The Integrator

AI AND MACHINE LEARNING

Two of the most revolutionary technologies of our time are artificial intelligence and machine learning. They are already being used to address some of the most difficult issues that humanity is currently facing and have the potential to revolutionize the way we live and work.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is fundamentally the capacity of machines to simulate human intelligence and carry out operations that would typically require human-like intelligence, such as comprehending natural language, identifying images, and making judgments.

One of the most exciting applications of AI and ML is in the field of medicine. Machine learning algorithms are being used to analyze medical images and assist with diagnostics, as well as to predict which patients are most likely to develop certain diseases. This can help doctors make more accurate diagnoses and provide more personalized treatment plans.

It is becoming clear that we are growing more and more dependent on technology. Being technologically savvy is crucial, but we also need to recognize that the human touch shouldn't disappear from the world.

AI has already arrived there, whereas we can only imagine the service. Since mercy can turn to annihilation in a matter of seconds, humans must exercise greater caution while interacting with and employing AI.

OBVIOUS TECHNOLOGIES SHARES THE TOP 3 TRENDS TO EXPECT IN 2023

Obvious Technologies has stressed addressing technology's power within public safety & security. The company has highlighted and demonstrated ways to leverage technological tools such as 3D Data Visualisation, Digital Twins, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and more.

“The UAE is a giant playground for innovation with an extremely high appetite for data and solutions within the public and private sectors. As the amount of data in the world increases, it will become physically impossible to keep track of everything manually. This is where using technologies such as AI and Digital twins will become a compulsion,” said Naoufal el Ouali, Co-Founder and CEO at Obvious Technologies.

As the market grows in 2023,

businesses must align their strategies with new technology trends. Within the security space, organisations ought to expect the following trends:

• The Development of Augmented and Virtual Reality

Obvious Technologies have been exploring the added value of OODA, a new-generation integration platform and comprehensive PSIM, C2 software suite, into AR and VR for various applications. Incorporating these technologies into the OODA software suite will enable team collaborations in every role.

• Digital Twins

“At Obvious Technologies, we plan on using our 3D Data visualisation capabilities to highlight our security assets, alarms and resources, along with IoT sensors

and points of interest, with any necessary notes or social media mentions.

ISSQUARED PARTNERS WITH BULWARK DISTRIBUTION, AN ESTABLISHED CYBERSECURITY DISTRIBUTOR IN THE MIDDLE EAST

IT Security market, working with customers across the entire GCC and India regions. Bulwark will bring its extensive network and knowledge of the Middle East market to the partnership.

ISSQUARED is an emerging provider of Cyber Security, Cloud, Infrastructure, Consulting, and Digital Transformation services. In addition to an extensive set of digital transformation solutions, ISSQUARED offers a comprehensive portfolio of products to address operational excellence and solve the most pressing security and governance needs.

ISSQUARED announces a new partnership with Bulwark Distribution to extend the reach of its cybersecurity solutions to the Middle East. Two digital security firms will bring their expertise together to help organizations strengthen their cybersecurity posture and minimize cyber risks.

Bulwark is an established distributor of security technology and has over 23 years of experience in the

’The prevailing crisis has paved the way for new innovations and coming-of-age technologies. We at Bulwark foresee a spike in demand for identity & access governance (internal and external) and access manager (SSO, MFA, RBA, etc.) solutions in the current market scenario. With ISSQUARED, we can monitor & reduce cyber risks to provide complete and round-the-clock cybersecurity requirements for customers in the region”, said Jose Menacherry, MD, Bulwark Distribution FZCO.

“We are delighted to be partnering with Bulwark to gain coverage across the Gulf region,” said Mridul Ganguly, VP of Sales at ISSQUARED.

Naoufal el Ouali Co-Founder and CEO, Obvious Technologies

NUTANIX EMPOWERS CHANNEL ECOSYSTEM TO DRIVE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION IN SAUDI ARABIA

Nutanix has reiterated its commitment to help public sector organizations in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia embracing the power of hybrid multicloud as part of their digital transformation initiatives.

Saeed Nader, Channel Sales Manager - Saudi Arabia Public Sector at Nutanix says, “Nutanix as a company supports Vision 2030 that promotes digital transformation in the Kingdom. In the age of the hybrid workplace, cloud computing is a key pillar of any digital transformation strategy.”

“As part of our efforts to support public sector organizations as they transition from legacy infrastructures to hybrid multicloud architectures, one of our key objectives is to create self-

sufficiency and channel autonomy,” he says.

Speaking about the benefits of Nutanix, Saeed explains, “Government agencies must maintain a delicate balance between budget restrictions and the growing demands for IT services. As a result, IT teams in the public sector are tasked with making difficult decisions to demonstrate financial responsibility, while delivering all of the services the public needs.”

“Nutanix provides predictable economics and scalability benefits of web-scale IT to help public sector agencies deliver better services with their current budgets and IT teams. We have helped hundreds of government departments and agencies globally

make the transition to an efficient and virtualized datacenter built on web-scale hyperconverged infrastructure,” he concludes.

ACRONIS #CYBERFIT SUMMIT 2022 GATHERED

1,000+

MSPS, CISOS AND MORE

CEO at Acronis. “During our #CyberFit Summit, we were thrilled to share our vision for Acronis and how cyber protection will evolve in the year ahead. At Acronis, we’re continuing to set our partners and customers up for success.”

Coming out of #CyberFit Summit 2022, Acronis, the global leader in Cyber Protection, is poised for exciting developments in cybersecurity in the new year. In front of more than 1,000 attendees, 50 journalists and 100 speakers, Acronis unveiled the upcoming releases of Acronis Advanced Automation and Acronis Advanced Security + EDR, and introduced the newest member of the c-suite, Chief Sales Officer Katya Ivanova.

“The continuous rise of cyber protection the defining moment of our industry”, said Patrick Pulvermueller,

In multiple sessions at the Acronis #CyberFit Summit in Miami, cybersecurity analysts and experts provided an inside look at how cyberattacks attacks work, how MSPs are impacted and how Acronis Cyber Protection Solutions prevent them. Other notable keynotes from the event included former FBI Director, Judge Louis Freeh talking about his experience with the mafia and ransomware; basketball legend and serial entrepreneur, Earvin “Magic” Johnson, giving an inspirational speech on how he has parlayed the skills and tenacity acquired on the court into a winning formula for his successful business ventures; Acronis founder and Chief Research Officer Serg Bell’s discussion about expanding the future of MSPs; and the CyberWomen keynote, where several influential women speculated on the bright future for women in the cyber field.

CyberFit Summit sponsors Silvereye Technologies and Galactic Advisors were thrilled to be part of the event.

Saeed Nader Channel Sales Manager - Saudi Arabia Public Sector at Nutanix

MICROSOFT LAUNCHES VIVA SALES TO HELP BUSINESSES DO MORE WITH LESS

Microsoft Middle East & Africa (MEA) announced the regional launch of seller experience business application, Viva Sales. The product was announced during Microsoft’s Customer Experience Reimagined event, which brought Microsoft customers from across the UAE and the wider MEA region together to unpack the latest trends and best practices shaping Customer Experience.

Viva Sales helps sellers focus on selling and removes the time spent on manual data entry. The tool leverages artificial intelligence (AI) to automatically capture insights from across Microsoft 365 and Teams so sellers don’t have to enter data manually, and simultaneously delivers AI-driven recommendations and reminders to sellers – all

while staying in the flow of work. It streamlines the seller experience by surfacing insights with the right context within tools salespeople already use, saving sellers time and providing the organization with a more complete view of the customer.

Speaking at the event, Michel Diab, Director: Business Applications at Microsoft MEA described why Viva Sales is a gamechanger for businesses. “It’s not uncommon for sellers to have customer information and deal insights saved across Outlook files, Excel spreadsheets, Teams chats and more. Ask any seller and they will tell you that capturing all of that information manually into their CRM system is a time-consuming and meticulous task,” he said. “With Viva Sales, not only is this time reduced, but the

rich insights it delivers helps sellers understand overall sentiment of their engagements, measure KPIs and completely revolutionise their overall selling experience.”

