iValue InfoSolutions, India’s premium technology enabler, Pixuate an artificial intelligence-based video analytics company and Mobotix a pioneer in the video security industry recently came together at Government of Karnataka’s Elevate Program held at Vidhana Soudha (Karnataka Vidhana Sabha building) and Bangalore Bio-innovation Centre to unveil a thermal solution, primarily to combat Covid-19. The innovations were unveiled by Deputy Chief Minister of Karnataka Dr. Ashwathnarayan. “The thermal solution is developed by using Pixuate’s intelligent thermal analytics solutions which accurately identifies heat signatures of people and sends instant alerts for all instances of elevated temperature in humans with the help of the feed that comes from Mobotix’s M16B camera which is a stereo camera with optical as well as thermal lens that is used to detect the face, match the region of the face in thermal feed and record highest temperature of the forehead/eye region. This will aid in the current fight against Covid-19 and any such pandemic situations the world may face in the future,” said Venkatesh R, Co-Founder and Head – Enterprise Channel Management at iValue InfoSolutions. The solution unveiled is built around face recognition, automatic number plate recognition, gear detection that includes helmet, face mask, gloves, shoes, gesture recognition like hand waving, perimeter security like loitering, tailgating, unauthorized personnel and other relevant video analytics software programs. The thermal solution is primarily developed for situations like Covid-19 pandemic which can detect multiple people with elevated body temperature in a crowded and public environment like malls, bus stands, railway station which are a mass movement area. The software detects up to 30 people in a single frame for a temperature detection accuracy of +/-0.2 degree Celsius with ~1 seconds detection time. The other use of the thermal solution is to facilitate a contactless entry in office premises using facial recognition based biometric and cross verify the fever symptoms. This helps in social distance compliance, face recognition and mask detection. Pixuate which is an artificial intelligence based video analytics company headquartered at Bengaluru has been recognized and supported by the Technology Development Board, Government of India’s nodal agency and also awarded as a winner of Elevate Program by Government of Karnataka. Prathvi Palekar, Founder and CEO of Pixuate said, “For the post-COVID world, we launched thermal analytics that offers end to end automation for offices and public places to check compliance for COVID situation. This software is built on Pixuate’s proprietary deep learning based facial recognition engine and it can provide multiple analytics for a single camera feed such as temperature, mask check, social distance check and facial recognition. Along with thermal analytics, Pixuate also offers a suite of analytics for automation and surveillance intelligence such as contactless attendance, campus security and city surveillance. “We are excited to have signed up iValue as a distributor for SAARC and Africa region, and expand to the market beyond our current presence in India and UAE.” Mobotix who have a fleet of both indoor and outdoor cameras which are thermal, IP based video systems are a pioneer in the video security industry consider their video systems as computer lenses working intelligently and with embedded storage capacities with the German way of engineering and approaching things as this is appreciated as being particularly innovative and of high quality. Mobotix video systems have been optimized for remote applications and cloud-based technology because the cameras can reduce the bandwidth of the video by scaling the size and the frame rate. This new technology collaborated between iValue, Pixuate and Mobotix will help the governments across the world and organizations by giving them a chance to fight not just pandemic situation in the future but also help in fighting crime, aiding forensic investigations, find missing people among other benefits.  

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.  

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.  

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, 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.