Speak about the partnership that Check Point Software can offer to enterprises in their digital transformation journey

At Check Point Software we aim to extend architectural assistance to organizations to support their development of a proper strategy for this journey. Check Point Software understands that cloud transformation is a complex undertaking, and knows the value our customers place in our architectural workshops. Because of this, Check Point Software offers a Cloud Transformation Security Consultancy service designed specifically around cloud transformation. This service provides an efficient and thorough platform for transitioning corporate security programs to a digital future. Our advisors help customers understand the security design patterns of multiple cloud use cases (Public/Private IaaS, security of cloud, and through cloud, and many more).

Ram Narayanan, Country Manager at Check Point Software – ME

Discuss the role of cloud and its services in digital transformation

Cloud adoption has grown rapidly in recent years. While many organizations were already moving to the cloud, the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated this transition. With the normalization of remote work, companies needed to be able to support and provide critical services to their off-site workforce. As a result, over 98% of organizations use some form of cloud-based infrastructure, and over three-quarters (76%) have multi-cloud deployments composed of services from two or more cloud providers. These cloud environments host critical business applications and store sensitive company and customer data.

Some of the key benefits from moving to the cloud include:

• Shifting business models from Capex to Opex, so that companies pay only for what they use, be it IaaS, PaaS or SaaS.
• Scalability, where computing, network, and storage capacities can be increased
• Agility, where developers can make continuous improvements
• High availability, disaster recovery, and redundancy are improved by cloud vendors

How do you distinguish between Check Point Software and its competitors in offering cyber protection?

Check Point Software Technologies provides cyber security solutions to corporate enterprises and governments globally. The company’s solutions protect customers against Gen V, zero-day attacks with an industry leading catch rate of malware, ransomware and advanced targeted threats. Check Point Software’s Gen V protection is focused on attack prevention, to stop attacks from even entering networks, and speed of response. We address organizations’ most imminent cyber security needs based on three core principles:

• Prevention-first approach: It deploys pre-emptive user protections to eliminate threats before they reach the users
• Gold Standard Management: Single pane of glass to manage the entire security estate
• Consolidated Solution: A unified cybersecurity approach that strengthens defenses while improving agility against all forms of attack

Elaborate on the opportunities of SMEs and large enterprises while choosing to transform digital applications and devices

Digital transformation empowers organizations to expand business opportunities, increase profitability and efficiency, while reducing operational costs. However, digital transformation can also expose enterprises to a variety of vulnerabilities and challenges that if not properly addressed could result in financial loss, identity theft, and leakage of private and sensitive information.

Tell us about the anti-phishing and ransomware strategies enforced by Check Point Software in favor of its customers

Phishing is one of the most talked about cyber-attack, and for a good reason. It can come in many shapes and forms, as it is constantly evolving and introducing new ways of tricking users using their biggest weakness – their human nature. Check Point Software’s anti-phishing solutions includes different products to address different attack vectors from which phishing attacks come:

• Harmony Email & Office – It deploys between the inbox and its native security
• Harmony Endpoint – Zero-Phishing identifies and blocks the use of phishing sites in real time
• Harmony Mobile – Check Point Software’s Zero-Phishing technology for mobile devices. It allows organizations to combat zero-day phishing attacks by inspecting the web page itself and making an informed determination as to whether it is a phishing site or not

Check Point Software’s Anti-Ransomware, a ransomware protection solution, protects organizations from the most sophisticated ransomware attacks, and safely recovers encrypted data, ensuring business continuity and productivity.

By Rick Peters, Fortinet

For years, operational technology (OT) systems have been working to control everything from factories to transportation networks to utilities. The reality is most citizens don’t think about these systems until there is a problem. That is why the attack against Colonial Pipeline in May 2021 was so startling. The attack on a segment of the enterprise transcended IT and resulted in a temporary but severe disruption of the OT based fuel supplies and led the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to issue an advisory urging critical infrastructure (CI) asset owners and operators to take on a heightened state of awareness.

Rick Peters, CISO Operational Technology, Fortinet

Unfortunately, the attack against Colonial Pipeline isn’t the first or last time an adversarial cyberattack on an OT target will make headlines. Malicious cyberattacks are likely to increase given the opportunities for mission impact, social anxiety, and profit that disrupting systems and stealing intellectual property from OT and IT systems represent.

