Organizations are constantly coming forward to deploy robust security solutions as an accurate approach to secure their digital transformation journey. Nowadays, cybercriminals are using all possible ways to breach the security cover of organizations irrespective of their size. Recently, studies conducted across the world have seen that India is one of the most cyberattacked countries worldwide. Keeping such huge threats in mind, organizations need to rework on their cybersecurity strategies. Making the same issue a topic of discussion, Rajeev Ranjan, Editor, Digital Terminal recently interacted with Pamela Ong, Sales Director – APAC at ESET. The discussion revolved around the overall market scenario, increasing cyber incidents, and solutions offered by ESET. Read below the excerpts:
Rajeev: Being a major player in the Indian cybersecurity industry, how is ESET working to bolster its market position and secure a good market share in FY 2021?
Pamela: India is a key market for ESET and the past year has been incredibly busy one for us as we made available various new security products and solutions, established new tie-ups with local partners and invested to expand our business operations in India. We have also recently announced our collaboration with Ingram Micro India to ensure a wider audience and channel partners have access to our security solutions through Ingram Micro Cloud Marketplace. To better support these customers in the current business climate, we are also providing a monthly subscription option. Looking forward to 2021, we foresee renewed interest in data security as businesses in India continue to evolve digitally and prepare themselves to comply with future regulations on personal data protection. ESET is well-positioned to benefit from this, our security solutions and services are designed to help businesses secure their IT infrastructure as well as to meet various compliance requirements including personal data protection laws. We are confident 2021 will be another positive year for us and our partners in India.
Rajeev: How are cyber criminals exploiting the vulnerable IT infrastructure of Indian enterprises?
Pamela: Based on our study, the three top causes of security breaches faced by enterprises in India were human errors, phishing and ransomware attacks. This correlates with ESET telemetry which has shown that in Q3 2020, the most commonly detected threats remained those that manipulated humans into clicking and enabling malicious macros usually embedded in email attachments. When executed, a malicious macro would typically download and run a multitude of different types of malware including those that allow backdoor access for bad actors to siphon off highly sensitive data. Regardless of the payloads and the techniques used by cybercriminals, enterprises should take note that cyberattacks are usually targeted and persistent. We have also seen a trend of ransomware operators using APT (advanced persistent threats) tactics; they will conspire with other bad actors that have planted backdoors, to gain access into corporate networks to deploy ransomware. Such backdoors can remain undetected for months or even years. Therefore, it is crucial for enterprises evaluate their security posture regularly, to ensure that they are using the right products with capabilities to proactively detect APT and targeted attacks before any data breach occurs.
Rajeev: How are you working to bring advanced enterprise security solutions? How do you see the opportunities in enterprise business?
Pamela: ESET is a R&D-focused company with around 40% of our staff worldwide work in research and development. We constantly introduce new products and technologies to keep both ESET customers and the world at large safe from the latest and most advanced cyberthreats. We have recently launched our own endpoint detection and response security solution (EDR) - ESET Enterprise Inspector, to partners and businesses in India. This advanced tool allows IT admins to monitor network activities in real time, run in-depth analysis of suspicious processes and swiftly response to cybersecurity breaches. It offers complete prevention, detection and remediation to ransomware, zero-day threats and APT when used together with our award-winning ESET Endpoint Protection Platform.
As news and information are now at everyone’s fingertips, businesses are also becoming more proactive with regards to setting up their cybersecurity defences. More than 60% of India’s security software market is made up of medium and large-sized businesses, we see tremendous opportunities for ESET and our partners to help these organisations to secure their IT infrastructure and sensitive data as they push ahead with their digitalisation plans.
Rajeev: What according to you are those important things that modern CTOs/CIOs are missing in their strategies for keeping their organizations well protected from advanced cyber incidents?
Pamela: CTOs and CIOs need to take note that the threat landscape is constantly evolving and possible attack vectors for launching successful attacks are virtually endless as both machines and humans are susceptible to cyberattacks. In light of the new normal, IT infrastructure will no longer be physically confined to the office’s four walls. Virtualising devices as being on-premise is no longer sufficient to maintain governance on how off-premise devices, work or otherwise, connected to the corporate network are being used.
This is why security models such as zero trust approach, microsegmentation, and dynamic security are the ways forward. These policies maintain strict access controls by creating monitorable and controllable secure zones with continuous verification of the device’s identity and its user. Even with this, breaches may still occur. Therefore, organisations must be able to maintain full visibility of devices and users that are connected to the corporate network in order to detect anomalies or any indication of breaches. The answer to this is cloud-based security management along with an EDR solution that is capable in collecting data point history to indicate signs of possible breaches and remediate them.
Rajeev: Please tell about your existing and upcoming security solution offerings which can provide the maximum support to the SMBs in combating any security breach.
Pamela: ESET Enterprise Inspector is an excellent solution to combat security breaches as it enables organisations to uncover sophisticated cyberattacks and take necessary action to prevent security breaches from happening. Deploying an EDR tool would require IT personnel who are trained in cybersecurity and we understand not many SMBs have such resources at their disposal. To enable more businesses to benefit from what EDR has to offer, we have recently teamed up with a local partner Sattrix Information Security to make available Managed EDR security service to businesses in India.
With this, businesses will get end-to-end support that includes local technical support, solutions management, regular security posture assessment, threat hunting and round-the-clock threat monitoring. All these will take place in Sattrix’s Security Operations Centre (SOC) using ESET Enterprise Inspector. Additionally, ESET recognises that the pandemic poses a great challenge for many small businesses, and we aim to help these companies to build cybersecurity resilience during these unprecedented times. As such, we curated a new security solutions bundle that are designed for businesses with as few as five devices to protect themselves from various cyber threats regardless of where their employees are working from. It also comes with powerful encryption software so small businesses can increase their data security to meet compliance regulations. The bundle is affordably priced, with up to 50% of savings compared to purchasing products individually.
Rajeev: How important do you see the role of channel partners for you in India? Please brief about your complete channel strength and upcoming plans for the channel.
Pamela: As a channel-focused business, we value our partners as an important extension of the team. They bring valuable knowledge and experiences around India’s evolving tech landscape and consumers. Our channel partners are important in helping us strengthen our go-to-market strategy and expand our brand presence to all corners of India. Recently, ESET has been reaffirmed as a ‘Champion’ – the highest possible status - in the 2020 Canalys Global Cybersecurity Leadership Matrix. Canalys has recognised us for our for ongoing improvements in channel processes to drive simplicity and ease of doing business, willingness to boost growth opportunities for partners as well as commitment to growing the share of revenue generated through the channel. We have also received the highest global channel feedback score ahead of 16 other cybersecurity vendors. In the coming months, we will continue to expand our partner base to widen the availability of our business solutions and services across India. We foresee huge opportunities to support the India government in line with the Digital India initiative to transform the country into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy. We are excited to work closely with existing channel partners and the potential ones to build on India’s digital narrative.