INVIXIUM ANNOUNCES PARTICIPATION AT INTERSEC 2023

INVIXIUM RETURNS TO DUBAI TO CELEBRATE 10 YEARS IN BUSINESS

reader capable of reading RFID cards along with mobile credentials, in addition to showcasing its market-leading portfolio of biometric solutions.

Invixium technology partners will also showcase their joint integrations at their respective stands. Genetec, TiSO, IDCUBE Systems and LenelS2 will be focusing on access control featuring IXM TITAN, while TRAKA will display their key management system integrated with Invixium’s IXM TFACE.

Invixium, a global leader in biometric access control and workforce management solutions, has announced its participation at Intersec 2023. Invixium has maintained a presence at the show since it first launched as a company at Intersec 2013. The company will also introduce IXM VERTU, a modern access control

“Our participation at Intersec 2023 is a landmark for us as we mark the 10-year anniversary of our company’s launch at the show back in 2013. While it’s been a tremendous journey of innovation and success, we’re excited for our future and the future of biometric solutions which we will spotlight at the show,” said Shiraz Kapadia, CEO & President at Invixium. “Over the years, in true Invixium tradition, we’ve been bringing our innovations to customers and partners across the Middle East region. This year is no different as we focus on helping our customers better manage their access control and workforce management demands –regardless of how complex or traditional their needs are.”

Michel Diab Director: Business Applications, Microsoft MEA

RED HAT LOWERS BARRIERS TO HYBRID CLOUD ADOPTION WITH EXPANDED PUBLIC OFFERINGS

Red Hat, Inc., the world's leading provider of open-source solutions, today announced an expansion of its open solutions publicly available in AWS Marketplace, a digital catalog with thousands of software listings from independent software vendors that make it easy to find, test, buy, and deploy software that runs on Amazon Web Services (AWS). Furthering Red Hat’s commitment to customer choice and flexibility across the open hybrid cloud, customers can now use committed AWS spending to purchase and run Red Hat offerings directly through AWS Marketplace. This provides customers with an easier path to digital transformation and more efficient operations while being better able to meet dynamic market demands.

According to Gartner, “by 2025, 51% of IT spending in these four categories [application software, infrastructure software, business process services, and system

infrastructure] will have shifted from traditional solutions to the public cloud, compared to 41% in 2022.”1 Red Hat understands that to answer this shift, customer needs must be met wherever they exist, in the datacenter, at the edge, or in public clouds.

In response, Red Hat has expanded the public availability of its open hybrid cloud technologies in the AWS Marketplace. Any organization seeking to build an open foundation on the cloud can now turn to solutions delivered directly by Red Hat.

As enterprises seek to address growing operational complexity and user demands through cloud services, Red Hat continues to add managed services that address an extensive list of hybrid cloud requirements.

FOUR PREDICTIONS ON DISRUPTIVE TECHNOLOGIES THAT WILL SHAPE THE FUTURE

In 2021, AI/Machine Learning was rated by Statista as the most impactful disruptive technology. Here, Salesforce executives share four disruptive trends and technologies from 2022 that will shape the future in 2023.

1. Generative AI will empower mass customizations of experiences

“Generative AI uses machine learning algorithms that enable computers to use existing content like text, audio and video files, images, and even code to create new possible content. In 2023, individuals with the highest customer lifetime value increasingly see machinegenerated images and copy that are individually tailored to their unique profile.” — Mick Costigan, VP of Salesforce Futures, Salesforce

2. Employees will experience workplace in the cloud

“Executives will finally realize that building connection and company culture doesn’t only happen ‘in real life,’ it thrives online — on platforms like Slack. The data shows investing in collaboration tools and techniques pays off, with digital leaders outpacing digital laggards on every

dimension. Today, productivity scores are 59% higher in leaders than laggards in Future Forum’s Pulse survey. More surprising to many executives, a sense of belonging with one’s team is 2.2x higher for leaders versus the laggards.” – Brian Elliott, SVP, Future Forum, Slack

3. Data will become more accessible and understandable for everyone

“Improvements in data literacy for the average employee will lead to more people making sense of data. Data will become more natural and more approachable, turning something that is for the few to something that’s for the many — all infused in the flow of work.” — Francois Ajenstat, Chief Product Officer, Tableau

4. We won’t be working in VR Offices

“While producers of ‘professional’ versions of VR headsets seem to think we will be interacting with each other’s avatars in virtual reality offices in the future — I think not. The technology is still too crude, the avatars unengaging, and people in VR headsets look silly."

Peter Schwartz, SVP Chief Futures Officer, Salesforce

Stefanie Chiras Senior VP, Partner Ecosystem Success, Red Hat

VOCO AL KHOBAR MARKS THREE YEARS OF SUCCESS

opening 100 other hotels of the voco brand around the world.

M. Allaf, regional general manager of IHG and general manager of voco Riyadh, said: "We are celebrating three years of success and achievements at voco Al Khobar and look forward to many more similar achievements in the years to come, as we are committed to serving the community, improving the quality of life and well-being of guests, in order to achieve the goals of the Kingdom's Vision 2030.”

voco makes use of large-sized containers for bathroom facilities to reduce plastic waste and using glass water bottles. Moreover, the hotel mattress padding is made of 100% recycled materials.

“One of the voco brand’s recent initiatives includes the opening of an EV station at voco Riyadh, which is in line with our sustainability goals,” Allaf said.

voco Al Khobar, celebrated three years of growth and success, coinciding with the celebration of

As one of its most laudable achievements, the environmentfriendly voco has taken up several sustainability practices and initiatives in accordance with the Kingdom's Vision 2030 goals, which aim at zero carbon neutrality by 2060.

The sensible traveler of today prefers environmentally friendly hotels and therefore considers voco hotels to be an ideal and perfect destination for their stay, Allaf added.

The five-star hotel offers around 300 rooms and three dining choices including Horizon Restaurant, which serves international dishes all day, the Lebanese restaurant Naya, and the Indian restaurant Anardana.

RAS AL KHAIMAH RECORDS ITS HIGHEST VISITOR NUMBERS IN 2022

Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority (RAKTDA) announces its highest ever annual visitor numbers, with the Emirate welcoming over 1.13M overnight arrivals in 2022, a total increase of 15.6% vs 2021.

In addition to its record visitor numbers, key 2022 achievements include:

• Launched Balanced Tourism – its roadmap to becoming the regional leader in sustainable tourism by 2025

• Announced the largest foreign direct tourism investment project in partnership with Wynn Resorts, Marjan and RAK Hospitality Holding

• Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG), Mövenpick and Radisson brands entered the destination for the first time, marking a 17% annual growth in hotel supply to over 8,000 keys

• 40% increase in international visitors driven by 90+ roadshows, trade fairs, workshops and media events across 24 markets

• Recognition in Time magazine as one of the World's Greatest

Places of 2022 and CNN Travel’s best destinations to visit in 2023

• Achieved a visitor satisfaction score (NPS) of over 80% – far above the industry average of 51

“It has been quite a year. From January’s announcement of the multibillion-dollar integrated Wynn resort – a project that will usher in a new era of economic development through tourism –to securing two Guinness World Record titles for our New Year’s Eve fireworks and drone display, we have shown just how dynamic we are as a destination. With a determined focus on diversification, accessibility and sustainability, we are on track for even bigger things in 2023,” Raki Phillips, CEO of Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority, commented on Emirate’s strong tourism performance.

M. Allaf Regional GM of IHG and GM of voco Riyadh

Raki Phillips CEO, Ras Al Khaimah TDA

FLAT6LABS AND WIO BANK SIGN MOU TO STREAMLINE AND ENHANCE SME-CENTRIC BANKING

Memorandum of Understanding.

