are given training as mandated by the PSARA 2005. The main role and responsibilities of private security are: Protect people and the property of his contracted clients; Prevention of an incident/ offense before it has occurred; and Observe and report during or after an incident/ offense. The services provided by the private security personnel in an industry can be broadly segmented into the following: Manned guarding, Cash services, Electronic security services, and Armed escort services. ROLE OF PSI IN COMMUNITY POLICING Community…