Get rid of old technology; Security Dynamics are changing

Finland based Cyber Security Company, F-Secure organized a three-day ‘APJ Partner Summit’ with the vision to recognize, appreciate and underline the significant contributions of F-Secure’s valued channel partners while apprising them of the developments in the emerging threat landscape.

F-Secure Portfolio has right ingredients

“If you can't stop the threats, then at least you should have the capability to detect, and you can start countering them.” On this note and seeing the trends in Cyber Security, F-Secure is offering rapid detection service (RDS), Which is attracting a great amount of traction. This solution is very well demonstrated in the market for the customers. To know more DQ Channels has one-on-one with Samu Konttinen, CEO of F-Secure.

What are the transformations in F-Secure portfolio with respect to recent cyber attacks?

F-Secure already have a strong portfolio; we have well built portfolio in the end-point security. With recent cyber attacks, we make sure that our offering catalogue is equipped to meet the need. With our new products, we can cover the prevention and the detection part; i.e., we have the prediction capabilities for the vulnerabilities. I think the portfolio has the right ingredients, these areas which needed to go deeper. We want to make integrated platform approach so that the customers would use F-Secure products easily. For example, now while using an F-Secure product; more than one device could be connected for better security. So, that is the kind of transformation we have done. Also we are now focusing on address big enterprises.

End point detections is an emerging market in India, what is the current scenario here?

India is not standing out from the global trends. End point protection is a mature market, but still it’s growing here. Right now, there is significant thrust with many initiatives, for example Mobile banking space is rapidly evolving. So many people are using the internet and primarily with their mobile devices, not with the traditional laptops, the mobility perhaps defines India a lot.

How you see the mid market segment in India and what are the initiatives to tap them.

The mid-market segment is a high level to serve, it is underserved. Service providers only pay attention to the big enterprises. But the mid-market is real market to be served. I really want to provide solutions to them. In India, it could be facilitate by channel and the partners. We have a lot of trade partnership in India and we really led a partner based business model. Our ecosystem right now comprise of more than 200 channel partners in India.

What are the initiatives to strengthen the channel?

It's a two fold game; we have some partners for too long, we are continuously strengthening those partners. Along with it we are acquiring new channel partners as we are very ambitious and growing.

What would be the focus areas in the roadmap ahead?

We are focusing on our product catalogue on detection and vulnerability management. The paradigm shift in the market, the protection alone doesn't courage, so need to have the detection capability, so that is very strategic for F Secure and super important for the customers.

Other focus is; we want to partner with service oriented sellers and service providers, those companies which are not only re-selling F-Secure products but they are also building their own services on top of the technology they re-sell.

In the APAC region, India, South East Asia, and Japan are amongst the fastest growing markets for F-Secure. The company further envisions building on its leading position as a cybersecurity player especially in India, with the nation’s digitization drive gathering momentum. F-Secure aims to double its revenue every three years in the country.

Mikko Hypponen, Chief Research Officer, F-Secure

India is being considered as the most vulnerable country to the cyber attacks, so what we can do to get rid of this situation?

Get rid of the old technology. It’s one of the explanations that we can see so many differences in the risk rate in different countries. For instance, Windows XP is out of support for two years now, no security patches; and they are running in India. That means you are approaching towards the risks which are already fixed, they don't apply to you because you are running an old system.

Another thing is the role of operators and the telecom providers. There are some vendors which typically keep their own network clean, they monitor both traffic and they monitor the servers. They isolate the company laptops, there could be own users. In some cases they even call the customers or sometimes disconnect the customers, put them in a wild card and they explain them they can't be allowed on the internet until they clean the machine and they keep tools to clean the machine. The role of operators is crucial in keeping the networks clean and this is also beginning in India too.

In the current scenario of Indian market, do you think we have enough skills before investing in the security?

The crux of the matter is, we need better security engineering for that we need better security engineers to begin with and that is a crucial problem. We have a cap on security experts, we don't have enough qualified people in security, and this is a problem we always have to face while hiring skillful employees for F-Secure as well. That is why we are searching for the qualified people by visiting the Universities, to recruit people who are capable enough to work.

In this area, F-Secure is educating people. We run Cyber Security Base which is a course series in collaboration with University of Helsinki that focuses on building core knowledge and abilities related to the work of a cyber security professional. These are online courses anyone can access it.

With increase in trend like BYOD and BYOA (Bring your own application), with corporate giving us access of the company; what are the concerns that should be addressed to prevent attacks?

If the employee wants to access the corporate data on their own devices, then they have to follow some corporate rules. A company sets the decision of what kind of settings have to be applied on the devices and you have to apply them in your settings. So if the employee follow those guidelines well and apply them on their device, I think then there is no problem.

However, it is quite often people think that the mobile phones are less secure compare to the computers. But in actual it’s the other way around. In fact I always tell people to use tabs and Mobile phones to do critical stuffs, for example Mobile banking. If you do it from a computer you have more chances to get attacked but if you do it from your iPad then you have no reasons to worry.

What are the top things that CSO of the organization should know to secure his employee?

Firstly, they must do threat assessments for the company. Ask questions like who would like to steal by us?; do we have enemies?; do we need to worry about hactivists? Etc. For example oil companies and foreign intelligence are prone to hactivists attacks. Step two; company should build a skilled team which could handle such matters. But mostly we see, is a bit tough, in many organizations there are people already present in your organization that have the relevant skills. Step number three education, education and training.