ENTERPRISE TECHNOLOGY
and impersonation fraud cripple networks,
cause downtime and expose valuable
corporate data and intellectual property.
The cyber crime landscape is constantly
evolving and what worked for email security
just six or 12 months ago is no longer
sufficient. The days of relying on basic anti-
spam and anti-virus protection are gone.
The most dangerous attacks are not high-
volume assaults but rather highly targeted
ones, enabled with just a handful of emails.
Part of the challenge is pulling the bad
needles out of the huge email haystack.
Businesses who previously weren’t in
the cloud are starting to make the move
through solutions such as Microsoft’s
Office 365 or Google Apps for Work.
However, while users are usually happy
with these services in the beginning, they
start to realise that they need to adopt
additional tools to supplement their
security needs.
According to Mimecast’s recent
Email Security Risk Assessment (ESRA),
an analysis report measuring the
effectiveness of email security systems,
millions of missed email threats are
getting through incumbent email security
vendors or cloud email services. Over a
period of 153 days, 23,744 email users and
26 million emails were tested by Mimecast
ESRA testing. Mimecast uncovered
almost 3.5 million pieces of spam, 6,681
dangerous file types, 1,207 known and 421
unknown malware attachments and 1,697
impersonation attacks.
There needs to be a shift from not
only focusing on prevention but including
detection and response in a company’s
security strategy. The channel will play
Jason Roos, Channel and Alliances Director
at Mimecast.
Businesses need
to start predicting
what’s coming,
even before
anything happens.
Jason Roos, Channel and Alliances
Director at Mimecast.
a major role in educating organisations
about thinking holistically when it comes to
protecting their businesses. Over the course
of the next year, we will see companies
implementing a cyber resilience strategy
to safeguard against email-borne threats
and mitigate risk. This means adapting
your security setup to focus on detection,
response and remediation. Businesses also
need to start predicting what’s coming,
even before anything happens.
To achieve a comprehensive cyber
resilience strategy, organisations will first
need to assess the actual capabilities of
their current email security solution. With
the help of the channel, they can then
ensure there’s a plan in place to cover
advanced security, data management and
business continuity, as well as running
awareness training for employees. This
will help prevent attacks and mitigate
business impact.
in this region as it can impact uptime and
overall service levels. In terms of plans to
deploy, there is a major focus on end-to-end
coverage with advanced security systems,
making it apparent that respondents
want to simplify and improve control over
securing their organisation’s assets.
Partners, especially those that deal
with SMEs and enterprises, should start
moving away from a single product-
selling approach to a long-term service
based model. While selecting vendors
especially in the security domain, partners
should go for a vendor that provides a
comprehensive security portfolio. This
would be beneficial for their customers
to have single window support. Partners
can also reach the higher level of the
partnership if they have multiple products
from one vendor to be sold to their
customer ecosystem.
SOPHOS
Harish Chib, Vice President,
Middle East & Africa
The Sophos-sponsored InfoBrief
Synchronized Security Market Analysis –
Middle East & Africa, developed by IDC,
revealed that MEA countries represented
a total security solutions market potential
of nearly $1.89 billion in 2015, which is
expected to increase at a CAGR of 9.3% to
a total of $2.94 billion in 2020 as per the
IDC Worldwide Security Spending Guide,
H12016. Close to 42% of organisations
in MEA felt ‘highly confident’ of their
security posture. It was clear from the
responses that, in addition to threat
landscape complexity, organisations do
not have a holistic strategy when it comes
to deploying their security solutions. With
the increase in sophisticated attacks across
the region, companies are now looking for
smarter and simpler IT security solutions.
IT security is a top priority for companies
Harish Chib, Vice President, Middle East
& Africa
While selecting
vendors especially
in the security
domain, partners
should go for
a vendor that
provides a
comprehensive
security portfolio.
Harish Chib, vice president, Middle
East & Africa
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