Intelligent CIO Middle East Issue 17 | Page 7

NEWS UAE Al Ansari help Sri Lankan Airlines Customers Take to the Air Al Ansari Exchange, the UAE-based foreign exchange and worldwide money transfer company, has recently signed an agreement with SriLankan Airlines, the national carrier of Sri Lanka. According to the terms of the agreement, SriLankan Airlines customers will now be able to make payments through more than 170 UAE-wide Al Ansari Exchange branches. The service will be available during the second quarter of this year onwards. Rashed Ali Al Ansari, General Manager of Al Ansari Exchange, said: “In line with our efforts to enter into corporate partnerships that add value to our clients, we have recently collaborated with the SriLankan Airlines, the national airlines of Sri Lanka. The deal will enable all customers of the airline to process their payments for tickets booked over the phone or via the airline’s website from any of the Al Ansari Exchange branches across the UAE. The extended convenience will also save time and effort for SriLankan passengers.” The signing follows the continuous growth enjoyed by SriLankan Airlines, which is attributed to its equally vibrant tourism industry—ably positioning Sri Lanka as a key tourist destination. Aside from the Sri Lankan travelers, recent figures show that the national carrier has serviced more than 45,000 Indian passengers per year, followed by 36,000 Bangladeshis and around 15,000 British, European and Americans. SriLankan Airlines also ferry around 10,000 UAE nationals and 8,000 Indonesian and Filipino passengers per annum. “SriLankan Airlines is pleased to seal a partnership deal with a reputed foreign exchange service provider such as Al Ansari Exchange, allowing us to serve our customers in the UAE with enhanced convenience. We always strive to ensure a seamless and hassle-free travel experience for our passengers and we will continue to enter into strategic partnerships through which we can reach to a wider customer base across the world,” concluded Siva Ramachandran, Chief Commercial Officer, SriLankan Airlines. SOPHOS retain Magic Quadrant EPP Leader Position Gartner has once again positioned Sophos as a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Endpoint Protection Platforms1 (EPP). Sophos has held a Leader position in this report since 2007. According to the latest report, the next wave of cyber-threats will be fileless. “Advanced attackers have been exploiting script-based attacks for years. Common Windows utilities, such as the command line interface, PowerShell, Perl, Visual Basic, Nmap and Windows Credential Editor, can be exploited to compromise machines without dropping any executable files, evading all traditional forms of malicious file detection.” In response to this, Gartner recommends that “EPP buyers should look for vendors that focus on memory exploit protection, script analysis and behavior indicators of compromise. Ultimately, we [Gartner] believe that vendors that focus on detecting behavior indicative of attacker tradecraft (that is, tools, tactics and techniques) will be the most effective.” ransomware capabilities with root cause analysis to run along- side and complement existing endpoint protection products,” said Dan Schiappa, senior vice president and general manager of the endpoint and network security groups at Sophos. “We believe that our continued placement as a Leader in this highly competitive market reflects our ability to continually innovate and deliver quality products in response to the changing threat landscape. Not only have our products been proven in customer deployments worldwide but they are also assessed by independent third party testing to demonstrate their effectiveness against the threats that Gartner cautions are on the rise.” Schiappa continued, “Sophos believes that the only way to successfully protect against the growth of sophisticated threats is to use an ensemble of products that work together and share threat and security status for faster detection and more immediate response. This is the core tenant of our synchronized security strategy. It is only by taking a new ‘best of breed system’ approach to close the gaps that exist in the traditional multi-vendor single product deployments that companies will more effectively protect “For the last several years Sophos has built products that integrate their critical data assets. Today we include network security, exploit prevention, behavior analytics and pre-execution heuristics. endpoint security and encryption products in this synchronized The launch of Intercept X added signatureless anti-exploit and anti- security strategy and we will continue to expand its capabilities.” www.intelligentcio.com INTELLIGENTCIO 7