OT cyber events also have demonstrated the consequence of failing to invest and commit proportionally to a cybersecurity strategy. For years OT system owners relied on the “air gap” that separated OT systems from IT to protect them. But as more and more OT organizations digitally connect OT infrastructures such as supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems with IT networks, the resulting evaporation of the air gap has dramatically increased the level of risk. Given this situation, it is not a surprise that in the “2021 State of Operational Technology and Cybersecurity Report” 9 out of 10 OT organizations experienced at least one intrusion in the past year and 63% had three or more intrusions.

To protect cyber-physical assets, OT organizations need to commit to a proactive cybersecurity strategy, paying particular attention to visibility, control, and behavior analysis. It’s critical to protect every point of connection to the outside world to proactively safeguard OT.

OT Is No Longer a Niche Exploit

In the past, exploits against SCADA or industrial control systems (ICS) were viewed as an infrequent subset of highly structured and often nation-state-sponsored targeted attacks. But the OT market is expected to continue to grow through 2027 at a CAGR of 6.40%. Relying on obscurity as a defense strategy doesn’t work anymore; it’s practically an invitation to cybercriminals to penetrate and ultimately compromise OT systems. Although IT-related exploits are still more prevalent, according to the Global Threat Landscape Report from FortiGuard Labs, a growing number of exploits are targeting OT. The long-held perception that ICS exploits are an obscure niche of the cyber threat landscape is simply no longer the case.

Why Now?

In the past, OT attacks were the domain of specialized threat actors who knew how to exploit ICS and SCADA systems. But now, many of those tools are being packaged as attack kits on the dark web, so they are available to a much broader set of less technical attackers. The motivations behind the attacks are ranging from gaining a profit through extortion, stealing intellectual property to simply testing infrastructure resilience. The attacks offer a side benefit in that they create a climate of uncertainty and can force actions by executives in the government and commercial sector. The headlines generated from a successful attack on OT infrastructure only serve to amplify these effects.

The Need for Better Visibility

The rapid expansion in the threat landscape and the increase in attacks demonstrate the increased need for integration between enterprise solutions and operational infrastructure. In most cases, security considerations need to extend to on-premise systems and extend to the Internet of Things (IoT) and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) devices. It’s also important to have an infrastructure control strategy that restricts and contains suspicious activity and behavior. At a minimum, organizations should implement zero-trust network access (ZTNA), which limits user or device access to only those resources required to perform a specific role or function. ZTNA also strictly limits the range and level of engagement, which serves to restrict an activity if a system is compromised.

OT organizations that put comprehensive security policies in place give themselves an advantage over threat actors and can limit the impact of a breach. OT infrastructure is no longer benefiting from obscurity and the adoption of near-universal convergence of IT and OT networks implies traditionally isolated environments are no longer safe. Organizations must take proactive steps to harden OT environments, including integrating tools and practices designed to protect, detect, and respond to threats in real-time. Although attacks are inevitable, they don’t have to be successful.

By Fadi Kanafani, Managing Director

How does NetApp become a trusted partner for enterprises that chose cloud solutions?

NetApp is a cloud-led, data-centric organization supported by a global team of cloud storage specialists. We offer unmatched control, insight, simplicity, protection, and efficiency for applications in the cloud. We collaborate with the world’s leading cloud providers -AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud to deliver native solutions in their cloud and offer our customers the best value. NetApp offers customers simplicity in moving their data from whichever platform to the cloud – be it private cloud, on-premise, hybrid, or public cloud, and the flexibility in managing their applications and data spread across different environments without the complexity. We help our customers manage their entire cloud environment and data consistently no matter where it lives.

Fadi Kanafani

What sorts of simplicity does NetApp include in data management through its cloud platforms?

We help customers implement the best cloud storage solutions as part of the data fabric, so businesses can manage their data holistically – no matter where it resides. NetApp offers the public cloud data storage solution that includes a complete, integrated set of data management features to protect and secure customer data, assure business continuity, simplify compliance, preserve integrity, and control access. Our analytics platform – NetApp Cloud Insights and Cloud Data Sense- provides customers with actionable intelligence across their entire IT infrastructure – on-premises and in the public cloud.

The NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP is our cloud-based service available on Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud that delivers advanced data management for file and block workloads. It helps businesses optimize cloud storage costs and increases application performance while enhancing data protection, security, and compliance. It is self-managed through NetApp Cloud Manager, our single-pane management console for all of the ONTAP instances deployed across hybrid cloud infrastructure.

