INTERVIEW
Horangi: The Tiger that does not sleep
Hackwarenews share a cup of coffee with Horangi, a Singapore-based cyber-security solution provider to discuss on threats in the info-communication world.
Paul Hadjy, co-founder and CEO of Horangi almost finds himself an endangered species in the tiny red dot at plying the rare trade of cyber-security.
“It was cool to see some of the other companies doing cyber-security in the region as there are not that many.” said Hadjy, referring to the recent turnout for the CyberConnect 360 event held in Singapore.
To Hadjy, he believed that more can be done to chase the success from the event and address the very real cyber threats posted to the corporate world. For instances, financial firms have increasingly became the top target for hacking as they control large amount of money and credit information of clients.
Despite the risks, not many financial related institutions were able to ward off hostile cyber-attack from outside the company. As such, a number of high profile data breaches have surfaced out in the news lately.
The aftermath of such breaches then often opened up the victim, in most of the cases, a company to the possibility of very expensive litigation which in the first place can be prevented.
“It is extremely important that a company be able to identify any possible holes within their enterprise network and to be able to fix them before they would be the target of a coordinated attack.” opined Hadjy.
It was often said that human remained the weakest link in the corporate data protection, however proper training can be used to enhance their mindsets and raises their cyber-security awareness.
The next weakest link in line then lies in the email systems which are vulnerable to phishing, ransomware and malware. And most often a weak password is all it needed for hackers to find a breakthrough to a highly secured system.
Reflecting this sentiment, Hadjy told Hackwarenews that every company should know whether or not its computer network that are connected to the Internet are as secured as possible.
Then, this big picture will list the various weak spots in the system which might be vulnerable to cyber attacker for exploitation to gain greater access to company data.
In filling this gap, Horangi has offered a three-part system that scans, detects security issues and prepares reports based on the data collected. Moreover, the three-part system is capable of doing a complete and thorough analysis of a client’s computer network and all of its workstations looking for possible security risks.
“With Horangi, they (the clients) would be able to know whether or not they would be ready and help them identify any deficiencies before they become a problem.” commented Hadjy.
After the review, the client will be able to come up with a plan to mitigate the risks and to hopefully prevent any type of security breach from occurring in the future.
As Horangi’s motto goes, “there is no off switch on a tiger”, and the word “Horangi” is actually derived from Korean language meaning, tiger. Similarly in the cyber world, there is no off day as well, as threats are constantly round the clock. So probably, we do need a sleepless tiger to ward off endless cyber-attacks for data integrity.
DEALS
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BREAKING NEWS
Horangi praises Singapore’s initiative on new cybersecurity accelerator programme
Horangi praises Singapore’s initiative on new cybersecurity accelerator programme. In the pursuit of becoming Start-up Nation, Singapore plans to launch its first cybersecurity-centric accelerator programme in April.
The pioneer programme will commence with the support from Singapore’s very own Info-communications Media Development Authority (IMDA) and the Cyber Security Agency (CSA) with aims to accelerate start-ups in cybersecurity sectors.
Under the programme, the cybersecurity entrepreneurs have access to a three month stint at a start-up hub, named Innovation Cybersecurity Ecosystem at Block 71 (ICE71). In that hub, the hopefuls will learn pre-accelerator boot camp, accelerator training programme and landing pad for start-ups with Europe-based cybersecurity accelerator Cylon.
“Government support for cyber security is critical to grow Singapore’s regional expertise and cyber security startups like Horangi will benefit from these programs,” said Paul Hadjy, CEO at Horangi Cyber Security (Horangi).
Hadjy told Hackwarenews team that the state top-down approach is essential in supporting the embryonic state of cybersecurity development in Singapore.
In his opinion, the barrier for growth in the cybersecurity security often pointed down to the shortage of talents in the field. Thus, the accelerator programme will allow the startups to gain access to funding as well as the right mentorship to groom talents and expertise.
Besides the lack of talents, Hadjy highlighted that many Southeast-Asia based firms have downplayed the values of cyber security in their overall corporate strategy.
“Many ASEAN companies view cyber security as an IT task and not an overarching business risk,” opined Hadjy.
