Infinigate Appoints Kai Grunwitz as Chief Growth Officer to Accelerate Global Expansion

The Infinigate Group has strengthened its executive leadership team with the appointment of Kai Grunwitz (PICTURED) as Chief Growth Officer (CGO), underlining the company's ambitions to accelerate growth across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the Asia-Pacific region.

The move comes as cybersecurity, cloud computing and network infrastructure continue to evolve rapidly, with artificial intelligence reshaping both opportunities and cyber threats. Infinigate believes the new role will help drive its long-term strategy while creating greater value for technology vendors and channel partners.

As Chief Growth Officer, Grunwitz will lead several of the company's key strategic priorities. His responsibilities will include expanding Infinigate's vendor portfolio, developing new value-added services and solutions, strengthening relationships with channel partners, and enhancing the company's marketing and brand presence across EMEA and ANZ.

Grunwitz brings more than three decades of experience in the global technology sector, having held senior leadership positions with some of the industry's biggest names. During his career he has worked for Sun Microsystems, Oracle and NTT DATA, serving in a variety of executive roles including Chief Executive Officer of NTT Germany, Senior Vice President of NTT Security EMEA, and Head of Transformational Portfolio, Innovation and Alliances at NTT DATA EMEAL. Most recently, he was President of Kyndryl Germany.

Commenting on his appointment, Grunwitz said he was excited to join Infinigate at a time of significant change for the cybersecurity industry.

He told That's Technology: "As AI transforms the technology landscape and reshapes cyber risk, the role of specialised value-added distribution has never been more critical," he said. "With its market-leading portfolio, extensive vendor ecosystem and strong thought leadership, Infinigate is uniquely positioned to help vendors and channel partners capture the opportunities ahead."

Marco van Kalleveen, Chief Executive Officer of Infinigate Group, welcomed the appointment, describing it as an important milestone in the company's continued expansion.

He said the newly created Chief Growth Officer position would play a central role in delivering Infinigate's ambitious strategy and praised Grunwitz's leadership experience, market knowledge and industry credibility.

The appointment reflects the growing importance of specialist cybersecurity distributors as organisations increasingly seek trusted partners to navigate complex digital transformation projects, strengthen cyber resilience and capitalise on emerging AI-driven technologies.

With demand for advanced cybersecurity solutions continuing to rise, Infinigate is positioning itself to expand its influence across international markets while helping vendors and channel partners seize new opportunities in an increasingly sophisticated threat landscape.

For more information about the company and its services, visit Infinigate http://www.infinigate.com

AI Is Shrinking Cyber Attack Windows. Can Your Security Team Keep Up?

Horizon3.ai launches Rapid Response to help organisations identify genuine cyber risks as AI-driven attacks reduce vulnerability exploit windows to less than 24 hours.

The race between cybercriminals and security teams is accelerating, and artificial intelligence is changing the rules faster than ever before.

Security specialist Horizon3.ai has unveiled a new capability called Rapid Response, designed to help organisations identify and prioritise genuine security risks as AI dramatically reduces the time between a vulnerability being discovered and attackers exploiting it.

For years, cybersecurity teams have battled an overwhelming stream of vulnerability reports, security advisories and threat intelligence alerts. The challenge has never been finding vulnerabilities. The challenge has been figuring out which ones actually matter.

Thousands of new vulnerabilities are disclosed every year, but only a small percentage are actively exploited by attackers. Yet security teams are often forced to treat every alert as urgent, creating a flood of noise that can distract from the threats that pose the greatest business risk.

According to Horizon3.ai, analysis from more than 250,000 NodeZero security assessments shows that exploitability is the key factor. A vulnerability that can be exploited today presents a far greater risk than one that simply exists on paper.

That distinction is becoming increasingly important as AI-powered tools enable attackers to discover weaknesses and develop exploits at unprecedented speed. Security experts warn that exploit windows are now shrinking to less than 24 hours in some cases, leaving organisations with very little time to react.

Rapid Response aims to tackle that problem by combining emerging threat intelligence, exposure validation and automated testing. Rather than forcing security teams to investigate every headline vulnerability, the platform helps determine whether an organisation is genuinely exposed, which systems are affected and what actions should be prioritised first.

The company’s Attack Team continuously evaluates newly disclosed vulnerabilities based on factors such as attacker interest, ease of exploitation and the popularity of affected technologies. When a high-risk vulnerability emerges, production-safe validation tests can often be developed within hours.

The result is a more focused approach to vulnerability management. Security teams can quickly identify exploitable assets, verify whether mitigations have worked, track remediation progress and demonstrate measurable risk reduction to leadership teams.

As AI continues to transform both offensive and defensive cybersecurity, the days of spending weeks assessing every new vulnerability may be coming to an end.

The message from Horizon3.ai is clear: in an era where attackers can move in hours, organisations need to focus on what can actually be exploited, not simply what appears on a vulnerability list.

https://horizon3.ai/intelligence/blogs/exploit-window-shrinking-rapid-response

Best-in-class sales and operational efficiency, with over 5,200 organisations worldwide relying on NodeZero

Horizon3.ai, the AI-native proactive security leader, today announced strong FY2026 growth, with annual recurring revenue (ARR) increasing 102% year over year. This momentum is driven by rapid enterprise and MSSP adoption, as organisations turn to NodeZero to identify and eliminate exploitable attack paths in production environments.

In excess of 5,200 organisations globally, from Fortune 10 enterprises to local school districts, hospitals, manufacturers, financial institutions, defence contractors, and government agencies, rely on NodeZero to continuously validate and harden their defences in production environments.

Key business and operational metrics include:

● 125% Net Dollar Retention, reflecting expansion from pentesting into broader exposure management use cases

● 94% Gross Dollar Retention, demonstrating strong customer retention and increasing testing frequency

● 32% of Q4 bookings originated by channel partners

Approximately 70% of customers are serviced through Managed Security Service Providers (MSSPs), one of the company’s fastest-growing segments. MSSPs are using NodeZero to deliver continuous validation services while expanding into higher-value offerings such as remediation, threat hunting, SOC optimisation, and advisory services.

“MSSPs play a critical role, especially in international markets where local relationships and trust matter,” Snehal Antani, CEO and Co-Founder of Horizon3.ai told That's Texchnology.

“They allow us to scale globally while enabling partners to build high-margin service offerings on top of NodeZero.”

“Vulnerability prioritisation has never been more critical,” Snehal continued. “AI is accelerating vulnerability research, and defenders are overwhelmed deciding what not to fix. Pentesting remains the most effective way to identify what is actually exploitable and focus remediation on what matters.”

“Cybersecurity is currently vital, driven both by the rapid advancement of AI and a more unstable geopolitical landscape,” Dan Bird MBE, Field Chief Technology Officer for EMEA at Horizon3.ai added. “Organisations are right to take every possible step to protect their IT environments and critical business services. But the key is focusing on what can actually be exploited, and where teams need to act first.”

Horizon3.ai

Offensive Security Becomes Business-Critical as UK Faces Major Cyber Incidents

The scale, frequency, and sophistication of cyberattacks in the UK have escalated sharply throughout 2025, causing widespread operational disruption and mounting economic damage. 

Recent data and high-impact incidents show that organisations can no longer rely on periodic audits or reactive security measures. 

As a result, organisations are being challenged to rethink their security strategy and embrace an offensive mindset.

Major UK Attacks Rise By Over 50%

The National Cyber Security Centre’s (NCSC) Annual Review 2025, covering the period from September 2024 to August 2025, underscores the severity of the situation. 