Under the agreement, start-ups from Flat6Labs Ignite, a specialized seed program run by Flat6Labs in partnership with DisruptAD, will have the opportunity to take advantage of Wio’s innovative banking products and services under Wio Business, the bank’s first digital banking application, which is designed to provide a seamless and innovative experience tailored to the specific needs of startups and SMEs.

In a bid to further strengthen Abu Dhabi’s entrepreneurship ecosystem, Flat6Labs, the MENA region’s leading seed-stage program and early-stage venture capital firm, and Wio Bank, the region’s first platform bank, have signed a

"There is potentially no other factor that more heavily decides the fate of a start-up than its ability to effectively manage its finances. These organizations need banking partners that have a start-up ethos — centred around agility, flexibility, and innovation. Our long-standing expertise in empowering start-ups to establish themselves in the UAE and raise the funding they need to

fuel their ambitions aligns perfectly with Wio Bank’s vision of not only providing world-class banking services but serving as a holistic banking management platform for the modern SME.” said Ryaan Sharif, General Manager at Flat6Labs UAE.

BUPA ARABIA WINS BEST CUSTOMER SERVICE AWARD WITHIN 3 CHI EXCELLENCE AWARDS

Bupa Arabia for Cooperative Insurance won three awards at the first-ever CHI Excellence Award. The awards ceremony, part of the CCHI forum held under the title “A Healthcare System Based on Quality,” took place at the Four Seasons Hotel Riyadh on Dec. 11-12, under the sponsorship of Minister of Health and Chairman of the Council of Health Insurance (CHI) Fahad Al-Jalajel.

Bupa Arabia’s CEO Tal Hisham Nazer was named “C-Suite of the Year”, while the insurance company won in the categories of “Best Customer Services Award” and “the NPHIES Health Insurance Services”. The prestigious awards once again are testimony to Bupa Arabia’s leadership status in the Saudi health insurance sector.

HONORING OUTSTANDING ENTITIES

The CHI Excellence Award has been founded to honor outstanding companies in the healthcare sector to promote the highest level of

quality and efficiency and maintain excellent standards of quality in the industrial sector of the Kingdom.

CONSOLIDATING LEADERSHIP

Expressing his pleasure at winning the CHI Excellence Awards, Bupa Arabia’s Chief Operations Officer Mohamed El-Missaoui said: “These awards underline Bupa Arabia’s pioneering role in the Saudi health insurance sector and its promising future as one of the best health insurance companies.”

El-Missaoui added: “The awards consolidate Bupa Arabia’s leadership status in the insurance sector in the Kingdom, proving the success of our various initiatives that we have launched for the welfare of the citizens and residents of Saudi Arabia.”

Prateek Vahie Chief Commercial Officer of Wio Bank

Ryaan Sharif General Manager, Flat6Labs UAE

Mohamed El-Missaoui COO, Bupa Arabia

AL ANSARI EXCHANGE AND DUBAI INSURANCE PARTNER EMPLOYMENT INSURANCE SCHEME

through its network of more than 220 branches. Key representatives of both entities attended the signing ceremony.

Al Ansari Exchange signed a strategic partnership with Dubai Insurance, the leader and administrator of the insurance pool, to facilitate the collection of the Involuntary Loss of Employment Insurance Scheme (ILOE) subscriptions. Through this partnership, Al Ansari Exchange will now be the first exchange company to collect subscriptions for the insurance scheme

The UAE government has introduced a mandatory ILOE Insurance Scheme, which will cover all employees (Emirati and residents) working in both the government and private sectors in the event of an involuntary loss of employment, effective 1 January 2023. The insurance scheme supports employees by offering a range of benefits and safeguarding their financial landscape during unemployment, considering adherence to certain factors. Al Ansari Exchange will collect subscriptions for the scheme monthly, quarterly, half-yearly or yearly in line with its vision to expand its offerings and solidify its position as a trusted financial services company.

"Our latest association with Dubai Insurance is in line with our vision to strengthen our services and support the workforce of the UAE. We are proud to support the UAE's Involuntary Loss of Employment Insurance Scheme, which ensures its residents' well-being during their unemployment.

TURTLEFIN PARTNERS WITH THE CONTINENTAL GROUP IN THE UAE TO OFFER INSURANCE SOLUTIONS

Turtlefin, India's leading Insurtech platform, has announced a partnership with The Continental Group, one of the leading insurance intermediaries and financial services solutions providers in the UAE. Turtlefin will provide its leading SaaS platform modules, enabling The Continental Group's distribution teams to access relevant information and seamlessly customize proposals for their clients.

Through this strategic partnership, Turtlefin will onboard new insurers on their cutting-edge platform to provide seamless access to the users of The Continental Group. This will lead to increased insurer participation bringing in more choices to clients to make the right decision on their insurance needs. The solution will bring

significant operational efficiencies through the automation of proposal journeys, management reporting, and dashboards, which will be accessible from a single source rather than multiple dependencies.

Speaking on occasion, Mr Amreesh Kher Chief Partnership Distribution Officer of Turtlefin said, "The Continental Group is one of the leading financial intermediaries in the UAE. With Turtlefin's seamless

digital journey that we offer across multiple insurers, users at The Continental Group will save time on quotations and proposals, thus enhancing their sales efficiency.

Adding to this, Mr Laxmikant Pawar – Head of MENA at Turtlefin said "This partnership is important for us as it re-affirms our belief in the Middle East markets' potential and will benefit The Continental Group's extensive distribution network."

NEW REPORT BY ARTHUR D. LITTLE ESTIMATES BAAS REVENUES TO REACH $28 BILLION BY 2031 IN THE MIDDLE EAST ALONE

said Philippe de Backer, Managing Partner and Global Financial Services Lead at Arthur D. Little.

THE BAAS POTENTIAL

Following this expansion, a secondary growth spurt is likely driven by the arrival of larger incumbent banks that have concluded that to remain competitive they, too, need to use BaaS solutions. BaaS revenues should reach $28 billion by 2031, which would amount to about 17% of total banking income in the Middle East. Developed alongside a bank’s core business, BaaS becomes a solid platform from which it can start to rebuild lackluster market valuations, pleasing investors as a result. At the center of the initial growth will be payments and accounts since these products can be most easily embedded. This will likely be followed by movement into consumer lending, as products such as “buy now, pay later” gain more traction.

IMPLEMENTING BAAS

Arthur D. Little (ADL), released an exclusive report exploring banking as a service (BaaS) and its competitive opportunities for the Middle East (ME) region. To date, the BaaS market has remained relatively small and largely at the preserve of digital banks, FinTechs, and digital nonfinancial platforms. However, as their traditional markets and margins come increasingly under threat from disruptors, BaaS will be the route to salvation for many incumbent banks.

The report, titled ‘Banking as a Service: at the Heart of the Bank of Tomorrow’ outlines the many signs that BaaS is being adopted by small and midsize banks operating at subscale and, as more do, this segment of the market will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 25%. That would mean that, by 2026, revenues in the region from BaaS could stand at $5 billion or approximately 4% of the total banking income in the Middle East.

“Banking as a service enables banks and non-banks to offer a host of completely new financial products to their end-customers. Without having to commit the time and resources to developing all offerings in-house, BaaSusing banks can cut time-to-market of new products by as much as ten times. So, BaaS has a crucial role to play in enabling traditional banks held back by legacy IT to reinvent themselves with a more competitive offering,”

With the premise that BaaS will determine the future of banking, the uniqueness of incumbent banks means that each must carefully evaluate whether it would benefit from BaaS — either as a user or a provider — and identify any potential obstacles that might affect implementation.

