Q&
FADY YOUNES, CYBERSECURITY
DIRECTOR – MEA, CISCO
Yo
un
es
EDITOR’S
, C
ybe
rsec
u
t &
Eas
rity Director – Middle
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ric
Af
O
ver the course of the past year,
we’ve seen Digital Transformation
significantly affect the ways
businesses expand their reach, capabilities
and customer engagement. They know that
technology is core to their strategy no matter
the industry. For most companies, one of
the first things standing in the way of their
digitisation journey is the question of security.
A Cisco report identified that 71% of
executives have concerns over cybersecurity
impeding innovation in their organisations,
while nearly 40% have halted mission-
critical initiatives due to cybersecurity
INTELLIGENT TECH CHANNELS
Issue 18
issues and 69% are reluctant to innovate in
areas such as digital products and services
because of the perceived cybersecurity risks.
Companies which implement security
well know that differentiating their business
through secure technology becomes a
business advantage and the foundation for
continued innovation. That’s why the first
digital imperative is that the best digital
offence starts with the best security defence.
The Internet was built on the idea of
openness – getting more things on rather
than keeping them off. Today, devices
and people are coming online at an
unprecedented scale. By 2021, more than
one million IoT devices will come online every
hour of every day. As a result, points of threat
entry are constantly changing and expanding
every time a new ‘thing’ comes onto the
network. As the attack surface increases
and the stakes grow, the number of threat
actors is increasing as well and their level of
sophistication is evolving quickly.
Cyberthreats have changed dramatically
in the past decade in terms of sophistication
and volume. That change has been driven by
two factors: organisations becoming more
connected through the Internet of Things
(IoT) and cybercriminals becoming more
sophisticated and more organised.
Five to 10 years ago, the c-suite really
didn’t have a relationship or a dialogue with
Five to 10 years ago,
the c-suite really didn’t
have a relationship or
a dialogue with the
information security
team or leader. But that
is all changing.
the information security team or leader. But
that is all changing.
Companies need an architecture that is
able to keep threats out and for the most
advanced threats that can sometimes
evade defences, minimise time to detection
and remediation. And they need to move
away from point solutions – the vendor
buffet of products not designed to fit or
work together – to an integrated approach
that works seamlessly across their entire
organisation and across their network,
endpoints and cloud.
Digital Transformation requires a
strong cybersecurity foundation. With
this foundation, companies will have the
confidence to implement digital processes
and technologies that fuel innovation
and growth. Without it, companies may
hesitate to start digital projects, stifling their
innovation potential and opening the door to
digital disruptors.
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