4 SEPTEMBER 2022 www.VARonline.com
The September issue of The Integrator captures the essence of cybercrimes and crime investigations in FIs. Paul Wright, Senior Advisor – Forensic Technology, Accuracy, a French financial services company, writes the cover story on the challenges and intelligence to stop financial cybercrimes.
We are happy to inform you that ICT Champion Awards 2022, our prestigious awards event, is scheduled to conduct on October 10, 2022 – on the sidelines of GITEX. It will recognize MEA’s leading ICT Vendors, Distributors, Resellers, and eminent personalities in 30+ categories and we seek your full support to make it a huge success!
COVER STORY
Content
Digital Forensic to Stop CybercrimesFinancial Rakesh strategies.thenewaboutManageEngineProductJayaprakash,Managerattalksthecompany’sproductsandMiddleEast 10 NetApp and VMware Strengthen Their Global Partnership NEWS IN DETAIL 14 Convert Raw Data Into Actionable Insights Using ManageEngine’s Analytics Plus EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEWS 14 Vivek Sharma CEO Murali Margassery Assistant Editor Faiz Ahmed Graphic Designer Bhavana Menon Assistant Sales Director Navin Hassan Sales Executive Zain Fazal Sankay Media Sales Executive Suneeta Dadwani Sales Support
16 Use of Intelligence in Financial Cybercrime Investigations
Read, engage, and contribute!
With exclusive columns by Alex Tan, Commercial Director at HID Global, Ravi, Cofounder of Uniphore, and a few opinion pieces of leading ICT veterans, the issue also emphasizes the emerging technologies (i.e., Conversational AI, blockchain, NFTs, and AI-based identity technologies) and digital transformation in the FIs.
Murali Margassery Assistant Editor
Paul Wright, Senior Advisor – Forensic Technology, Accuracy, a French financial services company, writes about the challenges and intelligence to stop financial cybercrimes.
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ybercrimes are several ranging from identity theft to financial crimes. The most alarming part is that their recurrences are massive in the last few years. Any type of cyberattack, including ransomware, data leak, and PII theft on an organizational network hugely impacts the firm’s market presence and future. When it occurs in financial institutions (FIS), the damages can be unimaginable!Digitalforensic gains momentum in investigating cyberattacks as it tracks the digital footprints i.e., the suspect’s IP address, digital communications, and traceable internet activities that cybercriminals leave behind. Digital forensic includes, computer forensics, mobile forensics, network forensics, and forensic data analysis, and its future is limitless.
EDITORIAL
5SEPTEMBER 2022www.VARonline.com Disclaimer: While the publishers have made every attempt possible to get accurate information on published content in this magazine. They cannot be held liable for any errors herein. Published by: JNS Media International (OMA Group Company) OMA House, P.O. Box: 3314, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. Tel: +971 6 573 0000 | website: www.VARonline.com Sales: sales@var-mea.com For all other Inquiries: info@var-mea.com Editorial: editor@var-mea.com Content 12COLUMNFEATURE Driving Innovation in the Middle East with Kubernetes 13 Stats-Based Approach to Hybrid Work in the Financial Sector 22 SustainabilityEmbracing to Empower Security Alex Tan, Commercial Director, HID Global writes, “Governments, organizations, and individuals must take immediate actions to address environmental concerns.” Follow us on LinkedIn 18 OpenSignal Report: KSA Made Great Strides in 5G Availability 18 Dubai Customs Opts for Dell Technologies Data SolutionsProtection NEWS BYTES 20 The Metaverse Reality Check that Your Business Needs FEATURE 21 The role of CX in Driving Business Transformation in the Middle East COLUMN 21 12 13 20
network, from edge to cloud, across the WAN. These new features enhance our comprehensive security offerings."
Damon Ennis Vice President of Engineering, Aruba HPE
features, EdgeConnect aims to replace outdated and difficultto-manage physical firewalls at branch locations while delivering consistent security for all users, from any network location, from any device, and wherever applications are hosted. EdgeConnect provides an enhanced and comprehensive security offering for enterprises that want to establish consistent, secure, and predictable experiences across multiple locations over the WAN.