Some incumbent banks may be hesitant about using BaaS because of concerns about the service robustness of a third-party provider or a loss of independence. For instance, it might be contractually difficult to add new features to a product or to discontinue it. They may also be required to share fees with a technology provider. However, such concerns are often overstated and are far outweighed by the benefits that come from being able to focus on core capabilities — front office and the management of balance sheet and risk management — because responsibility for non-core areas has been passed to the most competent provider.

“In terms of market positioning, there are two routes to BaaS success. The first is for a bank to become a global specialist that focuses on high-quality delivery of a narrow range of products and services. The second route is for a bank to turn into a full-scale regional provider with a banking license, able to offer a full spectrum of BaaS products across a restricted geography. We see the latter already gaining rapid traction in the Middle East especially,” said Nael Amin, Senior Manager, Financial Services Practice, Arthur D. Little Middle East.

Nael Amin Senior Manager, Financial Services Practice, Arthur D. Little ME

etisalat by e& is Continuously Fostering New Innovative Cloud Capabilities, Investing in Developing and Adopting Cloud Native Platforms

etisalat by e& is the brand representing the UAE telecoms pillar of e& (formerly known as Etisalat Group), operated by Etisalat UAE in our home market. In line with its refreshed strategy, Etisalat UAE is on a mission to unlock shareholder value, deliver outstanding customer experiences and drive optimal business performance. The Integrator had an opportunity to have an exclusive interview with Khalid Murshed, Chief Technology & Information Officer, etisalat by e&

What is the strategy of etisalat by e& to drive growth in its transformation from a telco to a techco?

With the successful launch of the new brand identity of Etisalat Group to e&, the overall strategy is now anchored towards driving business growth through the creation of distinct business verticals. This was accompanied with the strength of etisalat by e&’s advanced and one of the world’s fastest mobile and fixed networks, best of class products and services, well-established digital channels, and our top commitment to provide the highest customer experience.

To thrive and sustain leadership as a service provider, the focus to transform from a telco to a techo was a critical imperative. While shifting towards a digital services provider, etisalat by e& remained committed to lead the telecom network evolution through rolling out advanced bundled network capabilities, addressing our various customer segments and their requirements with the continuous evolution of the network. This included 5G High Speed Services, 5G Private Networks, Multi-Cloud

connectivity, security Services, SDWAN, Fixed Services, and others.

etisalat by e& is also investing and attracting new talents, leading the development of advanced technologies and new capabilities in the areas such as: Artificial Intelligence, cloud, cybersecurity, Robotics, Metaverse, 5G, IoT, OTT and others. This will help establish and fulfil unique and effective E2E digital services across various business verticals Fintech, Health, Government, Education, and among others.

Our continuous efforts and technology investments have helped retain leadership and maintain the highest speeds in our network including the rollout of 5G Standalone and the enablement of various 5G uses cases for both business and consumers.

In fixed network infrastructure, the digital business product portfolio has expanded to include new features and capabilities across IoT and M2M products, SD-WAN, cyber security, business vertical solutions and end-to-end managed service. The consumer products were enhanced with the adoption of OTT services, integration on the retail front with Al

Grocer, payment channels, and the loyalty point system.

What has been the impact of 5G on etisalat by e& services?

Since 2018 etisalat by e& was among the first operators to invest in wide 5G rollouts and adoption to establish the foundation for the network of tomorrow. Today due to these efforts and investments, 5G is now widely available in UAE, enabling our consumers to experience our mobile services on one of the fastest networks in the world.

etisalat by e& has been working closely with businesses to enable 5G capabilities to address various use cases, such as in the area of 5G private networks enabling organizations to build secure, high speed and fully managed private 5G networks, connecting their different entities, systems, equipment to their

critical business applications. New features and use cases will enable network slicing, latency sensitive M2M (machine to machine) IoT (Internet of Things) through active developments and partnerships to ensure readiness and effective tangible benefits to UAE businesses.

Tell us about the focus of etisalat by e& on AR or VR (Metaverse) and future technologies?

Although the Metaverse technology is still at its early stages, we see a significant opportunity in the technology that will totally transform the user experience, how people and businesses can connect,

communicate, and interact and improving the overall quality of life.

The infrastructure foundation is built to support future technologies like Augmented Reality (AR)/ Virtual Reality (VR) that require low latency, leveraging on our high-speed 5G and fixed network, comprehensive coverage, and multi-cloud infrastructure, including MEC.

We also work closely with Metaverse partners and technology providers to enable various use cases, such as digital twin for visualizing and visualizing a company’s infrastructure and physical presence. For example, providing customers with virtual live visualisations of their physical locations to enable effective new floor plan designs, changes, and problem solving without having to conduct costly visits and actual reworks. We have also implemented several use cases in the consumer and entertainment sectors which were launched and showcased at GITEX, the global technology exhibition held in Dubai this year.

What is your Cloud Strategy?

Cloud is at the heart of etisalat by e&’s strategy through our extensive hybrid cloud adoption and by partnering with public hyperscalers, building, and evolving our private and edge clouds at the same time establishing a robust secured multicould connectivity.

etisalat by e& is continuously fostering new innovative cloud capabilities, investing in developing and adopting cloud native platforms and applications, enabling higher efficiency and faster time to market of new enhanced services targeted to enhance the overall customer’s experience. By partnering with public cloud providers and technology partners etisalat by e& is leveraging on the offerings and innovation capabilities to benefit our business customers and enable their business growth.

Khalid Murshed Chief Technology & Information Officer, etisalat by e&

SMBS & THE FUTURE OF HYBRID WORK: A DYNABOOK RESEARCH REPORT

Dynabook Europe GmbH recently published the findings of its research titled 'An SMB Guide to Making Hybrid Working Permanent,' which revealed that many SMBs are still struggling to overcome the challenges of hybrid working. The study, commissioned by Dynabook in collaboration with Walnut Unlimited. The Integrator speaks with Alexander Malienko, Business Unit Director - Middle East, Africa, and Eastern Europe, Dynabook Europe GmbH, about this topic.

What is the biggest challenge facing IT Managers in the era of Hybrid?

Do you believe that hybrid working is here to stay?

Indeed, the evidence from our research supports this. According to TravelPerk, 76 percent of businesses have adopted a hybrid model, with only 11 percent planning to return to the office full-time. For SMBs, which may have suffered more than their larger counterparts during the pandemic, it's encouraging to see that IT budgets are increasing again after 70% reported declining revenues (McKinsey). According to our survey of 1,200 IT decisionmakers from the region's SMBs, 44 percent will benefit from an increased IT budget this year, while only 22 percent will see a decrease.

Of course, simply having more money at their disposal does not guarantee that the purse strings will be loosened. The macroeconomic situation remains perilous, so budgets must be carefully managed. To understand where this money will be spent, we must first understand the challenges that organizations face today.

With an ever-changing cyber threat landscape, it's no surprise that 45 percent of SMBs ranked security as the most difficult aspect of IT to manage during the pandemic. This is split between network security (24%) and device security (21%), though the two are inextricably linked, especially in today's hybrid environments. With IBM reporting that the cost of a data breach has increased by nearly 13% in the last two years, and Sophos revealing that 66 percent of organizations were hit by a ransomware attack last year - compared to just 37 percent in 2020 - it's easy to see why security is such a pressing concern for organizations that risk crippling financial and reputational damage if undone by a data breach. While security must underpin all aspects of IT infrastructure, it is far from the only source of concern for SMBs today. Over one-fifth of respondents (22 percent) cited managing employee collaboration as their most difficult challenge, owing to the complexities of connecting a disparate workforce, while a further 19 percent cited employee productivity as their top concern.

How can IT decision-makers improve the productivity of the hybrid workforce?

There may be concerns that

employees lack the technology and support needed to perform their jobs to the same ability outside the office as they could do inside it. This explains why nearly half (46%) of IT decision-makers prioritize improving remote IT support and assistance for improving workforce productivity, and 45 percent intend to address this by training employees in IT skills.

