Category: National

Global cybersecurity leader Forcepoint announced that it has been recognised as the 2020 India DLP Vendor Company of the Year by Frost & Sullivan. Forcepoint’s next-generation DLP is designed for the evolving nature of today’s cybersecurity landscape and uses a human-centric approach to ensure that protection is not the enemy of productivity. Forcepoint’s risk-adaptive data protection solutions automatically apply appropriate actions based on an individual’s risk level while reducing false positive alerts for the cybersecurity teams, thereby freeing up their time. Frost & Sullivan Best Practices Awards are based on in-depth independent research that is presented to an elite panel of jury members to evaluate the contenders. This panel consists of some of the most prominent CIOs and CTOs from the Indian industry. Forcepoint took the number one industry rank in 2020 based on its excellence in several key areas, including technological advancements, customer satisfaction, and its visionary position in terms of macro market trends. Frost & Sullivan also takes revenue growth, portfolio diversity, and market penetration into account when awarding Company of the Year. Frost & Sullivan’s award recognises Forcepoint’s Dynamic Data Protection (DDP) as unique in the cybersecurity industry. DDP integrates behaviour-centric analytics with data protection tools, allowing cybersecurity teams to prioritise high-risk activities and automate data protection policies in near real-time, providing the highest security and workforce productivity. “The impeccable brand equity that Forcepoint has built in over the period of time by delivering DLP solutions that address today’s security needs makes it a vendor of choice for several large Indian brands,” said Rajarshi Dhar, Senior Industry Analyst, ICT Practice, Frost & Sullivan. Surendra Singh, Senior Director and Country Manager at Forcepoint India, said, “Our endeavour has been to support enterprises in their digital transformation journeys through our unwavering focus on innovation and customer success. This recognition validates our behaviour-centric data protection approach, which places people and data at the centre of an organisation’s security design thinking and further solidifies our position as a leader in user and data protection. We remain committed to helping organisations leverage all the possibilities of a digital economy efficiently.” “In the near future, India is expected to have its own personal data protection law. Indian enterprises are going to need strong data protection mechanisms like human-centric data security to prevent data from misuse, unauthorised access, or loss, thereby protecting regulated, sensitive, and business-critical data,” added Singh. Forcepoint DLP offers a number of market-leading attributes that allow cybersecurity teams to: Control all their data with one single policy. Simplify compliance with pre-defined policies. Protect critical intellectual property with unsurpassed accuracy.  Prevent data breaches automatically.  

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.  

Array Networks India Pvt. Ltd, a subsidiary of Array Networks Inc., a Network Functions Platform Company, recently announced their undertaking into the production of hardware and software products reinforcing its commitment to the ‘Make in India’ initiative. Array had broached about the company’s plan to go beyond application delivery and launch its security product this year and the plan is now a reality, where the Company will be focusing on producing Networking & Security products. “Array’s operation in India is one of the top contributors to the company’s overall global growth. The large percentage of this impressive growth has come from the Government, BFSI, aviation, entertainment and education verticals. With the Government as our key customer, we believe that the customers’ confidence will increase with our commitment towards the Make in India initiative. As the government is now focused on digitization and cyber security, the network and security products produced in India will receive a major boost,” said Shibu Paul, Vice President – International Sales at Array Networks. The product manufacturing unit has been set up in Bengaluru and is expected to generate employment in India. As the hardware products being produced are for Networking and Security, it will benefit the PSUs, state and central government agencies, and the defense sector. In the coming years, Array Networks will continue to design cutting-edge solutions for Enterprise and Government customers and join the government’s Make in India bandwagon. India is a Key Market for Array Networks I ndia is one of the fastest-growing regions for Array Networks and has good growth momentum. Array has considered India to be one of the key focus markets and growth engines. With the country’s excellent talent pool for software development, R&D and support, the company is providing a huge opportunity for the local workforce through this initiative. Array has the advantage of being the first mover in this product segment that will aid in creating and delivering value to all stakeholders.  

