IndigoCube has been appointed an IBM Security Solutions business partner.
The move is a strategic one for IndigoCube, says the head of its security division, Godfrey Kutumela, given the growing importance of data security in a business environment characterised simultaneously greater reliance on apps to service customers and growing cyber-attacks.
“The app economy and big data feed off each other, and together they pose a huge security challenge for companies and government agencies alike,” says Kutumela. “On the one hand, data is valuable and, as a target for increasingly sophisticated cyber-attacks, represents a significant risk; on the other, apps have to access data in order for the company to compete. IBM’s enterprise security portfolio offers companies a short cut to effective security despite the expense and scarcity of specialised security skills.”
IBM’s portfolio is built around four key pillars. The first one is to help clients optimise their security strategy, first by understanding their security maturity and then by building a security operations centre to create a systematic approach.
The second pillar is to use analytics to identify and repel advanced cyber threats. “More than 95% of chief information security officers think they’ll experience an advanced attack in the next 12 months, with 90% of them saying such threats cause substantially more damage than traditional threats,” notes Kutumela. “Realtime intelligence is the only way to secure oneself against threats that, unlike Trojans or worms, can remain undetected in the system for months.”
IBM’s third pillar is to implement a risk-based approach to protect critical data assets in today’s hyper-connected world.
The final piece of the puzzle is the safeguarding of the enterprise’s cloud and mobile environments, which have become critical in enabling the always-on business interacting across multiple channels. As the lines between personal and work life blur, securing corporate data and applications without impacting business has become a key challenge for security staff.
IBM’s research shows that that less than half of security leaders feel that they have an effective approach to the management of mobile devices. IBM’s security portfolio is cloud-ready, and includes effective solutions to protect mobile devices, content, applications and transactions.
Kutumela concludes: “IBM’s framework provides a tested approach backed up by rigorous R&D and a global network of security experts. It’s essentially a way to access leading-edge expertise to mitigate a set of risks that is growing in volume and sophistication at a fearsome rate.”