Support and training, while important, can only go so far in overcoming productivity gaps. This is where implementing the right technology becomes critical, as evidenced by SMBs' preference for devices (45%), secure communications tools (42%), and device accessories (32%), in order to improve the efficiency of their hybrid workforce.

Another issue, perhaps more pressing, is IT downtime. According to our findings, nearly half of the respondents (48 percent) lose at least seven hours per month per employee due to downtime, which equates to one day per month or twelve days per year. Furthermore, nearly onethird of those are losing more than ten hours of downtime per employee per month. When expressed in annual terms, the gravity of this situation is arguably amplified. With a seven-hour workday, that equates to each employee losing over 17 days of downtime per year - or more than three working weeks.

Alexander Malienko Business Unit Director - MEA, and Eastern Europe, Dynabook Europe GmbH

SANS INSTITUTE COMMITTED IN PROVIDING CYBERSECURITY EDUCATION

SANS Institute is a leading company that educate the individuals in advance cyber security education. The institute offers 60+ courses taught by the best practitioners and known mentors of the industry. NED Baltagi, Managing Director at SANS META shares the importance and demand of cybersecurity education and how SANS is working towards the goal of making the world digitalized.

Tell us about the Cybersecurity training and certifications that SANS provides?

SANS provides world-class cybersecurity training and certifications, including for those just starting in the field of cybersecurity, as well as advanced courses for seasoned practitioners. Our training is designed to help practitioners become experts in the field who are prepared to protect their organizations from the latest cyber threats. It is SANS’ ongoing mission to empower cyber security professionals with the practical skills and knowledge they need to make our world a safer place.

What is the demand for the training that you provide among the students?

The demand for our training is very high, and we have seen an increasing number of organizations as well as individual students signing up for our

courses as the threat landscape continues to evolve and grow.

What are the other specialized training and courses that you provide?

In addition to our core courses, we also provide specialized training that is tailored to specific industries and job roles. These courses include everything from incident response and digital forensics to cloud security and secure coding. We also offer security awareness training for end users, industrial control systems, and SecDevOps. Our Ranges also simulate offensive versus defensive attack simulations so participants can put their training to the ultimate test.

Why is Cybersecurity important these days and how is SANS helping to increase awareness against cyber threats?

Cybersecurity is becoming

increasingly important as the world has become more digitalized, cyber threats have become more sophisticated, and a dearth of talent exists for qualified cybersecurity professionals who can defend against these increasing cyber-attacks. SANS is helping to increase awareness of cyber threats by providing topnotch cybersecurity training and certifications from the world’s best instructors, who are on the front lines each day and know how the attack landscape is changing. SANS also offers resources and guidance on protecting organizations from cyber threats, including emergency broadcasts, complimentary toolkits, and a plethora of resources for the community. We also provide collaborative opportunities at events and a platform for discussing the latest cybersecurity trends and strategies to develop best practices worldwide.

NED Baltagi Managing Director, SANS META

WE’VE WITNESSED AN UNPRECEDENTED DEMAND FOR CLOUD AND DYNATRACE

It’s a fact that with the changing technology and business landscape, organizations need to equally leverage solutions and capabilities that can better manage their investments. With this thought, we met with Michael Allen, VP of Worldwide Partners at Dynatrace at the IDC Public Sector Congress in Abu Dhabi

to a single cloud provider. They are a managing a mix of SaaS, Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), and Infrastructureas-a-Service (IaaS), as a hybrid multi-cloud.

What are the reasons for adopting cloud?

Allen

Tell us about Dynatrace?

Dynatrace exists to make the world’s software work perfectly. Our unified software intelligence platform combines broad and deep observability and continuous runtime application security with the most advanced AIOps to provide answers and intelligent automation from data at an enormous scale.We are a Software-asa-Service (SaaS) based company and are listed on the New York Stock Exchange. We have approximately 3,500 of the world’s top 15,000 public sector and commercial sector customers on our platform. We recently announced the availability of our SaaS platform on Microsoft Azure natively in the UAE.

I would like to know what are the challenges of hybrid cloud deployment and how is the SaaS observability solution by Dynatrace solving them?

Many industries in the public and private sector have been adopting the cloud very rapidly over the last decade. Many of those organizations still have some of their workloads running on their legacy data centers. And, many of those organizations have not limited themselves

It’s because they want to have the simplification of elasticity and security. They also want to take advantage of cloud native services, to enable innovation at speed of business. With this comes an explosion of data, which has resulted in a tsunami of complexity on different platforms. These complexities have gone beyond the possibilities of what traditional infrastructure can manage. To navigate these complexities with precision, organizations turn to observability. And it’s not just about putting data on dashboards and having humans look at that data. Because of that tsunami of data, there is really a need to have an AI driven approach, with machines looking at that data, and being able to make it easy to understand and derive actionable conclusions from it.

How does the partnership between Microsoft Azure and Dynatrace influence the businesses in ME?

Many of our private and public sector clients are leveraging Microsoft to run parts if not all of their applications in the Azure Cloud. Microsoft Azure has made huge investments in the Middle East. In the UAE specifically, Microsoft has introduced multiple data centers, which provide the resilience and scale to the region. So those customers who are running their workloads in Azure have data sovereignty, because the data is being stored here. We too made an investment in establishing our headquarters for the Middle East in the UAE earlier this year. Since then, we’ve witnessed an unprecedented demand from our customers wanting not only to adopt the cloud, but demand for Dynatrace.

What advantages can partners expect to gain from better observability?

It’s faster adoption! Many of the organizations in the UAE, and more so in the public sector, know that leveraging cloud in the right manner can only be done with intelligence and automated observability. And organizations are demanding that observability platform be hosted here, in the UAE, in a resident cloud, with the same resiliencies and capabilities as elsewhere.

Michael

VP of Worldwide Partners at Dynatrace

NETAPP EMPOWERING CONSUMERS AND PARTNERS IN THE REGION

NetApp is a leading provider of enterprise data management and storage solutions. The company's three operating business units are products, software maintenance, and hardware maintenance. NetApp transitioned from a data canter storage firm to a company with software data management solutions for multi-cloud environments. The Integrator had an exclusive interview with Maya Zakhour, Director Channel Sales - Eastern Europe, META, Iberia & Latin America

Tell us about today’s Partner Summit Awards. We are delighted and ecstatic to have our META region partners with us today. Today we are celebrating and sharing our success with them. As a result, we are sharing information with them about our partnership programs and tools, as well as how we can help our partners to better serve their customers. I would like to emphasize that this is a deflationary market within an inflationary economy. Today, IDC will walk us through the regional market trends. We will share the key areas of opportunity with our partners. We are in an interconnected ecosystem, and within it, we have partner-to-partner relationships as well as OEM-to-OEM relationships, and we are trying to figure out how our partners can collaborate with us to build a better architecture. We know that only when we have the confidence of our partners we can perform well in any market.

What about regional and global collaborations with hyperscalers like Google, Microsoft, and Amazon?

Today following the summit with our partners, we are attempting to decouple our alliances from a solution approach and to assist our partners in understanding the hybrid cloud. We have divided it further into opportunities based on cloud and artificial intelligence.

We are concentrating on the consumer's journey to the cloud. This is not the cloud era, nor is it the mobile era. It is the era of ubiquitous and ambient intelligence. What is happening in these two points? This is, of course, on the cloud as data, and what you generate as data, as well as how it is changed even when you look at your processors or when you build the IT component, to serve physical and virtual interaction for the end user. We associate it with ambient artificial intelligence, which includes Metaverse, as well as anything that connects end users to physical touch, such as home automation systems and computers.

So, to summarize, at today's partner summit, we have two panels, one focusing on our relationships with VMware and AWS. This is done to optimize and assist our customers and partners in better understanding how they translate messages for their customers.

