Govind Rammurthy | CEO & MD | eScan
Security is becoming a woe for today’s connected world. Reports reiterate that it may be the inception, as the real potential of security concern can vanquish the global budgets of businesses. In the era of Big Data and cloud services the vulnerabilities are expected to be fancier. In a candid chat with Govind Rammurthy, CEO & MD, eScan – illustrates company’s mentorship on the growing security issues and being one of the major security providers how they are addressing the digital breaches. Excerpts.
What is the latest product range matching today’s market need?
According to the latest trends, eScan Universal Security Suite (USS) has received good response in the market. The advantage of Universal Security Suite is that it gives protection to multiple computing devices (like desktop, laptop, palmtop, smartphone, tablet etc.) in a family at the same time with a single license key. It provides real-time protection to Windows, Mac, iOS, Linux and Android operating systems from objectionable content and evolving cyber threats with a single license key. In addition, eScan Mobile Security for iPhones & iPads, eScan Mobile Security for Android and eScan Tablet Security for Android has got good response from the IT security market since the numbers of computing devices are increasing very fast.
Latest reports unveil failures from various Antivirus providers to match the level of security for users. What has been the reason and eScan’s strategies to provide a secure ecosystem for the users?
There can be different probable reasons behind failures of various Antivirus providers. The Signature based detection of antivirus engine compares the contents of a file to the database of known malware signature. In this process, the productivity of the system hampers. It has been seen that several Antivirus providers makes the system slower since it consumes more CPU utilization.
eScan products are Light Weigh Products in terms of low memory consumption, fast booting time and low CPU utilization. The installation of eScan products is faster. The highly optimized database with the product gets installed in less than 1.5 minutes on an average.
Apart from that, maximum-security features and better protection give eScan a different edge over others.
The cloud corridors are proliferating vigorously needing comprehensive security parameters. Provide your Portfolio and suggestions for adopters in this next-gen tech heap?
The security concerns of Private Cloud, Public Cloud and Hybrid Cloud are keeping next generation techies on the nerves. eScan range of Enterprise products consisting of Mobile Device Management (MDM) and Hybrid Network Support. Since BYOD has become an operating trend in major tech organizations, thus eScan’s MDM module works as a shield from all possible cyber-attacks. It allows the administrators to create different groups for different locations, add devices, move devices from one group to another group, define rules for Anti-Virus, Web Protection, Anti-Theft, Password and Device Oriented policy.
Mention some latest Cyber Attacks and how eScan positioned on these vulnerabilities?
Some of the latest National and International incidents of cyber-attacks include:
ISRO’s Commercial Arm Antrix Website hacked
Indian Online Banking sector were targeted by deadly Trojan Gen: Heu: MSIL.Krypt.
Nissan had to shut down global websites after anti-whaling cyber attack
Fraudsters in UK hit around 2000 Vodafone accounts
Hilton group of Hotels hit by Cyber Attack to steal Credit Card Information
IT Administrators are combating the similar vulnerabilities with the help of eScan SMB and Enterprise products. Our Mobile Device Management (MDM) module can give additional layer of security to the mobile phones connected to the network. The Anti-theft feature helps to prevent misuse of phones and locate them if stolen. The culprits are nabbed easily as eScan Anti-Theft feature helps to take his/her snap in no time.
The Digital India is a pragmatic initiative from the Govt. but it also earmarks security concerns for such huge digital vicinity? How the company is engaging with this initiative?
Digital India is a great initiative by the Indian Government. It is one of the first Indian trends to go global and eScan has geared up to provide security to the Digital India assets. eScan foresees the serious necessity of IT security since the Digital assets are always vulnerable to breaches.
What will be the key Tech & Trends to hit in 2016?
With companies seeing the importance of cyber security in the digital era, eScan team predicts that 2016 can be alarming. There are several security predictions that can hit this year.
Ransomware: Ransomware is expected to be a major threat in 2016. It is one of the easiest way for a cyber-criminal to extract money from the victims. In 2015, we witnessed Ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) hosted on the Tox, Tor supporting client and makes use of virtual currency for payment purpose. This is expected to grow in future too as the cyber-criminals will surely make an attempt to hack into user’s computer.
