Cyber Security:  Experts task organisations to secure operation amid increasing threats

Cyber security experts have advised organisations that handle financial services and sensitive user data to proactively adopt measures to protect themselves from the increasing wave of cyber security threats.

They gave this advice on Tuesday at an event, “Secure Enterprise 2019” organised by ITANDT Solutions Limited, a leading software development and IT Security company, in collaboration with International Business Machines (IBM) and Interdist Alliances, a Value-Added Distributor (VAD).

The event which was well attended by leading financial institutions and some other companies, was used to expose new risks and challenges being faced in the cyber world as well as the technologies they could adopt to address them.

Speaking at the event, Mr Akpos Okoro,  MD/CEO of ITANDT Solutions Limited, said today’s cyber supply chain has removed the traditional security perimeter as enterprises adopt cloud, mobile, Internet of Things and social technologies.

“There’s no such thing as perfect security. An agile and commercially pragmatic approach is essential for the growth and innovation required to thrive in the new world,” he said, adding, “If measures are not in place to timely detect and rapidly respond to incidents, irreparable brand damage and financial losses could occur.”

At the event, two experts from IBM described how IBM has helped organisations to work ahead of the cyber criminals and also avoid heavy regulatory sanctions.

Ronald Martey of IBM Security Solutions (Central and West Africa) described how IBM top leading Security Intelligence solution, QRadar SIEM consolidates siloed information to more effectively detect and manage complex threats.

According to him, the secret behind QRadar being the solution of choice is mainly because of its Watson cognitive (embedded Artificial Intelligence) ability to fight cybercrime, coupled with its ability to integrate with IBM and other third party components for automated response to intrusion attempts or incidents.

Also, at the event, Khalid Shaban of IBM Security (Middle East and Africa) described how IBM addresses some other challenges, through the use of IBM MaaS360 with Watson, an Enterprise Mobility Management/ Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) Solution.

The solution enables organizations that use mobile devices in the corporate network to achieve desired productivity without compromising control of what users do with such devices while accessing corporate resources.

Khalid also described how IBM Guardian Analyzer helps organizations to confidently demonstrate compliance with GDPR, PCI DSS and other data protection regulations.

It also guides database administrators and managers to proactively detect vulnerabilities and prioritize fixing them before they become big issues.

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Mr. Raphael Nwosu, General Manager at ITANDT Solutions Limited also briefed the press on how the company has been empowering the businesses of various organisations in partnership with world leading technology like IBM and Interdist Alliances.