Intelligent Tech Channels Issue 45 | Page 52

MAHMOUD SAMY , VICE PRESIDENT & MANAGING DIRECTOR – EMEA EMERGING MARKETS AND EASTERN EUROPE , FORCEPOINT

Q & A

EDITOR ’ S

The IT and security teams have really come into the spotlight and earned recognition for being instrumental in leading their organisations ’ transition to this new remote work environment . At board level , this transition forced them to see real value in Digital Transformation efforts across multiple areas in an organisation . As a result , the roles of CIOs and CISOs have developed and grown in importance .

Our current situation has forced a rapid shift towards supporting large groups of remote workers ushering in a new way of working . This forced rapid development has

MAHMOUD SAMY , VICE PRESIDENT & MANAGING DIRECTOR – EMEA EMERGING MARKETS AND EASTERN EUROPE , FORCEPOINT

placed more importance on protecting users and data in hybrid IT environments . As users and data is everywhere , it has created a challenging reality for CISOs to secure users and data anywhere , at any time , on any device .
The main focus and on-going challenge is about protecting users and data in a distributed and diverse environment , one that bridges traditional on-premises infrastructures , including the home office , to multi-cloud and multi-SaaS ones .
That said creating an effective cybersecurity plan starts with assessing the current state of security in the organisation . Conducting a risk assessment can go a long way by identifying the data , devices , people , policies and the architecture that ’ s in place while planning for a worst-case scenario . The assessment would also highlight any weak spots and identify the areas where the CIO needs to add additional layers of security . A chain is only as strong as its
The top priority must be to protect the Edge and avoid any security gaps as outlined above . One way to do this is through comprehensive Security-As-a-Service platforms . weakest link and uncovering and managing risk is key . Once all the risks are identified , a portfolio of solutions , countermeasures are policies are implemented .
Many of our customers are going through a difficult transition , still dealing with the fallout of lockdowns and remote working changes . We helped our customers on their remote work journey as they implemented their Business Continuity plans and ensured their NGFW and VPN access was scalable , we took them through application access in their clouds , using a mixture of legacy and cloud apps .
The top priority must be to protect the Edge and avoid any security gaps as outlined above . One way to do this is through comprehensive Security-Asa-Service ( SaaS ) platforms . Forcepoint uses cloud-based security platforms that use behaviour analytics to understand human behaviour to proactively detect risk and secure data and IP . As mentioned , these incorporate both CARTA and SASE approaches as industry best practices .
SASE brings network and security to the cloud and this converged cloud security architecture brings data security , cloud access security , web security , network security , advanced threat protection , and Zero Trust networking – all under one platform . Organisations can adopt SASE architecture to secure all centrally important modules of the organisation . CARTA uses the premise that users need to be continually monitored for risk , starting with Zero Trust as the Edge . Forcepoint uses the CARTA risk adaptive approach to continuously detect and prevent insider threats .
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