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ruba, an HP Enterprise company, announces that the Aruba EdgeConnect Enterprise SDWAN platform has received ICSA Labs Secure SD-WAN Certification, representing the market’s first complete SD-WAN solution to receive the distinction. ICSA Labs provides third-party testing and certification of security and health IT products, as well as networkconnected devices, to measure product compliance, reliability, and performance for most of the technology vendors.
Aruba EdgeConnect Enterprise SD-WAN provides comprehensive security services at campus, branch, data center, and cloud locations including next-generation firewall, IDS/IPS, and DDoS detection and remediation. With these new
Check Point Software Technologies, a cyber security solutions provider has announced a new collaboration with Intel Corporation. Check Point Quantum IoT Protect will be made available within Intel’s new platform for IoT device developers - Intel Pathfinder for RISC-V.
TECHNOLOGY NEWS BYTES
6 SEPTEMBER 2022 www.VARonline.com
ARUBA EDGECONNECT ENTERPRISE ATTAINS ICSA LABS SECURE SD-WAN CERTIFICATION
INTEL CHOOSES CHECK POINT TO ENABLE SECURITY FOR NEW INTEL PATHFINDER
Damon Ennis, vice president of Engineering at Aruba said, “this provides customers with well-recognized and respected third party validation of the comprehensiveness of our native EdgeConnect Enterprise advanced SD-WAN and security capabilities that connect and protect the
Miri Ofir, R&D Director at Check Point Software commented, “we are honored to be chosen to enable security for Intel Pathfinder and look forward to all the new devices that will be developed with our security features.”IntelPathfinder for RISC-V is a new platform for SoC (system on a chip) architects and system software developers to define new IoT products. By enabling Check Point Quantum IoT Protect within the platform, IoT device manufacturers will be able to integrate state-of-the-art security at the beginning of the product lifecycle. Check Point Quantum IoT Protect with Nano Agent technology is an embedded runtime protection solution designed to identify and prevent sophisticated attacks in real time, even zero-day vulnerabilities.
Vijay Krishnan, General Manager, RISC-V Ventures from Intel, said: “Intel Pathfinder for RISC-V represents our ongoing commitment to accelerate the adoption of RISC-V and catalyze the ecosystem around an opensource and standards-based vision. We wanted to ensure this was done with state-of-the-art security, which is why we are working with Check Point.”
Prasad Kalyanaraman, vice president of Infrastructure Services at AWS said, “with the launch of the AWS Middle East (UAE) Region, we are making it possible for even more customers to harness the power of
7SEPTEMBER 2022www.VARonline.com
AWS LAUNCHES ITS DATA CENTER (REGION) IN THE UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
of respondents expressed some level of concern that their IT and security teams would be able to mobilize efficiently to respond to an attack.“ITand security teams should raise the alarm bell if their organization continues to use antiquated technology to manage and secure their most critical digital asset – their data,” said Brian Spanswick, Chief Information Security Officer, Cohesity. “Cyber criminals are actively preying on this outdated infrastructure as they know it was not built for today’s dispersed, multicloud environments."
the cloud to drive innovation across the UAE, while also investing in the local economy through job creation, training for highly sought-after technology skills, and education resources to further advance the UAE’s strategic priorities.”
East (UAE) Region is a significant milestone for Abu Dhabi and the UAE as a whole, reflecting our efforts to generate opportunities for all,” said His Excellency Mohamed Ali Al Shorafa, Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development.
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OUTDATED TECHNOLOGY CREATES HURDLES WHILE RESPONDING TO RANSOMWARE
AWS estimates that its projected spending on the construction and operation of the new Region will support an average of nearly 6,000 full-time jobs annually at external vendors, with a planned $5 billion (AED 20 billion) investment in the local economy through 2036.