During this time, the NCSC handled 204 nationally significant cyber incidents, an increase of more than 50% compared to the previous year. 

The review also reported four high impact attacks every week, each capable of disrupting essential services across the country and causing widespread operational and economic disruption.

In worst case scenarios, such attacks could compromise not only business operations but critical national infrastructure too. 

The government is now urging organisations to take stronger action to protect the UK economy and make cyber resilience a board-level responsibility.

The economic stakes are equally stark. The recent cyberattack against Jaguar Land Rover, which is thought to be the largest cyber incident in UK history, has been estimated to cost the UK economy £1.9 billion. This led to Jaguar Land Rover having to shut down systems across their factories and offices, with knock-on effects extending to as many as 5,000 organisations in its supply chain.

Richard Horne, CEO of the NCSC, issued a clear warning. He told That's Technology: “Cyber security is now a matter of business survival and national resilience. The best way to defend against these attacks is for organisations to make themselves as hard a target as possible.”

Offensive Security: Thinking Faster Than the Attacker

Keith Poyser, Vice President for EMEA at Horizon3.ai, explains organisations can only become “harder targets” by adopting an offensive, attacker-like mindset: 

“Organisations must think faster than potential attackers. All attack surface, ongoing penetration testing is the only reliable way to determine whether hackers can break in and whether an organisation’s security controls are genuinely effective. 

"Validate your defences in the context of your environment, don’t guess or rely on noisy low relevance vulnerability lists alone”

Although penetration testing has existed for decades, it's traditionally been conducted only annually or quarterly, and purely by humans, which is no longer adequate given the speed at which attackers evolve. We have already seen AI tools misused to rewrite attacks on the fly adapting to defences or detection technologies.

Continuous, autonomous pentesting via platforms such as Horizon3.ai’s NodeZero® Offensive Security Platform allow organisations to validate their security posture as frequently as needed, even daily, without the cost, delays, or limitations of manual-only tests. With them, businesses can emulate attacker techniques in live environments and integrate them seamlessly with agile and DevOps workflows, aligning security testing with how software is actually built and deployed today.

Horizon3.ai’s own Cybersecurity Report UK 2024/25 which collected responses from managers with IT level responsibility in 150 UK organisations confirms many organisations aren't taking the right approach to face today’s rapidly evolving threat landscape.

When asked whether they take a purely defensive stance against cyber threats, or if they conduct offensive exercises to identify risks and vulnerabilities, results showed 34% reported using only defensive measures, 21% focus on defence but occasionally conduct offensive exercises, and only 12% conduct offensive exercises internally. A further 15% were unsure how to approach this, while 18% said they outsource offensive exercises entirely.

Another question asked which technology, solution or practice they believed would significantly improve their security. 12% said they would want more budget funds, while 37% said they want to know exactly where they are vulnerable so they can proactively address weaknesses, a clear indication of the need for autonomous penetration testing. 26% responded that they would need to convince the leadership that cybersecurity must be a top priority.

Cybersecurity Must Become a Board-Level Responsibility

Government bodies, industry regulators, and customers are increasingly urging CEOs, boards, and senior leaders to take explicit, personal ownership of cyber risk. This shift reflects a broader recognition that cybersecurity is now a core component of organisational stability, operational continuity, and economic resilience.

Penetration testing plays a pivotal role in meeting these heightened expectations and has become a cornerstone of both operational and economic resilience. By continuously validating defences, organisations can reduce their Mean Time to Remediate (MTTR), lower the cost of fixing weaknesses, and significantly strengthen their overall security posture. Regular testing also supports risk-based vulnerability management, enhances audit readiness, and creates a verifiable record of due diligence—ultimately easing the burden of compliance.

Due Care and Due Diligence as Foundations of Cyber Risk Management

In cybersecurity, two fundamental principles form the backbone of effective risk management: due care and due diligence (Paired with a duty to know). Due care refers to the proactive steps an organisation takes to protect its systems, data, and users, such as enforcing security policies, fixing weaknesses, and carrying out regular risk assessments.

Due diligence, on the other hand, is the ongoing validation of whether those protective measures are actually working. It involves activities such as penetration testing, reviewing third-party risks, and verifying alignment with industry standards. Where due care is about implementing safeguards, due diligence is about proving they stand up in real-world conditions.

Keith Poyser added: “Together, they ensure  organisations are not only putting security controls in place but also continuously confirming their effectiveness. Continuous pentesting is central to this process, providing the evidence organisations need to demonstrate their cyber resilience.”

www.horizon3.ai

Codasip delivers processor security to actively prevent the most common cyberattacks

Codasip®, the leader in RISC-V Custom Compute, today announced the first commercial implementation of CHERI, the advanced security mechanism the semiconductor industry needs.

 Capability Hardware Enhanced RISC Instructions (CHERI) technology was developed at the University of Cambridge as the result of research aimed at revisiting fundamental design choices in hardware and software to improve system security.

 The technology has been proven in experimental processors and will now be available in a commercial offering, enabling secure-by-design products. Codasip’s commercial implementation will enable companies to take preventive security measures without having to wait for their vendors’ delivered patches.

Memory safety needs to be a primary concern for all processor and SoC designers, device manufacturers, and end users. Cyberattacks pose an ever-growing threat and approximately 70% of OS and browser vulnerabilities documented in the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) program in the last two decades are attributed to software memory errors. A reason for the lack of commercial solutions to address this challenge is the complexity of the problem. 

Advanced memory protection has only been achievable through advanced hardware modification or expensive and impactful software modifications. But to be viable in real products, any suggested solution must have minimal impact on power, performance, and area. Building on its unique Custom Compute approach, Codasip has been able to effectively address this challenge.

Ron Black, Codasip's CEO, said: "Unsafe and insecure products risk causing privacy violations, reputational damage and financial loss that are unacceptable, be it cars, routers, medical devices, or any other consumer product. 

"Employing statistical protection mechanisms, like stack canaries, to detect memory corruption has proven not secure enough. It's now time for consumers to ask the question: Are your device providers protecting you from the most common type of cyberattack? If they aren't using Codasip CHERI technology, they probably aren't.”

Professor Robert N. M. Watson, of the University of Cambridge, said: “CHERI extends conventional hardware Instruction-Set Architectures (ISAs) with new architectural features to enable fine-grained memory protection and highly scalable software compartmentalization. 

"The CHERI memory-protection features allow historically memory-unsafe programming languages such as C and C++ to be adapted to provide strong, compatible, and efficient protection against many currently widely exploited vulnerabilities.”

Professor John Goodacre, director of Digital Security by Design (DSbD), UK Research and Innovation, added: “Governments are taking action to protect their citizens and businesses from the cyber threat. The DSbD programme is unlocking the market and enabling technology such as CHERI, so companies can add security by design into their products and services. I’m really excited to see Codasip launching a commercial implementation of CHERI. This is an important milestone in creating a secured future for all of us.”

Using Codasip Studio, Codasip is adding built-in fine-grained memory protection to its recently launched 700 processor family by extending the RISC-V ISA with CHERI-based custom instructions. To enable the use of these instructions, Codasip is also delivering the software environment to take advantage of CHERI technology, bringing a full software development flow to add memory protection.

Because CHERI technology can be applied selectively to critical functions, it is possible to enhance the security of existing products with a small effort, often through a simple code recompilation. The huge pool of existing C/C++ software can therefore still be leveraged in more secure systems.