By Walid Issa, Senior Manager, PreSales and Solutions Engineers – Middle East and Africa

Speak about the partnership with major cloud-space providers. How does NetApp make it beneficial for its customers?

NetApp is uniquely positioned in the market with our long-term collaboration with public cloud providers helping deliver outstanding performance and maximum portability. We provide a portfolio of services for running applications in these clouds that reduce cloud costs by up to 90%. Our platform enables customers to run enterprise applications such as SAP, Oracle, SQL, and high-performance compute jobs – for example, in oil and gas exploration and genomics.

Walis Issa

In a partnership spanning nearly 20 years with Microsoft, we have jointly delivered innovative products that help organizations manage their data anywhere. Azure NetApp Files gives businesses world-class data management with the performance, simplicity, and cost savings you need to migrate your most challenging workloads to Azure.

Through our partnership with Google Cloud, we provide customers with agility, scalability, and security—all the critical elements to drive our customers’ digital transformation needs. NetApp integrated data services simplify how businesses migrate, run, and manage critical workloads on Google Cloud. It gives businesses the power to harness Google’s advanced analytics capabilities to help solve their toughest challenges while saving up to 70% on cloud storage costs

Our partnership with AWS goes back nearly a decade. We have shared a determined focus to help our customers build solutions, reduce costs, and innovate faster in the cloud. With NetApp’s data management capabilities integrated with the scale of AWS, businesses can migrate, build, and manage more cloud at less cost.

Tell us about the opportunities in front of small and large enterprises in the digital transformation era

The need to adapt and change direction quickly is a core principle of a digital business. Enterprise businesses would look to technology as a source of competitive differentiation in terms of improving their customer experience, automating some customer functions, and their call centers. And therefore, from a cloud perspective, they would want to combine public clouds, private clouds, and on-premises resources to gain the agility it needs for a competitive advantage.

Keep in mind that successful digital transformation relies on the intelligent use of data, Enterprise businesses can leverage data to improve the security of their products and services, and to expand customer engagement. They can also use artificial intelligence (AI) and deep learning (DL) to realize operational insights and improvements, drive decision making, ensure compliance, improve customer experience, and reduce operational costs.

Briefly compare between private and public cloud in the aspect of enterprise business

Public cloud is the on-demand availability of IT resources such as computers, storage, and infrastructure over the internet via a third-party provider or what is known today as cloud providers or hyperscalers. The private cloud is an internal equivalent to the public cloud. This is driven by the ability to easily consume and modify resource allocation through a self-service method that requires little interaction with users’ internal IT teams. Contrary to popular belief, private clouds aren’t only deployed on-premises. Private clouds might be owned by one organization and managed by another organization like local service providers in a different physical location.

Note that not everything belongs in a public cloud or a private cloud which is why so many forward-thinking companies are choosing a hybrid mixture of cloud services. Hybrid clouds offer the benefits of both public and private clouds and take advantage of existing architecture in a data center.

By Maya Zakhour, Channel Director – Middle East & Africa, Italy and Spain

How do you feel about being a known representation of women in the tech world? What advice do you have for women who aspire for a big and bold career in the tech industry? 

Maya Zakhour

To be recognized as a technology industry influencer is the culmination of years of hard work and dedication to my job and my constant journey of learning and adapting. But this journey doesn’t just end here – I use this recognition to encourage other young women to consider a career in technology, as the options here are endless. Building a career in technology is hard work and some women may feel reluctant to enter technology careers because they are afraid, they do not have enough technical knowledge. However, having curiosity, not technological background, is the top reason one will succeed in the tech industry. You start from the ground and build your way up – no matter what field of technology you choose.

I strongly believe that curiosity will inspire you to identify the problems and dig out the root causes. Careers in technology are not just about acquiring technical knowledge, but about demonstrating leadership and mentorship.

Speak about the nature of cloud protection Acronis offers to its enterprise customers

Acronis has a global team looking at all the threats which are out there. Whenever there is a new big vulnerability or some outbreak, we verify that we do protect enterprises against it also attempt to block it earlier in the attack chain.

We have a multi-layered approach from patch management to patch hotfix abilities. Besides analyzing vulnerabilities and carrying out behavior-based detection on applications, installed on your system, we are providing backup and disaster recovery services to enterprises so that they can restore all the data without any loss.

Candid Wüest – VP Cyber Protection Research at Acronis

What sorts of vulnerabilities are to be identified and fixed?