EZVIZ has introduced its latest range of secure and smart home cameras, which is Wi-Fi enabled, offers 2 way communication, has an alert system, and where no installation is required. EZVIZ makes use of technologies such as smart hardware and internet cloud services to create an intelligent work and life for users. The secured environment enables people to enjoy the relaxed, comfortable and pleasurable life of technology in a safe, convenient and green living environment created by smart technology. EZVIZ provides intelligent products and services for residences, offices, shops, schools, hotels and other places of residence. They can be also used for patient monitoring at the hospitals. The next-generation of indoor and outdoor smart surveillance cameras and intruder alarm systems, the EZVIZ range will transform households with smart life experience by making it easier for individuals to connect to everything happening in their life – all while ensuring their home is safe.   The smart products have all been created to provide peace of mind for users, while making them as easy as possible to use. The entire range is ideal for use in a number of settings such as in children’s rooms to keep an eye on pets, and by families with elderly relatives. However, the solutions also provide the perfect security for business premises. Each high-quality camera comes with a huge list of features such as crystal clear 720P-1080P imagery, IFTTT-compatible, cloud services and SD card storage options. The smart home alarm kit is the first smart home alarm system. Adding another level of security and connectivity for users, it links flawlessly between existing indoor and outdoor Wi-Fi cameras, smart locks, garage doors, and light bulbs. Once a sensor or detector is triggered, a linked EZVIZ camera will commence recording and send users a notification that they can click to see what triggered the alarm. The wireless range (866Mhz) is up to 100m from detectors to main alarm hub. EZVIZ alarm kit consists of alarm hub, a remote control, PIR motion detector (pet immune detector) and open-close detector (for windows or doors). All products are IFTTT compatible, and can work seamlessly with Amazon’s Alexa and Google Assistant. Working with just one app, the hi-tech products offer the ideal solution for numerous applications around the home. All EZVIZ customers need to do is simply say, “Alexa, show me the camera in the living room,” and the feed from an internet-connected camera will send the video to the Amazon Echo. EZVIZ cameras deliver the best value and user experience to customers by merging video and voice control in the smart home. The Alexa integration offers yet another level of value to EZVIZ customers. EZVIZ smart home security cameras are available online and through the distribution channels. Its latest models include, C6CN, alarm starter kit, C1C, C3A, C3W colour night vision cameras. EZVIZ smart home cameras come with smart features like Wi-Fi connectivity, two way communications, motion detection alerts on mobile, motion tracking and easy installation. The latest EZVIZ cameras can be operated in 100% wireless mode and they come with an inbuilt battery. The C3W cameras are weatherproof cameras, it can be used for outdoor installations. C3W colour night vision camera enables users to see the vibrant colour images even in darkness. EZVIZ products are available pan India through the authorized distributors and e-commerce channels. The best-inclass EZVIZ products have cost effective pricing.  

Fortinet®, a leading global provider of broad, integrated, and automated cybersecurity solutions, recently unveiled the 2020 Remote Workforce Cybersecurity Report. The report investigates the cybersecurity challenges that organizations faced as a result of the dramatic shift to telework early this year and the planned investments to secure remote work in 2020 and beyond. This report is based on a survey conducted in June 2020. Participants are employed in 17 different countries, representing nearly all industries and the public sector. Highlights of the report follow: The sudden shift to telework was challenging for most organizations As the COVID-19 pandemic spread rapidly in the first half of 2020, many organizations were required to shift to telework practically overnight as teams around the globe were asked to stay home. Nearly two-thirds of the firms surveyed had to rapidly transition over half of their workforce to telework. In addition, most respondents said the rapid change presented a challenge to their organization, with 83% citing it as moderately, very or extremely challenging. Only 3% were not at all challenged. In addition, the evolving remote work environment, increased reliance on personal device usage, and overall influx of workers outside the corporate network opened an opportunity for unprecedented cyber threat activity. From opportunistic phishers to scheming nation-state actors, cyber adversaries found multiple ways to exploit the global pandemic for their benefit at enormous scale as evidenced by a recent FortiGuard LabsGlobal Threat Landscape Report. Threats included phishing and business email compromise schemes, nation-state backed campaigns, and ransomware attacks. In fact, 60% of organizations revealed an increase in cybersecurity breach attempts during the transition to remote work, while 34% reported actual breaches in their networks. With a spike in employees remotely connecting to the corporate network, an increase in breach attempts and overall cyberattacks, organizations cited the most challenging aspects of this transition as ensuring secure connections, business continuity, and access to business-critical applications. At the time of the survey enterprises had already invested in key technologies as a result of the pandemic. Nearly half of organizations invested further in VPN and cloud security, while nearly 40% invested further in skilled IT professionals or network access control (NAC). There is still room for improvement: Almost all enterprises will invest more in secure telework Given the number of attempted breaches and overall waves of cyberthreats targeting remote workers, organizations need to carefully consider what technologies and approaches are needed to secure telework moving forward. Defense strategies need to be adjusted to fully account for the extension of the network perimeter into the home. As of June this year, a long-term shift to telework is anticipated, with nearly 30% of organizations expecting more than half of their employees to continue working remotely full time after the pandemic. Almost all organizations expect to invest more to secure telework long-term, with nearly 60% of enterprises spending more than $250,000 in secure telework investments in the next 24 months. Moving forward, the majority of enterprises surveyed intend to make unplanned upgrades to their existing systems to secure telework. Many also plan to add new technologies not previously in place.   Only 40% of organizations had a business continuity plan in place prior to the pandemic. Yet, as a result of the pandemic and the rapid shift to remote work, 32% invested further in this area. While organizations have made improvements in securing their remote workforces since the beginning of the pandemic, survey data reveals several areas that could be considered opportunities for improving secure remote connectivity. These areas include: Multi-factor Authentication (MFA): The survey revealed that 65% of organizations had VPN solutions in place pre-pandemic, but only 37% of organizations had multi-factor authentication (MFA). While VPNs play an important role in ensuring secure connectivity, they are simply one part of securing access. Therefore, if not already in place, it is recommended that organizations consider integrating MFA into their remote security plans. Endpoint Security and Network Access Control (NAC): 76% and 72% of organizations plan to either upgrade or adopt NAC or endpoint detection and response (EDR) solutions respectively. As employees work remotely, organizations face challenges to control the influx of non-trusted devices on their networks to enable remote work, creating new security challenges overnight. By adopting NAC solutions, IT teams get increased visibility and control over the users and devices on their network. EDR solutions deliver advanced, real-time threat protection for endpoints both pre- and post-infection. Software-defined Wide-area Networking (SD-WAN) for the Home: 64% of organizations plan to either upgrade or adopt SD-WAN, but specifically for the home office. The critical advantage of extending secure SDWAN functionality to individual teleworkers, especially super users, is that they can enjoy on-demand remote access as well as dynamically scalable performance regardless of their local network availability. Secure Access Service Edge (SASE): 17% of organizations made investments in SASE prior to the pandemic, and 16% invested in SASE as a result of the pandemic. Still, 58% plan to invest in SASE to some degree going forward. Although SASE is an emerging enterprise strategy, it is increasingly seen as an opportunity to combine network and security functions with WAN capabilities to support the dynamic, secure access needs of today’s organizations. Skilled Security Professionals: At the start of the pandemic, only 55% of organizations had enough skilled IT workers in place to support the shift to remote work. And while 73% of organizations stated their intention to invest further in skilled IT workers in the next 24 months, the historical lack of skilled IT security professionals could present a challenge.  