Codasip will be participating at the RISC-V Summit in Santa Clara, California, on November 7-8. The company will showcase its solutions and present a keynote and several technical topics. Learn more or book a meeting.

www.codasip.com

CaseMatrix Limited Announces Official Launch: A Revolutionary Approach to Cyber Breach Litigation

Behind each and every individual data breach statistic is a real person at the heart of it. At CaseMatrix, they report that they are dedicated and committed to ensuring those individual people are not just numbers.

CaseMatrix Limited, which is a pioneering firm focusing on bridging the gap between cyber breach victims and legal recourse, is thrilled to announce its official launch. 

A spokesperson said: "With a unique service offering, we at CaseMatrix aim to transform the landscape of cyber breach litigation by connecting legal professionals with affected people, ensuring that every victim has their voice."

Founded by Jake Rogers and Rob Moore, who are two seasoned professionals with extensive backgrounds in cybersecurity and legal consultancy, CaseMatrix leverages a unique methodology to identify and reach out to cyber breach victims. 

By offering them cybersecurity support and notifying them of breaches, the company ensures a seamless transition from breach notification to required legal action.

Key Highlights of CaseMatrix Limited:

Victim-Centric Approach: At the heart of CaseMatrix's operations is a deep commitment to the well-being of all cyber breach victims. The company's primary goal is to ensure every individual affected by a breach is informed, supported, and has the chance to seek legal justice.

Unique Methodology: CaseMatrix's innovative approach involves actively reaching out to individuals as security experts, notifying them of the breaches, and offering them cybersecurity support. This methodology not only ensures compliance with legal regulations but also builds trust with potential claimants.

Collaboration with Legal Firms: CaseMatrix works closely with legal firms, understanding their litigation aims, and providing them with a refined set of profiles. This targeted approach ensures legal professionals receive only viable cases, saving them both time and resources.

There are Zero Upfront Costs: With a standard introducer's agreement, legal firms can collaborate with CaseMatrix without any financial commitment until the actual referral process commences.

Says Jake Rogers, co-founder of CaseMatrix: "Our vision is entirely clear: To ensure all data breach victims are represented and has access to legal justice. With the rise in cyber incidents, our services are more crucial than ever before. We're very excited to work alongside legal professionals to make a tangible difference."

Rob Moore went on to add: "Behind every data breach statistic is a real person. At CaseMatrix, we're committed to ensuring these individual people aren't just numbers but are given the support and representation they need and deserve."

For more information about CaseMatrix Limited and its services, visit www.case-m.com.

"CaseMatrix Limited is a UK-based firm dedicated to connecting cyber breach victims with legal recourse. With a unique approach and a deep commitment to victim welfare, the company aims to revolutionise cyber breach litigation, ensuring that every affected individual has a voice."

Growth in SaaS and Mobile Applications increases requirement for Software Security Testing at Scale

Research shows greater customer and auditor expectations drive need for improved software assurance

Veracode, Inc., a leader in cloud-based application security testing, has revealed the availability of a whitepaper, ‘Outsourcing the problem of software security’, produced by primary research and analysis company, Quocirca.

This whitepaper is based on original research, commissioned by Veracode, and examines how UK and US businesses are deploying in-house developed and commercially acquired software and the measures in place for ensuring the security quality of these applications.

Quocirca interviewed 100 organisations with more than 1,000 employees, distributed equally in the US and the UK in the financial services, manufacturing, retail, distribution, transport and other commercial sectors.

Hundreds of applications are tracked by the average business

One key finding from the report is that companies are now tracking more critical applications than ever (the average for a financial services company is approximately 800 separate applications) and that the use of software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications and the use of mobile apps is now widespread.

While the breadth of available applications has productivity benefits for businesses and their employees, it also increases security issues, especially as more and more applications are web-enabled. The research found that many customers and auditors seek assurances from suppliers with regards to the security of applications that underpin business processes. In the US, 50 percent of the organisations interviewed said that customers demand guarantees about software security, in the UK it was 20 percent. However, auditors are more focused on software security in the UK than in the US, with 50 percent of UK auditors seeking guarantees, as opposed to 40 percent in the US.

Measuring software security against established benchmarks
Both commercial software developers and end-users developing applications in-house face challenges in ensuring the software they develop and deploy meets key security criteria, often defined by external standards, including the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP), Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) and the CWE/SANS Top 25 most dangerous software errors. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) estimates that fixing a flaw in a production application can cost up to 25 times as much as it would if the flaw was prevented during the coding phase.

The report also reviews the different approaches to establishing an application security program, from developer education, (static and dynamic), through penetration testing (pen-testing), static and dynamic code and binary analysis to web application firewalls (WAFs).

The benefits of on-demand vs on-premise software testing
The report concludes that techniques such as maximising the use of software testing early in the application development life cycle is key to keeping costs down and improving productivity for end-users and application developers. This can be done through on-demand software testing services or in-house tools. Out of these two approaches the report concludes that on-demand services have the benefit of scale; their providers scan software from hundreds of customers a day and are cognisant of all the common flaws as well as rarely seen ones.

Software testing services are also generally paid for on a per- application basis with unlimited scanning rights regardless of the number of programmers. The infrastructure and staffing overheads are incurred by the service provider and therefore shared between many customers. Any analysis of the relative costs of on-premise tools and on-demand services must take this into account.

“Outsourcing the software security testing process has benefits for both commercial software developers and companies developing applications in-house.” said Bob Tarzey, Director at Quocirca. ”The use of on-demand services should not only be more cost effective, but they should be far more comprehensive in identifying flaws and preventing vulnerabilities because of the scale of the operations of the providers of such services.”

“Testing just your mission-critical applications is no longer an option. Organizations have to find a way to test all applications (both the ones they build or buy) quickly to truly manage risk from this exposed layer of their infrastructure. Leveraging automation to achieve scale and applying multiple testing techniques is the key to success,” said Sam King, SVP, Product Marketing, Veracode.

To download the whitepaper, please visit:
http://info.veracode.com/Quocirca_Outsourcing_Software_secur...

To register for a webinar with Quocirca & Veracode discussing the issues raised by this report, please visit:
http://www.bankinfosecurity.com/webinars.php?webinarID=268

FACTFILE:
 Veracode is the only independent provider of cloud-based application intelligence and security verification services. The Veracode platform provides the fastest, most comprehensive solution to improve the security of internally developed, purchased or outsourced software applications and third-party components. By combining patented static, dynamic and manual testing, extensive eLearning capabilities, and advanced application analytics, Veracode enables scalable, policy-driven application risk management programs that help identify and eradicate numerous vulnerabilities by leveraging best-in-class technologies from vulnerability scanning to penetration testing and static code analysis. Veracode delivers unbiased proof of application security to stakeholders across the software supply chain while supporting independent audit and compliance requirements for all applications no matter how they are deployed, via the web, mobile or in the cloud. Veracode works with customers in more than 80 countries worldwide including Global 2000 brands such as Barclays PLC and Computershare as well as the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). For more information, visit www.veracode.com, follow on Twitter: @Veracode or read the Veracode Blog.

Quocirca is a research and analysis company with a primary focus on the European market. Quocirca produces free to market content aimed at IT decision makers and those that influence them in business of all sizes and public sector organisations. Much of the content Quocirca produces is based on its own primary research.

For this primary research, Quocirca has native language telephone interviewing capabilities across Europe and is also able to cover North America and the Asia Pacific region. Research is conducted one-to-one with individuals in target job roles to ensure the right questions are being asked of the right people. Comparative results are reported by geography, industry, size of business, job role and other parameters as required.