We also have another panel that is more focused on

Microsoft and Cisco. Some people asked me how they connect because Cisco doesn't have a journey to the cloud. However, guess what? We have an inter-site. This website is in collaboration with Microsoft and NetApp. We serve as the orchestrator, transporting customers to the cloud and analyzing their data.

What are your channel partnership strategies?

Every year, we hold executive round table meetings for our partners. Our partners are also taken care of by our advisory boards. We recognize the need to simplify our partner programs, so we will launch a new partner program in 2024 to guide our partners through the changes we are implementing, primarily in terms of incentives. The strategy today is to invest in our strategic partners. We assist them in developing specific competencies to attract customers.

Maya Zakhour Director Channel Sales - Eastern Europe, META, Iberia & Latin America

THE PROPERTY DEVELOPMENT ARM OF THE BUSINESS IS RATED AMONG THE TOP 5 DEVELOPERS IN THE UAE

Elitz comprises 550 units, including studios, one-bed, two-bed, and three-bedroom apartments.

“The best part about the apartments is that there is a swimming pool in most of the apartments. We also introduced the 'Presidential Studio which comes with a swimming pool, and there are around 25 units of these. They also have indoor pools, outdoor infinity pools, basketball and kids’ areas and many other amenities," said Rizwan Sajan, Founder & Chairman of the Danube Group. Studios start from AED 550,000, with one bedroom from AED 1 million and two bedrooms from AED 1.4 million.

While 2022 was a year of volatility for real estate in a world still emerging from the scars of Covid-19, investor confidence in Dubai real estate remained rock solid!

This is also reflected in the increased number of real estate and land transactions across the emirate - which is way higher than last year's figures. The total value of 67,000 land and property sale and mortgage transactions recorded a 75.43% growth reaching AED 180 billion in the first 9 months of 2022, compared to AED 102.6 billion in the corresponding period last year. At this rate, the overall land and property transactions are going to create another record year for the real estate sector in Dubai.

Considered the best-performing quarter in the history of Dubai's real estate sector, the value of real estate sales reached AED70 billion,

confirming quarterly growth of 18% and 64.5% growth compared to Q3 2021. In the third quarter of 2022, 22 residential projects were completed consisting of more than 5,380 units.

Now, let's look at the numbers at Danube Properties. This Dubai-based multi-million-dollar Group has been consistently increasing its global footprint and annual revenue. In eight years (2013-2021), it launched 14 projects. In 2022 alone, the Group launched six new projects - making it a record year. Interestingly, all the projects were sold out at launch. This happened when property prices are going up even in off-plan properties. This once again, demonstrates that there are more property buyers in the emirate this year than before.

In December, Danube Properties launched its second twin-tower residential project, Elitz, at Cityscape Dubai Located in Jumeirah Village Circle (JVC) opposite the Circle Mall,

“We have Indian actors Karan Kundrra and Tejasswi Prakash invested in this project. There are many more Bollywood celebrities who have shown interest in buying a home in Elitz. It's because people want to settle in Dubai, thanks to its safety, lifestyle, ease of doing business, Golden Visa and much more, he added.

Like his previous projects, the Danube Chairman said that he expected Elitz too to be sold out on the first day itself. "Property buyers showing interest before the property goes on sale will get their apartment fully furnished," he said. With the addition of Elitz, Danube launched six projects in 2022, the highest number since its inception, and plans to launch another six next year. The developer has delivered 12 projects so far and two more will be delivered next year. The developer expects to close the year with ABD 2 billion in sales and expects to surpass next year.

Excerpts of an interview with Rizwan Sajan, Founder & Chairman of the Danube Group

Rizwan Sajan Founder & Chairman of the Danube Group

STRATEGIES TO AVOID CYBERSECURITY BURNOUT

By: Adrian Taylor, Regional VP of Sales at A10 Networks

A study by Accenture revealed that less than half of new employees receive cybersecurity training and regular updates throughout their career.

Organisations must look to create a robust and distributed digital immune system with a radical reengineering of staff behaviour.

CREATE A CONTINUOUS SECURITY EDUCATION PROGRAM

A “security-first” culture requires that all members of the culture appreciate the concept of network security threats. For this to actually have an impact on culture, however, staff must be trained routinely to ensure that their knowledge is current.

IMPLEMENT A ZERO-TRUST MODEL THROUGHOUT THE BUSINESS

Well-trained staff and a monitored environment are crucial to the successful protection of any organisation but without a foundational Zero Trust environment, defences will be intrinsically weak.

CSOs, CIOs and CISOs have never had it so tough. Alongside their traditional responsibilities, they must now face a cybersecurity threat environment that is growing exponentially, and a growing cyberskills gap. As a result, many of them are reporting burnout.

Today, ransomware has become one of the greatest network security threats organisations have to deal with. As per the findings of the 2022 IBM Security X-Force Threat Intelligence Index, the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region was ranked fourth worldwide for the most ransomware attacks. According to a report by GroupIB, between Q1 2021 and Q1 2022, the data belonging to 147 companies from the MEA region was uploaded on ransomware dedicated leak sites (DLS). And this is only one of the many threats that organisations must deal with.

Here are four strategies to make cybersecurity professionals’ organisations safer from the countless network security threats they will be facing in the near future:

CREATE A “SECURITY-FIRST” CULTURE

The problem for CSOs is that, while most employees have some basic knowledge of cybersecurity best practices, which is all they have. Without ongoing training, knowledge testing and awareness, staff behaviour is one of the biggest cybersecurity risks that organisations face.

The Zero Trust model is a strategy for preventing network security threats that all enterprises and governments should be using to defend their networks. It consists of four components:

• Network traffic control: Engineering networks to have micro-segments and micro-perimeters ensures that network traffic flow is restricted and limits the impact of overly broad user privileges and access. The goal is to allow only as much network access to services as is needed to get the job done.

• Instrumentation: The ability to monitor network traffic in-depth along with comprehensive analytics and response automation provides fast and effective incident detection.

• Multi-vendor network integration: Real networks aren’t limited to a single vendor. Even if they could be, additional tools are still needed to provide the features that a single vendor won’t provide. The goal is to get all of the multi-vendor network components working together as seamlessly as possible to enable compliance and unified cybersecurity.

• Monitoring: Ensure comprehensive and centralised visibility into users, devices, data, the network, and workflows. This also includes visibility into all encrypted channels.

At its core, the Zero Trust model is based on not trusting anyone or anything on the company.

Adrian Taylor Regional VP of Sales at A10 Networks

TRIGON LLC OFFERS PEOPLELINK’S NEXT-GEN INTERACTIVE TOUCH DISPLAY; BRING THE FUTURE AT YOUR FINGERTIPS

save time, improve engagement and learning, and enable collaboration.

WHY IS THERE AN INCREASING NEED FOR INTERACTIVE DISPLAYS?

Companies and educational institutions have begun installing a variety of new feature-rich products as a result of the constantly expanding and increasing technological breakthroughs. Because screens allow you to save a significant amount of time, development associates in various firms are integrating such devices into their systems.

Interactive Displays have been gaining popularity in recent years due to their ability to enhance collaboration and productivity in various industries such as retail, BFSI, education, corporate & government, healthcare, transportation, sports, entertainment, and hospitality. An Interactive Display is a large-format Smart display that is perfect for

meeting rooms and collaborative spaces. It provides superior quality display, impeccable connectivity, and productive collaboration.

According to meticulous research, the global market size for interactive displays is predicted to grow at a CAGR of 8.1% from 2020 to 2027, reaching $35.03 billion by 2027. The rising demand for these devices can be attributed to their ability to

HUGE COLLABORATION POSSIBILITIES

Communicating and working with everyone in the same room or with remote participants can be challenging. An excellent Interactive Panel's multi-touch capabilities can help overcome this barrier by enabling multiple presenters to stand up and annotate, highlight, or relocate content as necessary.

Trigon LLC, one of the largest ICT products & solutions distributors in the Middle East Region, is the authorized distributor of PeopleLink in the Middle East Region.