This oversight causes many decision-makers to set ineffective budget targets for cyber security spending, which in turn leads to myopic, ineffective spending. However, he noted that corporate companies are gradually changing their mindset on the importance of cyber-security.
“Today, organizations in Singapore and other regions are shifting towards a more holistic view of cyber security; where it has become a pressing concern that affects business processes across all enterprises.” concluded Hadjy.
Going forward, he believed that enterprises should engage a third party cyber security company in helping them to analyse their profile and identify system vulnerabilities. Then, the outcome of the analysis can be used to formulate plan to protect key data and assets from breaches.
INTERVIEW
Annus horribilis or Annus Mirabilis for cybersecurity in 2018
Annus horribilis or Annus Mirabilis for cybersecurity in 2018. We entered the New Year of 2018 full of promises and hope, but will this “new year euphoria” going to last and will prove to be short-live joy?
So far as 2018 progresses, the year seems rather promising with the exception of recurrence of “Black Monday” on 5 February 2018 which witnessed the biggest Dow Jones drop of all time over the stock markets. Cryptocurrency also went with the dive since achieving historical high late last year.
For the cybersecurity sector, no boom and bust cycle yet as the year entered the second month. However, US-headquartered security technology firm, A10 Networks highlighted to Hackwarenews on the cyber threats trend ahead for 2018.
Bigger, bolder and costlier cyber-attacks expected in 2018
Song Tang Yih, vice president Asia Pacific of A10 Networks told Hackwarenews that cyber-attacks in 2018, will be bigger, bolder and much costlier for victims.
“For 2017, spending on cybersecurity reached USD86 billion which was a humongous amount,” said Song.
Furthermore, he noted that the average data breach cost in 2017 accounted to around USD 4 million, while the annual cyber-attack cost ballooned to USD 400 billion alone. Using these past data, Song expected an increasing volumes of cyber-attacks in 2018, as hackers used more sophisticated approaches such as “Reaper malware” to breach vulnerabilities in systems for financial benefits.
More state-sponsored attacks expected
Some of these cyber-attacks were believed to be state-sponsored in nature at a bid to obtain hard currency as voiced out by Jonathan Tan, regional vice president, ASEAN and Pakistan of A10 Networks.
“There is no good time or bad time, where the hackers will rest. In fact, more so during the bad time, hackers will hack for finance gains.” commented Tan.
Some of the cyber-attacks were believed by Tan to be inspired by regional tensions among countries which eventually conducted cyberwars to breach each other systems. To Tan, Singapore is in the forefront of this battle due to the connectivity among its various governmental services and its ambition of becoming an IT-savvy Smart Nation.
Telco Operators on the hit list
Beside government networks, Tan expected Telecommunication (telecom) operator to be next victims due to its role in serving as the conduit for businesses. In his opinion, the hackers will seek to exploit Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) or Internet of Things (IOT) vulnerabilities.
Cameras and surveillance system run via the telecom network will also be another vulnerable spots for attacks to compromises corporates securities or simply to bring the whole network down to the attackers’ advantages.
The Challenges of merging various Cloud platforms
In 2018, Song estimated more corporations and organisation to merge their private clouds with public clouds into multi-cloud environments for scalability purposes. The merging processes, however might provide more vulnerabilities for data breaches and the call for the protection of personal data online is more needed than ever.
The good news is that there are already some partnership and technology development set in motions to smooth out the merging of private and public cloud. For instance, software giants like Microsoft, Azure and Google have come together to provide uniform set of infrastructures and application program interface (API) for hybrid clouds to further improve efficiency.
Deceptive technology to act as sheepdog against cyber-attacks
Despite the various threats, security services providers like A10 Networks has something in their sleeves against cyber-attacks. One of the weapons will be using adaptive, deceptive and predictive security products to prevent cyber-attacks.
To certain extent, Tan even dubbed the deceptive and predictive technology into a “Top Five Technology” in 2018. As these know-hows give security operators the ability to predict a cyber-attack that is yet to happen.
“Deceptive and predictive technology allows the security firm to trick the hackers to stay ahead of them and protect systems,” concluded Tan.
In his opinion, the digital security will eventually become a basic human right issue as our world gets more interconnected and our dependence on safe communication become close to our needs for clean air, water and food.
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