The research is sponsored by a broad spectrum of IT vendors, service providers and channel organisations. However, all Quocirca content is written from an independent standpoint and addresses the issues with regard to the use of IT within the context of an organisation, rather than specific products. Therefore, Quocirca’s advice is free from vendor bias and is based purely on the insight gained through research, combined with the broad knowledge and analytical capabilities of Quocirca’s analysts who focus on the “big picture”.

Quocirca is widely regarded as one of the most influential analyst companies in Europe. Through its close relationships with the media, Quocirca articles and reports reach millions of influencers and decision makers. Quocirca reports are made available through many media and portal partners. www.quocirca.com

Akamai Introduces Kona Site Defender to Protect Enterprises from Multi-vectored DDoS and Application Security Attacks

Akamai® Technologies, Inc, a leading cloud platform for delivering secure, high-performing user experiences to any device, anywhere, today introduced Akamai Kona Site Defender. The service is designed to protect the brand value of companies by shielding their web sites, applications and associated data in the face of increasing and more complex attacks.

These attacks can cost companies millions in lost transactions and business productivity each year, and even higher losses in their brand value and reputation. With the introduction of Kona Site Defender, real-time web security monitoring, adaptive rate controls and other powerful features are bundled into a single, always on, cloud-based solution that can protect an enterprise’s most critical online business functions.

Akamai currently provides web security solutions to more than 300 enterprises – including financial institutions, retailers, government agencies, and media and entertainment companies organising today’s most high-profile events – and has seen a more than 140 percent increase in customers taking advantage of Akamai security solutions from 2010 to 2011. And while many organisations still wish to pair acceleration with web security in order to give users of primary sites and web applications an optimal experience, an increasing number find that the requirement for protection from DDoS and application layer attacks applies to a much broader number of their web properties. The availability of Kona Site Defender makes it possible for these organisations to more easily protect web sites from attack without requiring the purchase of acceleration and optimisation services.

“Attackers don't stay on one layer anymore; they tend to include both network and application-based techniques, which makes defending against them more complicated,” said Wendy Nather, research director of 451 Research's Enterprise Security Practice. “Enterprises are looking for resilient defence that takes advantage of the provider's experience with large volumes of these kinds of attacks.”

At the foundation of Akamai’s security offerings is the massively distributed Akamai Intelligent Platform™ that is designed to provide not only unmatched scale but also automatic protection against network layer attacks. Because the Akamai Intelligent Platform is designed to only accept valid HTTP/S requests on port 80 and port 443, network layer attacks such as TCP SYN floods, UDP floods, and other network packet based attacks are deflected. The Akamai Intelligent Platform is further designed with built-in automatic protections against HTTP “slow client” attacks (e.g. Slowloris) and HTTP Request Smuggling attacks.

Akamai’s platform-based approach to web security can offer powerful protection to customers without incurring the performance penalty often associated with other methods, such as traffic scrubbing. Akamai seeks to deliver protection natively in the existing traffic path eliminating the need for rerouting, mitigating added latency and incurring no single point of failure. The Akamai Intelligent Platform is designed to deliver always on protection with industry leading scalability. Every Akamai edge server can act as a Kona Site Defender policy enforcement point, which is designed to allow Akamai to rapidly scale up defences against attacks against its customers. In addition, Kona Site Defender helps protects customers from some of the potential costs resulting from high volume attacks by explicitly capping burst fees that Akamai might otherwise charge for traffic bursts if that traffic was caused by a large scale DDoS attack.

At the application layer, where attacks such as SQL injection and cross site scripting are prevalent, the Akamai technology is differentiated through the inclusion of a full-feature web application firewall. This application layer firewall consists of approximately 100 easy to configure rules that are designed to provide:

• HTTP protocol violation protections
• HTTP request limits
• HTTP policy limits (limit methods, content types, file extensions, etc.)
• Protections against trojans
• Defenses against scanners and bad robots
• Generic attack protections (e.g. SQL injections, cross site scripting, system command injections, etc.)
• Outbound content protection

In addition, the web application firewall can block requests based on the geography of the IP address making the request and it can define custom rules that apply specific protections for customer applications.

New design features introduced with the launch of Kona Site Defender include:

Advanced Security Monitor: Knowing in real-time that a web site or application is being attacked, and having visibility into the nature and source of the attack, is critical to a successful defense. Kona Site Defender provides security professionals with the required real-time visibility into security events as well as the capability to drill down into attack alerts to retrieve detailed information on who is attacking, what they are attacking, which defence capabilities triggered the attack declaration and what specifically was seen in the requests that triggered site defences. As important, archived log data is available for 90 days to aid in post-attack forensics review.

Rate Controls: Kona Site Defender provides a new set of web defences based on detecting and blocking clients that exhibit malicious behaviour. The platform monitors the rate of requests coming from individual IP addresses and gathers statistics about each. This allows customers to block any IP address that is behaving in an abusive way, such as sending too many requests per second or causing too many origin errors. These protections are always on. Further statistics collected allow Kona Site Defender to automatically detect IP addresses that have a high request rate but are not malicious such as large enterprise proxies.

“Our customers are some of the most innovative online businesses in the world, and as such, are looking for that same level of innovation from the companies with which they work to protect their brands and their reputations,” explained John Summers, vice president, Security Business, Akamai. “With the introduction of Kona Site Defender, we’re offering what we believe is the best way to respond to an ever changing, and in many ways, ever more hostile online environment.”

In recent weeks, Akamai customers have benefitted from the Company’s differentiated approach to delivering DDoS mitigation and web application security services. Both commercial and government organisations have been protected from potentially crippling, long-term attacks that in some cases reached a peak of more than 16,300 requests/sec (862 Mb/sec), an increase of 110 times normal traffic, and lasted over three days. In every case, the customers’ sites remained up and fully operational.

Akamai Kona Site Defender is in limited availability now and will be generally available April 11, 2012. For more information please visit http://www.akamai.com/security. To see Kona Site Defender in action, please visit Akamai at the upcoming RSA Conference 2012 (Booth 851).

FACTFILE:
Akamai® is a leading cloud platform for helping enterprises provide secure, high-performing user experiences on any device, anywhere. At the core of the Company's solutions is the Akamai Intelligent Platform™ providing extensive reach, coupled with unmatched reliability, security, visibility and expertise. Akamai removes the complexities of connecting the increasingly mobile world, supporting 24/7 consumer demand, and enabling enterprises to securely leverage the cloud. To learn more about how Akamai is accelerating the pace of innovation in a hyperconnected world, please visit www.akamai.com or blogs.akamai.com, and follow @Akamai on Twitter.

Address known and unknown threats with Splunk

Splunk Inc., a provider of software for real-time operational intelligence, has announced the general availability of its Enterprise Security Intelligence Solution, consisting of the Splunk App for Enterprise Security 2.0, and Splunk® Enterprise™ 4.3, the company's flagship software for collecting, indexing and harnessing machine data.

“While more organisations are embracing the power of big data, many are ignoring the security threats that lurk within that information. Customers who use Splunk Enterprise to monitor and analyse machine data to gain insights into their operations in real-time can use the Splunk App for Enterprise Security to monitor, identify, investigate and respond to critical known and unknown security threats,” said Christina Noren, senior vice president of solutions for Splunk.

Splunk Enterprise provides visibility into a broad range of IT events including those that are beyond the purview of traditional security solutions, but are increasingly security-relevant. Splunk’s big-data engine enables security professionals to quickly understand unknown threats hidden as patterns in terabytes of normal user-credentialed activities that can mean the presence of advanced malware or a malicious insider.