IMMERSIVE ENGAGEMENT & EFFICIENT LEARNING

In the education sector, PeopleLink Interactive Touch displays are being used to replace traditional boards, providing a more engaging and interactive experience for both teachers and students. They also offer a platform for teachers to access superior teaching resources and make the classroom experience more vivid and lively.

PeopleLink Collaborate 55”, 65”, 75”, 86”, 98” Interactive Touch Displays

PeopleLink's range of interactive displays is redefining smarter collaboration. Our PeopleLink 4K UHD interactive displays offer real-time engagement between the presenter and the audience. They allow users to transform the display into a digital whiteboard, share files with one touch, and use their favorite applications with their fingers and the press of a button. The displays feature a premium 4K UHD display, anti-glare coating, high-accuracy touch, and more.

Following are some impeccable Features of our extravagant PeopleLink Interactive Display Series:

• Premium 4K Anti-Glare UHD Display

• High Accuracy Multi-Touch

Display (supports up to 20 points of touch)

• Built-in Android System (Compatible with Windows OS)

• Multiple Connectivity Ports

• Built-in Speaker

• Interactive Whiteboard

• Touch Points : 20 Points Under Windows / 10 Points Under Android

• Writing Tools : Stylus or Finger

• High accuracy touch screen.

• Support 1 point 2mm precision writing and 6 points 3mm simultaneous writing

• Writing height below 2mm to bring smoother writing experience

• All-channel annotating

• All-in-one Dynamic Collaborative Tool

Overall, PeopleLink Interactive Displays are revolutionizing the way we work and learn. They provide new opportunities for collaboration and communication, enabling users to save time, improve engagement, and drive innovation. They can be used in a variety of industries to empower employees and students to work more efficiently and effectively. As technology continues to evolve, Interactive Displays are expected to become increasingly common in the workplace and education settings, further increasing their impact on businesses and organizations.

BIOMETRIC AUTHENTICATION – A CURE FOR THE COMMON PASSWORD

By Debra Miller - Digital

The Root Cause of Most Healthcare Security Breaches

The human element, such as phishing, stolen credentials, and human error, causes 82% of data breaches. It is little wonder that these conditions pose critical security and financial risks to the healthcare industry.

One of the obvious reasons for security breaches is that healthcare workers log in to multiple computer systems dozens of times per shift. Consequently, healthcare workers must remember eight to 20 passwords to access patient-care applications.

Because they work under extreme time constraints and need to remember complicated, ever-changing passwords, some healthcare workers engage in risky password behaviours. For example, 51% of people reuse work passwords in their personal lives. Unfortunately, 44% of people know the risks of reusing passwords but do it anyway; and 69% of employees admit to sharing passwords with colleagues at work. These conditions lead to compromised, weak, and reused passwords, causing 81% of data breaches.

Moreover, for the past 12 years, healthcare, one of the more highly regulated industries, has suffered the highest average cost due to system breaches.

How Biometric Authentication Provides a Cure for the Common Password

Preventing those breaches is critical to protecting patient privacy and confidentiality. This makes biometric authentication a critical element of a healthcare organization's identity assurance strategy.

Biometric authentication delivers the highest level of identity assurance. While passwords are easy to forget, and wristbands and ID cards can be misplaced or stolen, biometric markers are unique to each individual and cannot be lost or forgotten. Biometric technology relies on something we always have with us: our fingerprints or

faces.

Here's how biometric authentication works. It compares two sets of data, the first is present by the device owner, and the second belongs to the device visitor. If the two data are nearly identical, the device knows that "visitor" and "owner" are one and the same and gives access to the visitor.

Biometric authentication provides a cure for the common password by providing healthcare organizations with the following benefits:

• Irrefutable proof of presence for regulatory and legal compliance. Biometric authentication provides instant insights on who accessed which systems and resources and accurately identifies patients across multiple systems and facilities.

• Fast and easy patient identity assurance. Biometric matching takes a fraction of a second. Accelerated access to patient data enables clinicians to be more productive and provide better care throughout the patient’s journey.

• Minimized human intervention for improved data accuracy. Biometric identification is automated, frictionless, and sterile. It ensures data accuracy even when people wear surgical masks, and it eliminates duplicate medical records. Fingerprint scanners have accuracy rates above 99.5%. Best-in-class facial recognition systems deliver an error rate of just 0.08%.

• Mitigated risks of patient misidentification. Patient misidentification costs the healthcare system billions of dollars each year. And more important, it can lead to tragic medical errors that cause temporary or permanent patient harm.

• Reduced identity fraud. Nearly 43,000 cases of medical identity theft were reported to the Federal Trade Commission in 2021. By extending security to systems that contain personal and sensitive data, biometrics increases the privacy of those individuals and reduces the risk of identity theft.

Marketing Communications Manager, HID

RANSOMWARE ATTACKERS DON’T JUST WANT YOUR DATA, NOW THEY ARE AFTER THE BACKUPS TOO

By: Rick Vanover, Senior Director of Product Strategy, Veeam

Ransomware remains a significant cybersecurity threat for government agencies as ransomware attackers evolve methods to escape detection. The goal for attackers is not simply to exfiltrate and encrypt data to force victims to pay their ransom, but to totally remove an organization’s ability to recover from such an attack.

Attackers are now taking new approaches to achieve this objective, both in making their intrusions more difficult to detect or by adding new targets, such as data backups, to completely hobble an organization.

To help guard against some of these tactics, organizations must develop robust data backup strategies that allow for fast and complete data recovery and immutable contingency plans to ensure potential ransomware attacks can be mitigated.

ENCRYPTING SMALLER PORTIONS

Ransomware groups looking to infiltrate systems have a few challenges. Once they locate and exploit a vulnerability, they have to obtain and encrypt as much data as they can before either launching a ransomware attack or being detected by the system’s safeguards.

Encrypting data takes time, and the longer an attacker is in a network, the higher the chances they will be detected. A new technique, intermittent encryption, mitigates this challenge. By encrypting portions of the data small enough to evade detection, attackers can still render a file unusable by an organization without the decryption key. They do this by encrypting every 12 or 18 bytes of data, varying the times of day in which they do it and how much they encrypt, so attackers can evade automated detection tools and stay in the network longer.

STEALING THE BACKUP

Once bad actors have encrypted enough data to launch a ransomware attack, some are now looking to improve their odds of payment by also claiming an organization’s backup repositories as well.

Backups kept on an open network or one with weak password credentials and no multi-factor authentication are likely targets. For example, if backups are authorized by a primary Active Directory domain, then attackers will try to compromise that domain to gain access to both the backup and the production data. Such attacks often target financial services, health care and public sectors where a ransomware attack can impact critical infrastructure.

SECURING DATA AS RANSOMWARE EVOLVES

Even as ransomware tactics evolve, the best cybersecurity methods continue to be some of the most traditional ones—solid software patch management and cyber hygiene education. Both strategies will help reduce an organization’s risk of ransomware exposure, especially in a remote work environment.

A strong software patch management strategy limits the software vulnerabilities attackers can exploit to launch a ransomware attack, challenging attackers before they can even get into the system. Quickly deployed software patches and updates to lower the odds that attackers will be able to access a network’s data. Though the tactic seems simple, it’s often an area organization can improve.

Additionally, cyber education needs to improve. Employees are often the weakest link that allows the attack to get started. Everyone within an organization should be able to recognize common infiltration approaches, such as phishing emails or social engineering tactics. Even with improvements in these areas, the reality is that ransomware attacks will continue to happen. As ransomware evolves, backup strategy becomes particularly crucial. A short cut approach to data backup isn’t sufficient when the backups themselves are the targets.

