Playtech Brochure Jan 2021

SECURITY TRANSFORMATION AT THE HEART OF CYBERSEC IN ASSOCIATION WITH

Playtech

DIGITAL REPORT 2021

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SECURITY TRANSFORMATION AT THE HEART OF CYBERSEC 03

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As the world shifts its working patterns, and faced with an already complex set of technology stacks, Playtech’s Daniel Liber discusses security transformation

W

hile Playtech is a technology company with gaming at its core, it takes no chances with its security strategy. That’s a challenge

because the company has developed and acquired a number of technology platforms, all of which need to be rationalised in its security brief. And its custom04

ers – household name online gaming platforms with reputations to protect – need it to look after their best interests.

The task of keeping a lid on the company’s systems and data is head of information security Daniel Liber.

Liber, who like many Israeli technologists got his start through the country’s military service programme, joined Playtech three years ago and climbed to his current role. “It’s a great school for security management positions,” he says. “You learn so much from so many talented and experienced people.”

Things have changed dramatically over the course of Liber’s career. He reminisces about the development of the internet from the dot com bubble of the early 00s to now, pondering the milestones – smartphones, the internet of things – that have marked the technological transformation in the interim.

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RISE OF THE PERSONAL DEVICE Personal devices, Liber thinks, have been maligned in security circles. Yes, they offer an increased attack surface and personal details are more likely to be compromised, but at the same time Joe Public’s attitude to privacy has changed.

“Privacy doesn’t make most of end users worry. People today give away information relatively easily. You can see it on social media. When you lost your credit cards, that used to be a big issue. Now you just cancel it and everything is okay.”

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Transparency is top of Liber’s list when it comes to management. “It’s important.

Everybody should feel as if they have an understanding of what’s going on from the top level down to the person doing the hands-on engineering. When there’s a shared strategy and objective to the company, everybody should feel as if they’re part of it.”

The second thing on his list is saying yes (even conditionally) and the third is sticking to facts and numbers. “There are a lot of hunches and gut feelings in security,” admits Liber, “which is okay and sometimes important. But eventually, when you need to make a decision, it should be balanced between having

“ Having a good relationship with your vendor means being able to look forward to the upcoming years in terms of security transformation” — Daniel Liber, Head of information security, Playtech

07 E X E C U T I V E P R O FILE :

Daniel Liber Title: Head of information security Industry: Computer Software

Company: Playtech

Location: United Kingdom

Daniel Liber is current Head of Information Security at Playtech, a leading gaming platform provider.

Daniel has over 15 years of experience in different positions such as security consultancy, engineering and management, and working across different industries – automotive, finance, telecom and software companies.

Daniel also participated as a speaker in several global security conferences including OWASP, BSides, Tel Aviv Cyber Week and local Defcon and ISACA chapters. He also holds B.Sc. in Physics and MBA, as well as several security certifications, as well as participating in management programs from top universities. www.pl a y t ech . com

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See how we’ve made cloud security beautiful at TrendMicro.com/HybridCloud For more information: trendmicro_israel@trendmicro.com

09 the full view of information and taking an educated decision.”

Hunches are okay then?

“Sometimes there is a lot of focus on the characteristic technicalities of the vulnerability, rather than the context,” he says. “So it looks scientific but there

“ There are a lot of hunches and gut feelings in security” — Daniel Liber, Head of information security, Playtech

is information missing. Where the vulnerability is and how it could be used

digital transformation. It sits at the inter-

and how difficult it is is information that

section of technological frontiers and the

could be used to determine the overall

needs of users, customers and employ-

vulnerability impact.”

ees. And it is particularly important at a time of change.

WHAT IS SECURITY TRANSFORMATION?

“The hottest topic at the moment is

This holistic view informs what Liber calls

working from home,” LIber says. “It is

‘security transformation’ as an arm of

obviously about getting companies’ and www.pl a y t ech . com

“ The orchestration of tools and visibility across different technology stacks is extremely critical right now” — Daniel Liber, Head of information security, Playtech users’ IT needs to align in a new working model, but more than that, it is about changing attitudes.

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“Teams had a limited transformation state of mind. Now they know that every couple of years they will have to ask

“Doing proper mapping is very impor-

the question: what’s next? Some were

tant, and then you have the question of

already doing that because of previous

how you tie these things together. You

security challenges – the shift to the

might buy several tools from the same

cloud, for instance – so to some extent

vendor or different tools from different

we were pretty ready to have a smooth

vendors, but you need to find a balance

transition into working from home.”

of managing them which supports your

Another pillar of Liber’s security transformation is orchestration. “There are

company’s needs. You have to balance your priorities.

so many technologies we need to cover,

“Eventually the idea is to try to narrow

so the orchestration of tools and visibility

down this stuff as much as possible, into

across different technology stacks

a single dashboard or as few places as

is extremely critical right now, espe-

possible – just for the sanity of your ana-

cially for incident response and security

lysts – and it’s becoming harder as more

operations teams.

and more tools are added.”

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COMPLEXITY VERSUS UNIFICATION

personal devices as they wish while

At Playtech, the company has moved

companies can be assured that security

into a hybrid environment of on-premise

isn’t compromised.

and cloud infrastructure, and pushed to

Security transformation isn’t a task

consolidate “small islands” of technology

to be taken on single handed and Liber

services into a more unified platform. It’s

is particularly impressed by Playtech’s

been a boon from a security perspective,

partnership with Trend Micro. Unusually,

particularly as the pandemic has forced

perhaps, the seed of the relationship was

more users to work from home.

hyper geographic: the two firms both

The problem, as Liber sees it, is one of

had small offices in the same building.

employees using their personal devices

“They gave us a lot of attention,” Liber

for work. A possible solution, he thinks,

recalls. “They sat down with us during

might be to “somehow containerise

the proof of concept and we gave them

part of your personal computer”. This

some feedback and we got immediate

approach allows employees to use their

responses. They were amazing with how www.pl a y t ech . com

PLAYTECH

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“ Privacy doesn’t make most of end users worry” — Daniel Liber, Head of information security, Playtech

they helped us to shape the implementation of their Deep Security products based on our environment and needs.

“Having a good relationship with the vendor is important for several reasons, firstly that when you implement a product or service you will bump into some kind of issue or question, and the feeling of getting good service or customer support is always nicer than when it doesn’t happen. But it’s also about being able to look forward to the upcoming years in terms of security transformation.

Sharing the road map early allows you to predict and better plan your work.

“I also think it’s important to keep it light, which might sound silly but negotiations and discussions can be quite dry, so sometimes the personal touch can really help the procurement and commercial processes.”

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