The Splunk App for Enterprise Security provides the out-of-the-box security content that, combined with the core Splunk engine, delivers a next-generation security solution for monitoring known threats, support for forensic investigations, big data analytics to help identify advanced persistent threats, and dashboards for security posture and investigation workflows.

“Big data and security analytics have become joined at the hip as of late," said Andrew Hay, senior analyst for 451 Research's Enterprise Security Practice (ESP). “The ‘out-of-the-box’ security content of the new Splunk App for Enterprise Security, combined with the big data analytics capabilities of the Splunk platform, delivers users a SIEM-like experience for massive data sets.”

The new Splunk App for Enterprise Security 2.0 builds upon the innovation of previous product releases, and leverages the Splunk Enterprise software, adding many benefits for security teams and support for risk management:

• Real-time Event Correlation: Searches and alerts drive continuous monitoring of critical assets using dashboards and communications to members of the security team
• Dashboards: Visualisations of security data support more than 100 security metrics and over 160 reports
• Drill-down and drill-across: In a single click, users can access raw data quickly for analysis and pivot across the raw data-types to follow an investigation wherever it leads
• Federated Identity Monitoring: Correlation of multiple user identities to identify and investigate user activities across the IT infrastructure
• Enhanced incident management: The ability to reprioritise, reassign and journal security events for quick resolution and incident response
• Operationalisation of findings: Once a forensic investigation is complete, users can click the ‘save’ button to continuously monitor and alert for the same condition.

“The Splunk App for Enterprise Security, together with core Splunk and other community-supported apps available through SplunkBase, continue to provide a flexible solution of security metrics and dashboards that support views of our total enterprise risk,” said Dan Frye, associate vice president, Corporate Security CedarCrestone, Inc.

Splunk App for Enterprise Security 2.0 is available to current customers for immediate download. New users can contact Splunk sales at sales@splunk.com. More information about Splunk Enterprise Security Intelligence Solution can be found here.

Sourcefire signed up

Sourcefire, Inc.  a leader in intelligent cybersecurity solutions, has just announced it has signed COMPUTERLINKS, a distributor of IT security, network performance and internet technology solutions, to extend its reach into the UK reseller market.

“Our customers need dynamic defenses to keep pace with today’s threats,” said Anthony Perridge, Channel Director for EMEA at Sourcefire. “There is an increasing requirement for more Agile Security™ that leverages contextual data when responding to threats. Sourcefire’s technology is uniquely designed to respond to the myriad of emerging threats that continue to impact businesses today.’’

COMPUTERLINKS has in excess of 20 years of experience as a Value Added Distributor of IP-based business solutions operating across Europe, Australia, The Middle East, Asia and North America. COMPUTERLINKS will distribute the entire Sourcefire solutions portfolio, which has expanded with the recent introduction of Sourcefire’s Next-Generation Firewall and Next-Generation Intrusion Prevention Systems with Application Control. COMPUTERLINKS will also distribute Sourcefire’s new FireAMP advanced malware protection solution for enterprises.

“The Sourcefire relationship with COMPUTERLINKS is compelling for both companies. We will leverage COMPUTERLINKS’ strong relationships and expertise within the specialist security reseller community to cover the UK. COMPUTERLINKS, already a Sourcefire distributor in Sweden, Australia and the U.S., will be enabled to further expand next-generation network security and enterprise advanced malware protection to resellers in a new region,” Perridge continued.

David Caughtry, Director of Core Technologies for COMPUTERLINKS UK comments: “The emergence of new technologies such as virtual and cloud computing and the consumerisation of IT has created new security challenges and opened networks up to a greater number of threats.

"It' no longer enough to just look for known threats. Because hackers are being more creative and security needs to be agile and adaptive to keep up with these constant changes. We believe Sourcefire offers a best-of-breed portfolio of security solutions and we are delighted Sourcefire has decided to partner with us in the UK as it further strengthens our existing relationship across the COMPUTERLINKS Group.”

For more information on how to partner with Sourcefire, visit www.sourcefire.com

Use Sourcefire FireAMP

Sourcefire, Inc. (Nasdaq: FIRE), a leader in intelligent cybersecurity solutions, today introduced FireAMP™ advanced malware protection, a malware discovery and analysis solution that analyses and blocks malware by utilising big data analytics. Designed for large enterprises, FireAMP delivers unprecedented visibility and the control needed to block threats missed by other security layers. FireAMP is the latest fulfillment of Sourcefire’s Agile Security™ vision for context-aware, adaptive, and automated security solutions.

“Test results consistently show that the endpoint protection platforms (EPPs) currently available still do not protect endpoints against mass-propagated consumer threats — and their performance is even more dismal when faced with handcrafted targeted attacks,” said Neil MacDonald, vice president and fellow, and Peter Firstbrook, research director, at Gartner.1 “Moreover, the dwell time of targeted threats can be measured in months or even years, in some instances. Gartner currently estimates that 4% to 7% of enterprise endpoints are infected at any given time, and that the next scheduled scan will catch only 1% of threats.”

With the launch of FireAMP, Sourcefire is first to market with five new capabilities that amplify an organisation’s defenses against advanced malware:

• FireCLOUD™ – Cloud-based infrastructure encompassing a number of advanced detection capabilities that leverage big data analytics to identify and score threats missed by other security layers
• File Trajectory – Tracks file movement within the enterprise, allowing organisations to identify the entry point and propagation path of malware
• File Analysis - Provides detailed information on malware behavior backed by the elite Sourcefire Vulnerability Research Team (VRT™) and the company’s collective security intelligence
• Outbreak Control – Customer-defined detections that immediately block malware without requiring an update from your security vendor
• Cloud Recall™ – Continuous in-the-cloud analysis of historical file activity to discover and remediate threats that were previously missed

FireAMP uses a lightweight agent to communicate with a cloud-based analysis engine and only leverages metadata for evaluation, requiring less storage, computation and memory than other security products. This minimises system impact and allows it to coexist with and supplement existing security layers without sacrificing performance or manageability.

“While developing this product, we spoke with more than 100 large enterprises and heard one common theme – while they have the latest security technologies with all of the latest updates, they still see malware infections,” said Oliver Friedrichs, senior vice president of Sourcefire’s Cloud Technology Group. “We developed FireAMP with sophisticated detection, visibility and control especially for enterprises whose primary solutions are lacking. FireAMP’s discovery and analysis capabilities can help these companies quickly determine which systems are infected, how the infection occurred, the extent of the infection and how the malware behaves in order to both stop the malware and recover.”

FireAMP offers powerful reporting that delivers visibility into the state of malware in an environment. These reports detail high-risk computers; threat root cause, showing applications that are introducing malware; and advanced persistent threats, listing advanced malware that could be unique to a customer’s environment. FireAMP also includes comparative reporting, so that users can evaluate activities within their environment in the context of their overall organisation or the larger, global installed base of FireAMP customers.

For more information visit www.sourcefire.com/FireAMP.

Becrypt extends its commitment to the Channel with appointment of new Head of Channel and Alliances

Leading supplier of top level cyber security solutions announces new structure to support partners in 2012

Becrypt, supplier of cyber security solutions to the UK Government, MOD and wider public sector has appointed Jo-anne Patterson Head of Channel and Alliances UK.

The new appointment is part of Becrypt’s renewed strategy to focus on building and extending its channel. Patterson will be responsible for managing the company’s relationship with distributors, systems integrators, technology partners and reseller partners as well as introducing new recruitment programmes to further expand the channel into new market sectors.

Before this appointment Patterson, held various sales, account management and regional management positions at Becrypt. Before joining Becrypt in 2008, Jo had a successful track record of sales within technology, public sector, defence and electronics sectors, with positions held at Ultra Electronics Datel and Telelogic.

