Cisco to Advocate That It’s Time to Put Security Above Everything At GISEC 2018

Cisco will address the maturing and more sophisticated tradecraft by attackers and will spotlight how adversaries are evolving their approaches to exploit new technology security gaps at this year’s Gulf Information Security Expo & Conference (GISEC). Themed, Security Above Everything, Cisco believes that organisations need to start building an industry wide culture - whether they are moving to the cloud, launching a new product, bringing on new digital devices - where security must be top of mind and integrated seamlessly into everything the organisations does. As a Platinum Partner, Cisco will address why securing networks and IT infrastructure is mission-critical for businesses to succeed today and build for tomorrow and discuss the evolving role of security. The event will be held at the Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC) from May 1 – 3, 2018.

Organisations use technology throughout their operations to drive the pace of business with most having moved to the cloud in some way, shape or form. Employees get more done from wherever they are thanks to the fact they can log into cloud apps or email over guest Wi-Fi from laptops or phones from the road. The cloud also has powered data centre explosions with networking teams overseeing applications instantly moving between the cloud and data centres to support dynamic business needs. At GISEC, Cisco will address whether by this move to the cloud, endpoint security for workers and the data centre have kept pace.

“While it’s easier to deploy new IT services, there may be impact to visibility and control mechanisms unless changes are made to the way security is implemented and managed. The security tools and processes that work for networks and data centres will not necessarily work in public clouds. We experience limits to visibility into the behaviour of users, the disposition of data, and the network. Yet privacy and data must be protected, along with the ability to detect and respond to threats across cloud environments,” said Scott Manson, Cybersecurity Lead - Middle East and Africa, Cisco. “Cisco delivers the breadth of innovation, so network and security teams can set the pace for securing their organisations with the visibility and protection necessary for users and workloads that drive business.  Our portfolio is built on coordinated threat intelligence becoming an action to detect, prevent or respond. If we want to succeed in the fight to protect our networks, it’s time to put Security Above Everything.”

In the recent Cisco 2018 Annual Cybersecurity Report (ACR), 27 percent of security professionals said they are using off-premises private clouds, compared with 20 percent in 2016 for various reasons including better data security (57 percent); scalability (48 percent) and ease of use (46 percent). The report further revealed that while cloud offers better data security, attackers are taking advantage of the fact that security teams are having difficulty defending evolving and expanding cloud environments and that malware sophistication is increasing as adversaries begin to weaponize cloud services and evade detection through encryption, used as a tool to conceal command-and-control activity.

The Cisco 2018 Security Capabilities Benchmark Study further revealed that defenders are implementing a complex mix of products from a cross-section of vendors to protect against breaches.  A staggering 23% of MEA companies manage more than 21 vendors leaving organizations with security stacks that are too complex to manage, spew too many alerts, and miss the really important outcomes.

“Defenders are implementing a complex mix of products from a cross-section of vendors to protect against breaches. This complexity and growth in breaches has many downstream effects on an organization’s ability to defend against attacks, such as increased risk of losses. Today, nearly half of all legitimate security alerts are not remediated, and it’s clear that a more cohesive approach is required. Cisco’s deep and broad view of threat data across endpoint, network and cloud, through email, web, and applications means that we know more about what is trying to attack our customers and therefore how to stop it from succeeding,” Scott Manson concluded.

Ayman AbuReyaleh, Cybersecurity Lead - UAE, Cisco will address how the traditional approach to bolt on the latest vendor or product category in the hope that the patchwork quilt of solutions will keep customers secure does not and has not worked and has created a false sense of security while only delivering increased cost and complexity. Ayman will address Cisco’s ability to bring security and networking together – placing security at the heart of the matter – in the critical place it needs to be. His keynote, titled ‘Security Above Everything’ will be delivered on Tuesday, May 1, 2018 at 4.30 PM

Cisco will be participating with its partner Alpha Data and will have security specialists and partners available at their stand in Za’abeel, Hall 5 stand B6.