Requirement of Improved Security on IoT Devices: Since the demand for smart devices and other Internet of Things (IoT) device are increasing every day, thus the need for advanced security for these devices has also increased. According to recent statistics, there will be almost 30 billion connected things in major industries and IoT will touch every role across the corporates. Ready devises are going to be in the market. Simultaneously, the attacks against these devices will also rise.
Increase in sextortion: There would be raise in “sextortion” attack as scammers believe they can blackmail and threaten to leak personal photographs and videos of celebrities in return of money. This has set the trend of extorting money from them.
Increase in Android threats would be murkier: There will be sharp increase in number of Android exploits in this year. The Stagefright vulnerability that was heavily reported in 2015 took Android market into storm. It allowed hackers to take over an Android smartphone by enabling malicious programs into audio files, delivered via MP3 or MP4 format.
Increase in iOS Malware: Apple witnessed security breaches in its App Store, once with the Instagram app- InstaAgent after it was found to store usernames and passwords for Instagram users and sends them to an unknown server. This app was removed from both Google Play Store and Apple Store and prior to that Xcodeghost Malware which infiltrated the App Store. The cyber-criminals created an illegitimate version of Xcode, Apple Software for creating apps, which convinced iOS developers to download. When the apps were developed and downloaded, the attackers were able to steal data of users and send it to servers they control.
Payment systems: Thanks to mobile era, Payment systems have been transformed into other forms like Mobile Wallet such as Apple Pay, Android Pay etc. Cyber-criminals would be keen to get their hands on these payment systems and untested financial services.
Virtualization Firmware: Vulnerabilities in Virtualization Firmware could become an access point for cyber-crooks to gain entry into infrastructure of an enterprise. Virtual machines would be at risk as they could be the next target with system firmware rootkits. This could be the new tactic adopted by cyber-crook to gain entry into any corporate network by compromising it and extract valuable information.
Big Data and Hybrid Cloud will be the game-changer or can say the disruptors for tech and business ecosystem? What is your way to the Hybrid Cloud segment?
Big Data and Hybrid Cloud are one of the major upcoming challenges that are keeping the entire Anti-Virus industry on toes. eScan is no exception. Our R&D team is ceaselessly working on Hybrid Cloud for technical innovations on both SMB and Enterprise product segments. eScan’s Mobile Device Management and Hybrid Network Support feature of SMB/ Enterprise can leverage the public cloud as needed with their existing applications that are already in the data center, as well as assets afforded in the private cloud, thus making it a flexible IT infrastructure. With a hybrid cloud, SMBs have the opportunity to realign their network off-premises, which can significantly improve the reliability, scalability and availability of the connection as provider’s network investment is leveraged.
Some astounding reports say that hacking attacks are getting expensive. Few security experts estimated that 700 million compromised records from companies around the world led to losses of $400 million last year. That is based on surveys of 70 companies, so the actual figure is likely much higher. What are your remarks?
We do agree with it. There is a huge loss in the global IT world due to numerous online frauds, malware attacks, data thefts and other cyber-attacks. However, business continuity was maintained inspite of the disasters with the help of prompt steps taken by the organizations.
What are the key segments today the company is looking into?
Due to the recent string of incidents of cyber-attacks, we are not focusing towards any particular segment. Our importance is on SMB, Enterprise and SOHO segment as well. Since the number of smartphones, tablets and other popular computing devices has increased in the corporate network, thanks to BYOD, thus our focus is currently on Mobile Device Management (MDM) technology, which can perform on all platforms like Android, Windows and iOS.
Lastly, what are your upcoming plans? What is next big thing expected from eScan?
We are working on innovative solutions to enable eScan Mobile Device Management (MDM) easier to manage the add-ons in the business network since the number of Android, Windows and iOS users are increasing day by day. In addition, the Industrial Internet and IoT (Internet of Things) are other concerns areas that have risen recently. We foresee to do more and more advanced research on our products.
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