When asked about her promotion, Patterson commented, “Becrypt is committed to following an exclusively channel-only sales model, which has worked very well for the company so far. We are seeing increased demand for accredited encryption, end point control and secure remote working from both the public and commercial sectors, particularly for our tablet offerings. We are now looking to professionalise and build the Becrypt channel. This will include the introduction of new channel programmes, with a primary focus on competency and expertise, which will be one of my key focuses in 2012. We are aiming to provide education and qualification programmes to support our partners, and we will be looking to recruit new partners for new market sectors.”

Becrypt provides a range of encryption, end point security, mobile media protection and secure remote working solutions suitable for use by Government, MOD, the wider public sector and commercial organisations. Becrypt is the only company to offer software encryption approved for use with data up to Impact Level 6 (TOP SECRET), yet is also able to offer more flexible solutions to meet the requirements of commercial organisations.

Bernard Parsons, CEO of Becrypt commented, “We are delighted to promote Jo to this new position, which reflects our continued commitment to the channel, and also reflects Jo’s success in her previous roles with Becrypt. Our experience of working with the Government, MOD and wider public sector to provide approved solutions that are easy to use and deploy, and yet meet the stringent demands for protecting highly sensitive data is second to none. This gives our channel partners a powerful set of solutions to address this market that are also suitable for more commercial operations. Jo will be instrumental in our continued drive to both invest in our current partner ecosystem and to seek out new partners.”

Becrypt is a leading supplier of innovative Information Assurance solutions and services, providing secure, feature-rich, out-of-the-box products that are government-certified and suitable for all industry sectors. Becrypt is a leading supplier of encryption technology to the UK Government, Ministry of Defence and UK Police.

Becrypt plays a leading role in the Information Assurance industry through membership and participation in various bodies including CIPCOG, DIPCOG and the Crypto Developers Forum.

Through technology and OEM partnerships Becrypt enables third-party solutions with encryption and other data security capabilities.

Becrypt has offices in London, UK, Washington DC, USA, and Sydney, Australia serving clients worldwide.

For more information please visit: www.becrypt.com

Tekdata brings feature rich, family friendly Netgenie router to the UK

Tekdata Distribution Ltd, one of the UK's leading IT distributors of security solutions services, today announced a new strategic partnership that will bring the Cyberoam NetGenie product range to the UK channel.

Ken Hulme, Managing Director at Tekdata said, “We are delighted to add Cyberoam’s NetGenie HOME and SOHO routers to our extensive range of security offerings. Their addition to our portfolio will enable us to deliver UTM security to the small office, home office and consumer markets.”

He added, “The features of the NetGenie HOME router including in built anti-virus, age-appropriate content filtering, time controls, preset secure WiFi and ease of use make it the perfect solution for parents looking to control their children’s internet access with the minimum of effort and technical knowhow.”

Speaking about Cyberoam NetGenie, the latest offering from Cyberoam, Mr. Pranav Parikh-Manager Business Development for APAC and Europe, NetGenie, said "NetGenie was conceptualized based on Cyberoam’s global consumer survey that presented a strong need for such a product among home and small office Internet users.

"It is first of its kind appliance that integrates online security, Wi-Fi security, advanced Internet access controls, 3G-ready support, and more, in a single appliance, that will save buying and maintenance costs of separate solutions for end users".

Commenting on the partnership with Tekdata, he further added "Tekdata’s strength lies in the wide range of products they distribute and their network of resellers. We are confident of their capability of building the NetGenie brand. Additionally, the professional team and market knowledge will ensure that our sales objectives are met in the region.”

Designed to further strengthen Tekdata's extensive security product line and offer NetGenie the ability to extend its reach into the UK market, the agreement comes at a time when security and content filtering are increasingly an issue for IT managers and families alike.

FACTFILE:
Tekdata Distribution is a specialist distributor of security solutions and services offering products that protect organisations from inevitable security breaches. Protecting mission critical network is essential and with Tekdata’s innovative portfolio of security products, the risk can be reduced to a minimum. Tekdata also supplies value adding services such as training, consultancy, installation and support which offers customers the best in channel knowledge, expertise and value. Our mission is to provide IT solutions and services for whatever requirement in a language that the customer understands.
http://www.tekdata.co.uk/

NetGenie, a product of Cyberoam, is a first-of-its-kind Wi-Fi security solution which gives home and small office users a hack-free and malware-free Internet surfing experience over multiple devices including laptops, iPhones, iPads, gaming consoles, and other next-gen devices, besides protecting over Wired Internet connection. Cyberoam, the network security division of Elitecore Technologies, is in the top league of global security players with 25000+ UTM deployments and established presence in 110+ countries catering to a broad range of industries including manufacturing, retail, finance, healthcare, IT, telecommunications, hospitality and more. Cyberoam was ranked in analyst Gartner’s 2010 Magic Quadrant for UTM as a “Visionary”.
http://www.netgenie.net/

Firewalls: The next generation

New Universal Platform Surpasses Existing Solutions with Increased Awareness, Automation and the Industry’s Best Threat Prevention

Sourcefire, Inc., a top provider of intelligent cybersecurity solutions, has announced its latest innovation, the Sourcefire Next-Generation Firewall (NGFW). Building on Sourcefire’s Next-Generation IPS (NGIPS) technology leadership and leveraging its high-performance FirePOWER™ platform, the Sourcefire Next-Generation Firewall combines the world’s most powerful IPS threat prevention, integrated application control and firewall capabilities in a high-performance security appliance. By combining NGIPS and NGFW, Sourcefire has created the first enterprise firewall solution with comprehensive enterprise visibility, adaptive security and advanced threat protection.

"Threats continue to advance, and network security defences must evolve to become effective against advanced targeted threats. Enterprises should require vendors to add next-generation intrusion prevention features to network security products," said Greg Young, Research Vice President, Gartner1. "Mainstream enterprises over time will refresh existing next-generation firewall deployments with future versions with next-generation network IPS capabilities."

Applying its Agile Security™ vision to the emerging NGFW market, Sourcefire is delivering a context-aware and adaptive NGFW solution to offer its customers superior network protection and control without compromise. The Sourcefire Next-Generation Firewall provides this increased protection by combining the ability to identify and provide granular control for more than 1,000 applications with unprecedented visibility, intelligent automation and industry-best threat prevention effectiveness. These capabilities are all backed by the elite Sourcefire Vulnerability Research Team (VRT™) and the company’s collective security intelligence.

Universal Network Security Platform

Sourcefire leverages a single-pass engine that delivers deep inspection while maintaining peak performance. The FirePOWER platform can be configured at the customer’s discretion as an NGIPS, an NGIPS with application control or an NGFW, providing the customer ultimate flexibility to deploy appliances to match their infrastructure needs and scale over time.

Total Visibility

Using its patented FireSIGHT™ technology, Sourcefire delivers increased visibility into applications, users, content, hosts, attacks, vulnerabilities, behaviour and changes in a user’s environment. It then correlates this information with user identity and reputation intelligence to assess risks and threat impact to make more precise enforcement decisions.

Intelligent Automation

Unlike existing solutions, the Sourcefire Next-Generation Firewall employs intelligent security automation to increase the agility of protection efforts that can keep pace with constantly changing environments. This is accomplished by the Sourcefire NGFW through comprehensive contextual awareness and collective threat intelligence that result in more meaningful policy recommendations and automated adjustments to a customer’s defence in real time. It also allows security teams to optimize remediation efforts by reducing actionable alerts and filtering out events that do not affect the particular user’s environment.