I DEMIA, the global leader in Augmented Identity, launches iCube, an innovation and incubation program to support and assist Indian startups that leverage Augmented Identity. In a fast-changing digital environment, Identity has become an in dispensable building block for making businesses and cities safer and smarter in a vast range of environments and usages including financial services, healthcare, education, food sustainability, smart cities, IoT, e-Governance, e-commerce, travel & mobility, telecom, defense and more. IDEMIA addresses these new challenges and needs with the launch of iCube, a program designed to assist and speed up startups and innovators in their product development and commercial roll-out. Pierre Barrial, President & Chief Executive Officer at IDEMIA, stated, “IDEMIA has always been at the cutting edge of innovations in making the world a smarter and safer place. We are delighted to enable startups and developers to leverage the innovations we originally developed for corporations and governments across the globe. I am thrilled that the IDEMIA Innovation and Incubation program – iCube – is launched in India, one of our most vibrant markets globally. Not only do I look forward to help startups to succeed in India, but I am equally excited about taking some of their solutions to our customers across the world. I look forward to this mutually rewarding and exciting journey of co-creation.” Sanjeev Shriya, Managing Director IDEMIA India added, “Innovation is the core of IDEMIA’s identity. Over time, we have developed cutting edge solutions with a global impact in domains like Financial Services, Citizen Identity, Telecom, IoT or M2M. Thus, we are delighted to announce the launch of iCube – the IDEMIA Innovation and Incubation program that will help build compelling solutions for a safer and better world. This program is designed to assist startups and innovators by providing them access to our expertise and technology. It aims to speed up their product development and help them get to market faster.”   To further support developers and innovators, IDEMIA has open edits application program interfaces (APIs) and launched a credit program. In addition, IDEMIA’s engineers and its industry experts will share their insights and knowledge during several sessions and talks.   iCube will also work closely with corporations in curating and co-creating solutions that may be mutually beneficial. IDEMIA will engage with startups and innovators through the following programs: Startup Assistance Program: An ongoing program providing eligible startups credits to use IDEMIA and partner organizations’ technologies and products, APIs, SDKs, and other support. Accelerator Program: A curated 3-month program to help developers and startups become better prepared for market. Developer Program: A selected opportunity for startups to co-create solutions with IDEMIA’s technology teams and business teams. Scale Fast-Track Program: A selected access for startups to IDEMIA’s global client base and opportunity to jointly go to market with IDEMIA. iCube may also provide selected startups with office space in their world class incubation facility located in Noida, India. iCube has already partnered with Lumis Partners Supply Chain Labs and Freshworks to reach out to a wider range of startups and support them in their journey. IDEMIA, the global leader in Augmented Identity, provides a trusted environment enabling citizens and consumers alike to perform their daily critical activities (such as pay, connect and travel), in the physical as well as digital space. Securing our identity has become mission critical in the world we live in today. By standing for Augmented Identity, an identity that ensures privacy and trust and guarantees secure, authenticated and verifiable transactions, we reinvent the way we think, produce, use and protect one of our greatest assets – our identity – whether for individuals or for objects, whenever and wherever security matters. We provide Augmented Identity for international clients from Financial, Telecom, Identity, Public Security and IoT sectors. With close to 15,000 employees around the world, IDEMIA serves clients in 180 countries.