Rick Vanover Senior Director of Product Strategy, Veeam

Middle Eastern Government Achieves Application- Awa re Workload P rotection for Critical Systems

The Customer

As a stable country in one of the world’s most volatile regions, this Middle Eastern government has made an exceptional effort to maintain strong political ties with its neighbors, often acting as an arbiter in many disputes. The country is also known as being highly

technologically savvy, seeking out industry leaders to maintain robust and secure systems. But this unique standing has also made it a target, especially for nation-state sponsored cyberattacks.

“We were looking for a state-of-the-art way to protect our critical server infrastructure. By implementing the deterministic solution, we were able to close a security gap quickly and effectively, hardening our defenses against memory-based attacks and gaining control and visibility at runtime across our operations.” - Senior Government Security Official

The Challenge

Security experts within the government had noticed a prevalent spike in persistent, targeted cyberattacks that were seeking to exploit gaps in their security to steal sensitive data and cause disruption. Officials were most concerned about the significant increase in advanced in-memory techniques that inject code directly into applications during runtime without using detectable files – also known as “fileless malware.” Memory-based attacks can easily bypass conventional security tools like firewalls, antivirus, or intrusion prevention systems, and the government needed to harden their defenses.

Memory-Based Attacks

The government detected evidence of ongoing and increasing memory-based attacks but lacked confidence in their existing security tools to systematically protect hundreds of their servers running critical applications with highly sensitive data.

Limited Control and Visibility

The government had multiple, disparate point solutions, each with limited scope and visibility. Evasive attacks that were occurring at the memory level proliferated, going undetected for untold amounts of time. Their infrastructure was not prepared to defend against sophisticated and evasive attacks that were occurring at runtime, a gaping blind spot for their security team.

Overburdened Resources

Though they had a robust cybersecurity posture, the government ’s existing security tools required extensive tuning and signature updates, as well as generating excessive noise and false positives. This was a drain on their resources and made it more difficult to stay up to date with the numerous vulnerability patch requirements and policy updates.

The Solution

Government officials turned to their long-term partner Raytheon, who introduced our partners innovative technology to them. The Deterministic Security Platform is uniquely suited for protecting critical applications from memory attacks during runtime. Raytheon and our partner jointly engaged in a proof-ofconcept and competitive testing on-site to demonstrate effectiveness within the government’s own infrastructure. The Deterministic Security Platform detected and stopped both evasive memory-based attacks as well as other advanced exploits that attempted to execute in runtime.

Full-Stack Protection

With the Deterministic Security Platform deployed, the country’s critical infrastructure and data were protected across the full application stack at the web, host, and memory layers. Attacks are detected and stopped instantly at the first step in the kill chain. And the system can detect zero-day attacks with no prior knowledge, no signatures, no noise, and no tuning.

Memory Protection

The government can now identify and stop advanced in-memory attacks that were not identified by their previous system. Because the solution operates in process memory it can pinpoint fileless attacks with unprecedented speed and accuracy and take immediate action. Any memory-based attacks, fileless exploits, and filesystem changes levied against the country’s infrastructure are now stopped at the first step of the kill chain.

Zero Noise, Zero Tuning, Zero Dwell Time

The government selected the solution because of its automation, depth of protection, and lack of false positives or extraneous security alerts. They found the solution easy to manage because of the automated, out-of-the-box detection that does not require signatures, learning, tuning, or policy updates. The solution's compensating controls against vulnerabilities that have not been patched provides an effective form of virtual patching.

Superior Protection Against Sophisticated Attacks

The government was able to scale the solution to protect a broad range of their critical application workloads at the web, host, and memory layers in a multitude of their environments. The solutions unique application-awareness technology ensures that code executes only as it should at runtime, providing critical visibility and control over this new security battleground. As a result, the government has achieved true cyber resiliency, with full visibility and control over how their critical applications execute during runtime.

Application-Aware Server Workload Protection

We provides application-aware server workload protection against the widest range of cyberattacks— known and unknown—and secures applications from the inside. We protect all your applications, including custom, COTS, third-party, legacy, SCADA and more. And the solution protects across any platform, including on-prem servers, virtual, cloud, hybrid, container, and edge.

ANYWHERE

On-prem, public/ private cloud, hybrid, container

Unique AppMapp® Technology

ANYTHING

Custom, legacy, COTS and air gapped applications

ANYTIME

Deploys in minutes, protects continuously in real-time

The solutions patented AppMap® technology maps the sequence of processes and commands for all applications authorized to run across the full server workload. The solution does not have to know every legitimate system call in every app and every context, nor is it learning as it goes. Instead, the Deterministic Security Platform immediately detects any variations or deviations in execution and initiates an immediate defense.

Securing the World’s Most Critical Applications

The solution is deployed globally protecting mission-critical applications and infrastructure in industries including financial services, healthcare, government, defense, power, oil & gas, transportation, telco, technology, and more.

No Signatures, No Tuning, No Noise from false alerts

Partner Solution Recognition

Zero Dwell Time stops attacks instantly at the first step

Full-Stack Runtime Protection protect web, processes, memory, libraries, files, hosts

About Catalyst

Catalyst is a Digital Consulting headquartered in the heart of Silicon Valley in San Jose, CA, we are present in 15+ countries in EMEA. We help our clients Transform and Protect their organisations! Please visit https://www.catalyst-us.com ©2022

BCG CREATES BCG X AS NEW HYBRID OF CONSULTING AND TECH BUILD & DESIGN CAPABILITIES

• Making the right choices among disruptive technologies— top three cited are advanced AI, blockchain, and IoT

• Reaching scale fast with new digital solutions

• Recruiting digital talent—top three hardest tech roles to fill are experts in advanced tech, software engineers, and data scientists

• Prioritizing investment and development

• Managing the cost and uncertainty of return on investment

New research published from Boston Consulting Group (BCG) shows that while 94% of companies have big aspirations to deliver substantial and rapid impact from digital transformation, and companies plan to increase investment in digital transformation despite global economic headwinds, most of these digital transformations fail to achieve their objectives.

“Many CEOs I speak with are grappling with the challenge of delivering their business strategy through major digital transformations. To tip the scales, we are doubling down on BCG X, our nearly 3,000-person tech build and design unit. BCG X will turbocharge BCG’s deep industry and functional expertise to enable innovation at scale and deliver successful end-toend digital transformations,” said Christoph Schweizer, BCG’s CEO.

The survey revealed five key challenges in establishing and executing digital transformations:

David Panhans, leader of BCG X Middle East, added: “In order to capture the full growth potential in the post-pandemic future, GCC governments and corporations are undergoing or planning major digital transformation efforts to adopt emerging technologies and to provide end-to-end digital services. However, digital transformations are complex and often fail to deliver the expected results. “

Duranton, the newly appointed global leader of BCG X, shared: “What’s clear from our survey is that most companies are struggling to deliver bottom-line results for their digital transformations and are facing consistent pain points with their tech partners and vendors. BCG X, as an integral part of BCG, will bring tech build and design capabilities together to solve these problems.”

“BCG X is a multiplier of our clients’ technology teams, working in close collaboration, to bring our pool of leading talent in AI, software engineering, digital growth, green and deep tech,” said Jessica Apotheker, BCG chief marketing officer and expert leading large-scale digital go-to-market transformations.

BCG X’S CAPABILITIES

INCLUDE:

AI & Software: Dedicated to building cutting-edge AI and digital industrial-grade software, powered by proprietary data assets, to enable better, faster decision making.

Design: Combining qualitative and quantitative elements of behavioral, human-centered design to drive insights and ideas that result in breakthrough innovations to dramatically improve the endto-end customer and employee experience.

Digital Growth: Scaling opportunity and accelerating performance for businesses, bringing robust digital marketing and digital commerce expertise to set up clients for immediate impact.

Ventures: An end-to-end approach to build and launch standalone and new core businesses, turning differentiated assets into strategic advantages and launching these projects at speed.

Christoph Schweizer BCG’s CEO

David Panhans leader of BCG X ME