Control Without Compromise

Sourcefire NGFW provides control without compromising threat prevention. Based on independent testing, the solution delivers best-of-class throughput performance and advanced threat detection with unsurpassed blocking effectiveness. As with other Sourcefire solutions, the NGFW allows users to tailor and customize defences and policies to their specific environment.

“As enterprises seek to increase their protection efforts they are looking for solutions that offer the agility to be effective in the face of modern threats,” said Martin Roesch, Chief Technology Officer at Sourcefire. “Other NGFW solutions force customers to make tradeoffs between control, prevention, performance and manageability. The Sourcefire Next-Generation Firewall includes our industry-leading NGIPS and provides the user the power and confidence to prevent and respond to complex threats with the granular control required today.”

For information on the Sourcefire Next-Generation Firewall, you can register for one of three webinars:

• Tuesday, December 13 at 9 a.m. EST / 2 p.m. GMT
https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/333138022
• Tuesday, December 13 at 2 p.m. EST / 11a.m. PST
https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/836015638
• Wednesday, December 14 at 10 a.m. Singapore / 11 a.m. Tokyo / 1 p.m. Sydney
https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/544870262

Product information is also available at http://sourcefire.com/ngfw.

Big Data Analysis Fuels Intelligent Protection from Advanced Threats

Sourcefire, Inc., a leader in intelligent cybersecurity solutions, today announced that Immunet®, the company's advanced anti-malware solution, has surpassed 2 million installed endpoints. Immunet achieved this milestone due to its “big data” approach to endpoint security, which allows it to provide an additional layer of protection not afforded by traditional anti-malware technologies.

"The rapid adoption witnessed with Immunet demonstrates that users are seeking both an added layer of protection to bolster their defences and a more intelligent approach to block advanced threats," said Oliver Friedrichs, Senior Vice President of Sourcefire's Cloud Technology Group. "This intelligence comes from designing a product with a big data mindset, which is an absolute requirement in today's threat landscape. Traditional anti-malware solutions simply cannot achieve the protection and control that customers require."

The explosion and advancement of threats each day has allowed them to bypass traditional solutions. For example, threats today are transitory with at least 75 percent being seen on only a single endpoint. Threat lifetimes can be measured in hours that require a centralised “big data” repository that can be monitored, observed, culled and used to make intelligent security decisions for all of Immunet’s users. A data-driven approach also enables Immunet to gather real-world metrics on how technologies perform in the field. Immunet was built on the principle of Collective Immunity™, which is shared protective resistance gained through community and collective intelligence to fight against computer malware infection.

"The data deluge is having an impact on the changing nature of security management. Not only has there been an explosion in the sheer volume of data requiring protection, but there has also been a dramatic growth in threats as well as disclosed vulnerabilities," said Scott Crawford, research director, Enterprise Management Associates. "The centralised data approach enables the capability to collect and act on large data sets with great speed, accuracy, and efficacy."

Immunet 3.0 enables small businesses and consumers to create custom anti-malware signatures for more accurate protection against targeted attacks. Immunet 3.0 also offers an innovative Cloud Recall™ feature that can remediate previously approved files and automatically quarantine them in real time based on new threat information. In addition, the Immunet technology has outperformed all of its competitors and successfully defended against 100 percent of malware attacks in an independent test
conducted by the Malware Research Group.

Immunet 3.0 is available as a free anti-malware download from the Immunet website. Users can upgrade to Immunet 3.0 Plus for advanced anti-malware protection.

Integralis promotes internal expertise to meet global demand for IT Security and Information Risk Management solutions

Integralis, a global provider of IT Security and Information Risk Management solutions, today announced that it has made further internal promotions to meet the global demand for IT security by providing comprehensive, value-added services and platforms that help companies analyse, identify and manage information security risk.

To strengthen its worldwide solutions presence, Integralis has promoted Jon Hughes to Senior Vice President, Global Professional Services. Jon will be responsible for driving the growth and development of the IT security consultancy practice on a global scale. Jon is based within Integralis’ UK Head Office and joined as Director of UK Professional Services in November 2009. He has over 20 years’ experience in the IT industry, having held senior positions at organisations such as Sophos, Microsoft and ICL.

In addition, Integralis announced the promotion of Fredrik Hörnell as Vice President Global Partner & Vendor Alliances. Fredrik will develop and leverage partner and technology vendor business relationships worldwide, maximising the channel capabilities that all partners bring to the business, including those of parent company NTT Communications. Fredrik is based in Integralis’ Sweden office and has extensive experience across the International Channel market having held senior sales positions at organisations including VeriSign, NetIQ/Attachmate and Fortinet.

Commenting on the news, Integralis’ Chief Operating Officer Simon Church said: “I am delighted to be able to take advantage of the skill and expertise that we have right here on our doorstep. We are extremely fortunate to have such capability and knowledge in our business that sets us apart from our competitors, and we look forward to an exciting future as the world’s leading pure-play provider of advanced IT Security and Information Risk Management solutions.”

FACTFILE:
Integralis provides IT Security and Information Risk Management solutions on a global basis. We deliver a portfolio of managed security solutions, business infrastructure, consulting and technology integration services. As part of the NTT Communications Group, we help organizations lower IT costs and increase the depth of security protection, compliance and service availability. For more information, visit www.integralis.com.

Integralis AG expands to meet global demand for next-generation IT Security and Information Risk Management solutions

Integralis, a global provider of IT Security and Information Risk Management solutions, today announced  it has strengthened its worldwide solutions presence. Expansion in operations, marketing, partner management and Asia are all underway.

In addition, Integralis announced the appointments of the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) and President, Asia Pacific who will report into Simon Church, Chief Operating Officer (COO). With the backing of NTT, Integralis further deepens its global position as well as expanding its local presence in the fast growing Asia Pacific markets.

Commenting on the news, Integralis’ CEO Georg Magg said: “As the world’s leading pure-play provider of advanced IT Security and Information Risk Management solutions, we are providing our customers with comprehensive, value-added services and platforms that help companies analyze, identify and manage information security risk.”

“Given the significant market opportunity and with our strong focus on innovation, we are changing the way security solutions are delivered. Investing in operational functions and further investing in regional markets such as Asia Pacific helps address the global security challenge, and allows us to help both our local and multi-national customers achieve real business value. By partnering with a dedicated information security provider they will be able to reduce overall costs while balancing risk and compliance requirements,” he added.

Andrew Lev, who has been with Integralis since 2007 and most recently held the position of Group EVP – Channels and Business Development, will take the position of global Chief Marketing Officer. Additionally, Gavin Bradbury joins as VP Marketing. Gavin previously held senior marketing roles at VeriSign, 1E and Computer Associates.

William Yeack, who has been with Integralis since 2007 and most recently held the position of Executive Vice President, Corporate at Integralis, will head up operations in the explosive Asia-Pacific markets as the President, Asia Pacific. Building on his extensive experience with international development and operations in Asia, Mr. Yeack will be based in Singapore.

FACTFILE:
Integralis provides IT Security and Information Risk Management solutions on a global basis. We deliver a portfolio of managed security solutions, business infrastructure, consulting and technology integration services. As part of the NTT Communications Group, we help organizations lower IT costs and increase the depth of security protection, compliance and service availability. For more information, visit www.integralis.com.

Integralis UK Promotes Ian Rigby to Sales Director

Integralis UK Promotes Ian Rigby to Sales Director

Theale, Reading, U.K., 21st October 2011. Integralis, the UK’s largest provider of IT Security and Information Risk Management solutions, today announced the promotion of Ian Rigby to Sales Director from Business Unit Director.

