It is day three of GITEX and I’ve been talking from morning to night with CIOs, IT executives and partners. But I’m not tired...I’m actually energised. Energised because now more than ever before I am seeing how Symantec is an integral piece of the puzzle at the heart of Middle East organizations – and that is exciting!
In making the rounds at this premiere IT event for the Middle East, one of the resounding subjects in every discussion has been cyber security threats. The recent blaze of high profile attacks in the region has brought to life the growing concern and deeper awareness of the threats that organisations are facing today and how to protect their information and minimize the risks from undue downtime, unwanted costs and damage to brand reputation.
It is clear that endpoint security is no longer enough, and organisations need to employ a defence in-depth security strategy that includes a mix of aware, educated end users; strict policies and procedures around testing security vulnerabilities, securing information and responding to issues that may arise; and having up to date technologies.
Take a home for example; we all want our families to be safe at home in much the same way an organisation wants its information to be secured. Picture a house that has strong security – an alarm system, security camera’s showing various points of entry and electric fencing on the perimeter. Sounds secure doesn’t it? But what happens if someone at home forgets to set the alarm at night? Or if the cameras are rolling but nobody’s watching? Or if a power failure turns off the electric fence? Now you have a home with all the nuts and bolts, but a house that under these new circumstances, isn’t really protected at all.
The same is true with IT security and this is where one of the hot topics at GITEX this year comes in: Managed Security Services or MSS.
But what is MSS? To start explaining MSS, I like to pose two pertinent questions:
- How is your company staying abreast of the cyber threat landscape when the rate of change continues to accelerate, with new attacks, malware variants and vulnerabilities emerging every day?
- If a malware or targeted attack were to hit your organization at 3am on a Saturday, would there be a team on duty to respond? Or would your organization be at risk until the next working day?
Symantec’s Managed Security Services blends industry leading security technology with the expertise from top security analysts providing 24/7, around the clock monitoring of the entire security framework. Being connected to Symantec’s Global Intelligence Network means that organizations benefit from an unparalleled source of Internet threat data to identify new and evolving threats with more than 240,000 sensors in over 200 countries monitoring attack activity, and more than 133 million systems providing malicious code intelligence.
In addition, MSS allows an organization to outsource their security threat monitoring to experts in real time, while helping the organization build and sustain a resilient incident management program. By outsourcing security monitoring and management an organization can reduce investments in security operations infrastructure and redeploy basic security operations staff to other mission critical operations.
MSS has been the talk of the town in recent weeks and now at GITEX, especially when it comes to larger enterprise customers like banks and Telco’s in the region, not to mention energy companies and other government entities. With over 10 years experience in offering managed security services – Symantec offers customers in the Middle East with unparalleled expertise and know how in IT security so that our customers can feel at ease and protected.
So let me ask you again: With all things considered, how do you view your organisation’s “real” security posture?