Software vulnerabilities are the normal mistakes that programmers make. Some of them just reveal information, which is bad for privacy but not really bad from a security standpoint. However, the fact is you are compromised and vulnerable to cyber-attacks.

How do you help enterprises align the security standards, secure work environments, and remove vulnerabilities?

The key aspect is the visibility of your infrastructure. During the pandemic, lots of companies have shifted their employees to work from home or from anywhere, and of course, moved into the cloud for data services. More private/non-office networks are involved at this stage and vulnerabilities can be hosted by smart devices that are connected to these networks.

Most companies are forced to use multiple solutions to keep their data protected. We surveyed at the beginning of this year found out that 21 percent of the enterprises are using more than 10 solutions in parallel. That creates huge complexity and chances for some mistakes to be made. Acronis offers one agent that handles the job of all these solutions and keeps the work environment seamless.

What is your take on cloud services that enterprises are subscribed to and what are your recommendations?

We are agnostic about data centers, we can work with local storage, classical services, i.e., Azure and Amazon, or your private cloud if companies run themselves but we also have a strong focus on our own data centers. Acronis has about 40 different data centers around the globe because we want to have this local approach – an inside data center in your own country or region. E.g., GCC region.

When we operate through our own data centers, we can get the data encrypted and backed up. So even if someone could access those clouds, which they cannot, they would still not be able to get the data of anyone. We also offer hybrid models – some companies do have local backups still can have one backup into our cloud.

Tell us a bit about your regional goals and the amount of competition you face in the region

The Middle East is a very important strategic region for us. Our regional interest is to have strong partners in the region; be it in the UAE or the countries around it.

We don’t see any big competition that can cover all of those aspects of our service. With classical security, antivirus, anti-ransomware together with patch management and remote access in one solution is still an unexplored area even by major solutions providers.

Candid Wüest is the VP of Cyber Protection Research at Acronis, where he researches on new threat trends and comprehensive protection methods.

The pandemic accelerated remote work for many Saudi organizations. 91% of organizations now have remote employees, up from just 34% in early 2020.  Moving forward, the vast majority of organizations (91%) plan to adopt this remote working model permanently.

To facilitate the new world of work, cloud adoption has surged. Seventy-seven percent of Saudi organizations have moved business-critical functions to the cloud — including human resources (80%) and accounting and finance (60%).

However, this change to working practices has increased organizations’ risks. By their own admission, 63% of Saudi organizations are prepared to support new workforce strategies from a security standpoint, while 67% believe moving business-critical functions to the cloud exposes the organization to increased cyber risk.

When looking at the impact of this increased risk, threat actors are taking advantage. Ninety-eight percent of organizations experienced a business-impacting cyberattack in the last 12 months, with 33% falling victim to five or more. Fifty-seven percent of Saudi organizations said these attacks targeted remote employees.

“Remote and hybrid work strategies are here to stay and so will the risks they introduce unless organizations get a handle on what their new attack surface looks like,” said Amit Yoran, CEO, Tenable. “This study reveals two paths forward — one riddled with unmanaged risk and unrelenting cyberattacks and another that accelerates business productivity and operations in a secure way. CISOs and CEOs have the opportunity and responsibility to securely harness the power of technology and manage cyber risk for the new world of work.”

IT and security teams are quickly rolling out tools for connectivity, collaboration, and productivity, while also moving business-critical data to the cloud to support a remote and hybrid working environment. Organizations must reevaluate their approach to maintaining security, aligned to the business, to effectively reduce the risks introduced.

“The pandemic has seen the corporate perimeter shattered,” said Maher Jadallah, Senior Director Middle East & North Africa, Tenable. “Cloud adoption and remote working practices were being cautiously adopted in Saudi, but in the last eighteen months, this transition has exponentially accelerated. Attackers have seized on the opportunity, as this study reveals, which means understanding what poses a risk to the business and managing that risk effectively is imperative.”

Forrester Consulting conducted an online survey of 20 security leaders, 37 business executives, and 47 remote workers (i.e., full-time employees working three or more days from home) in The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. These are a subset of a wider study of 426 security leaders, 422 business executives, and 479 remote workers as well as six telephonic interviews with business and security executives, to explore shifts in cybersecurity strategies at large enterprises made in response to the pandemic. The study was fielded in Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, India, Japan, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, the UK, and the US in April 2021.