Ian, who first joined Integralis in 2007, will be responsible for continuing to grow the company’s market share of the managed security, consulting and technology integration services in the UK.

Commenting on this promotion, Neal Lillywhite, Integralis’ UK Managing Director, points out: “Integralis continues to expand its provision of IT security and information risk management solutions worldwide. After 4 years at Integralis, Ian has an exceptional knowledge of the market, the industry and of Integralis. He is highly regarded by everyone within the business, and is the right man to drive the sales operations forward.”

Ian Rigby, UK Sales Director said, “I am looking forward to strengthening our sales organisation and expanding our already extensive UK customer base, building on our strong reputation with UK companies and UK-based multi-nationals. As businesses focus on managing costs, they are faced with numerous security challenges, such as protecting the mobile workforce, managing evolving online threats and the need for compliance, to name but a few. I’ll be working with our experienced teams internally to present our trusted solutions to the organisations that are tackling these issues. This expertise is what makes us the leading pure-play provider of security and information risk management solutions.”

FACTFILE:
Integralis provides IT Security and Information Risk Management solutions on a global basis. They deliver a portfolio of managed security, business infrastructure, consulting and technology integration services. As part of the NTT Communications Group, they help organisations lower IT costs and increase the depth of security protection, compliance and service availability. For more information, visit www.integralis.com.

New report shows how governance can help information security align with overall corporate strategy and stakeholder value

A new report from the independent information security body, the Information Security Forum (ISF), provides organisations with a clear picture of how better governance can help the information security function raise its game within the business.

Entitled ‘Information Security Governance – raising the game’, the report outlines how adopting a governance-style approach can lift security out of its technical ‘comfort zone’ and into a wider business context.

The ISF argues that while corporate governance is well-known and common practice, even obligatory, within the corporate environment, governance itself is not always present in information security – a critical part of any business. However, when the security function does adopt governance, it leads to better engagement with senior executives and other corporate governance functions, helping to foster better understanding, minimise risk and limit reputational damage.

The report’s author and ISF Principal Analyst, Adrian Davis, comments: “Corporate information is becoming much more complex because the technologies and processes to manage it are becoming more complex. At the same time, information is much more susceptible to attack or abuse, as we’ve witnessed many times this year already. This new report shows how information security governance can become an integral part of corporate governance, demonstrating to a company’s stakeholders – customers, partners, shareholders and regulators – that corporate data is being protected according to industry best practice.”

As with each new ISF report, ‘Information Security Governance – raising the game’ offers practical step-by-step guidance for businesses via a comprehensive security governance framework, developed using ISF Member experience, analysis, research, tools and workshops. This framework enables Members to demonstrate how information security can:

· Deliver value to stakeholders: Improve effectiveness and efficiency; meet stakeholder requirements; enable business initiatives; and integrate with enterprise processes

· Achieve strategic goals: Execute strategic objectives; set and refine information risk appetite; sustain buy-in and commitment; and maintain security requirements

· Provide information risk assurance: Oversee assurance programme; implement risk assessment; ensure compliance; manage supply chain risk; and monitor and report on assurance.

“As information security governance is an emerging concept and yet to be fully realised and understood by many organisations, this report is unique in providing practical hands-on guidance,” adds Adrian Davis. “It outlines the key components you need to have in place for effective information security governance, pointers to additional ISF materials and information to help determine if your current governance framework measures up, and most important, tools to check its levels of maturity.”

An executive summary of the ‘Information Security Governance – raising the game’ report is available from the ISF website at: https://www.securityforum.org/?page=publicdownloadisg . The report also points to the new version of the ISF’s Standard of Good Practice (SoGP) launched in September 2011 and the ISO/IEC 27014 standard to help in the development of information security governance.

Security Lessons Learned From Californian Power Outage

By Professor John Walker FBCS CITP CISM CRISC ITPC

That's Technology received the following letter from Professor Walker and decided to reproduce it in its entirety as matter of public concer:-

The 9th of September 2011 saw a power outage in the US affecting 5 million people in the area of Southern California - the root cause analysis of which is said to have been one single employee switching out a piece of problematic equipment. The upshot of this single act is nevertheless extremely worrying, as it manifested in traffic chaos, cancellation of flights, the shutting down of two nuclear reactors, a widespread impact on business, and on residents.

This event does, however, raise a number of questions and points back to the long debate about the security of Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems, which are considered, in some cases, to host a soft underbelly for Cyber Attack. There is also the question of timing - whilst I do understand the public notice, let us be honest here - if this were anything other than a mistake by an employee, would the public really expect to be told?

Additionally, if a single employee's mistake, with just one piece equipment can have such a devastating consequence on what is National Critical Infrastructure, then what does this tell us about Security, Change Management, and of course, Business Continuity?

The timing of this event may not, in my opinion, be a complete coincidence, coinciding as it did with the 9/11 memorial - an event which cost the lives of many innocent, ordinary people - and an event which changed the world for ever. While it is not being suggested for one moment that this is the consequence of a cyber attack, in my mind the jury is still out and it is a concern I am not able to satisfactorily resolve. It may also be worth noting that in the UK, the time/date format is 9/9/11.

I believe this event again places focus in the frailties of an infrastructure which is subject to targeting by extremists who are seeking to cause disruption, to create chaos, and to possibly follow through with loss of life. It must also be accepted that to place a cyber warfare attack capability alongside a conventional theatre of war would seem to make a great deal of battle field sense - causing wide spread disruption, outage of power, followed by what I would expect to be opportunist public disorder.

One last point of interest here is, only last week I was sent an image by one of my many distant contacts - and as I recall the message said, "You may find this interesting" - it was a picture of New York in a blackout condition.

To conclude: no matter mistake or cyber attack, the time has arrived to reassess just what security is surrounding the various Critical National Infrastructures (CNI) around the world, and to place them, where possible, in an enhanced profile of security hardening. It may also be beneficial to revisit the standard operational practices around such areas as change management, and of course business continuity.

Last but not least, I am sure this has been considered, but if Al Qaeda can get one of their radicalised operatives into a prime position of flying an aircraft, gaining employment with a power company in some capacity should prove to be a much less onerous objective. As I have said before in many articles, it is time for the security professionals to take a more proactive stance and look at what needs to be done.

The first task must be to get serious about the landscape of security which surrounds these systems which we rely on to service the CNI. And here I don't just mean applying a few policies, and then following them with the religious contempt that we so very often see practiced in some sectors of IT Governance, in the form of tick box security and lip serviced compliance. I am talking about serious programmes that are commensurate to the potential risk and impact posed against, and by these Key Point Infrastructures and Assets.

I am asserting that the induction processes for selecting employees into these Key Point areas are both robust, and consistent throughout all organisations who supply such critical services. If not, then now would be a good time to rethink the recruitment processes.

In closing, I see a need for more Security Professionals with a willingness to go to the next level and embrace this specialist area of SCADA Systems, Applications, and Infrastructures Security. And more importantly, for these professionals to immerse themselves in learning, and specialising in these environments, in particular, relative to their foibles and challenges.  Possibly here, there may even be a future for focused Training Certification to be created specific to SCADA environments.

One thing is for sure, these systems, applications, and infrastructures are not just run of the mill. They are the very lifeblood of the global economy, business, and our communities, and they demand special treatment to secure, and govern their profiles. Nothing less will suffice.

Professor John Walker, CISM, CRISC, FBCS, CITP, ITPC

CTO of Secure-Bastion www.secure-bastion.co.uk