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TECHNOLOGYNEWS BYTES
“The opening of the AWS Middle
Brian Spanswick CISO, Cohesity
mazon Web Services has announced the launch of its second Region in the Middle East, the AWS Middle East (UAE) Region hoping that developers, start-ups, entrepreneurs, and enterprises, as well as government, education, and non-profit organizations will have even greater choice for running their applications and serving end users from data centers located in the United Arab Emirates (UAE)
ohesity reveals that nearly half of respondents say their company depends on outdated, legacy backup and recovery infrastructure to manage and protect their data. In some cases, this technology is more than 20 years old and was designed long before today’s multicloud era and the onslaught of sophisticated cyberattacks plaguing enterprises globally.Challenges pertaining to outdated infrastructure could easily be compounded by the fact that many IT and security teams don’t seem to have a plan in place to mobilize if and when a cyberattack occurs. Nearly 60%
and be compliant with the national laws on data “Enterprisesresidency.areadopting multicloud strategies, with an increased focus on dynamic microservices driven by the rapid digitalization to build modern businesses. Zero Trust is a significant departure from a traditional security mindset that can prevent sophisticated attacks that don’t stop at the point of breach, they move laterally across networks to reach targeted data and assets,” said Nader Baghdadi, Senior Regional Director, ColorTokens. “We are thrilled to be joining forces with FVC, their extensive technology capabilities and market expertise combined with our cutting-edge solutions can enable us to successfully empower organizations in their Zero Trust journeys.”
TECHNOLOGY NEWS BYTES
olorTokens, a provider of autonomous Zero Trust cybersecurity solutions, announced that it has partnered with FVC in the Middle East.
Nader Baghdadi Senior Regional Director, ColorTokens
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The partnership between FVC and ColorTokens aims to offer comprehensive Zero Trust cybersecurity solutions, leveraging ColorTokens’ Xtended ZeroTrust Platform, which includes Xshield for Workload Visibility and Microsegmentation, Xprotect for Endpoint and Host Protection, and Xassure for Zero Trust as a Service. The partnership hopes to help security teams proactively protect endpoints, and contain and respond to zero-day attacks while seamlessly integrating with existing security tools. And will also help organizations in the region achieve the strongest security for their data
Retail’s finance team leveraged the Azure Analytics Platform to fully automate financial and operational reporting and create a single source of truth for areautomatedtheperformanceaccelerateFuttaimChiefpeople,”thatafunction“WeeliminatingfinancialwasPowerBI,Throughdecision-makers.AzureSynapseandMajidAlFuttaimRetailabletofullyautomateitsandoperationalreporting,humanintervention.aimedtohavethefinancereinventitselfandcreateholisticinformationecosystemservesallourprocessesandsaidRahulBhandari,FinancialOfficeratMajidAlRetail.“Wewereabletothedigitizationofourdatamanagement,andresultsspeakforthemselves.Ourreportingandanalysisnowavailableonthegoand
Rahul Bhandari
allow faster access to actionable intelligence. We have been able to unify our KPIs and consolidate data financial, commercial, operational, and industrial data points to give us holistic views of our business.”
CFO, Majid Al Futtaim Retail
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8 SEPTEMBER 2022 www.VARonline.com
“The modernization of Majid Al Futtaim Retail’s finance data platform will serve as a reference point for every finance team that still struggles with siloed data systems and manual reporting,” said Tariq Halawani, Executive Director, Enterprise Solutions at Microsoft UAE. Through the power of the Azure Data Platform, hosted in our UAE data centers, Majid Al Futtaim Retail was able to build a solution with customized and controlled access to all types of data, thereby democratizing data access across the organization.”
ZERO-TRUST CYBERSECURITY: COLORTOKENS PARTNERS WITH FVC
MAJID AL FUTTAIM RETAIL FORMS A STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP WITH MICROSOFT
icrosoft announced that Majid Al Futtaim Retail has transformed its financial planning and analysis (FP&A) capabilities through the power of the trusted, intelligent, versatile Microsoft Azure Data Platform. Majid Al Futtaim
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The Data Center Through Modernized Infrastructure: NetApp is a VMware co-design partner with vSphere and vVols for new and expanded support of key technologies from NetApp file and block storage platforms. This includes new certification and support to enable the use of vVols with NVMe-oF to allow enhanced block storage flash performance and more granular VM storage management over multiple types of network transport from FC, ethernet, and standard TCP/IP networks.NetApp
TECHNOLOGY NEWS IN DETAIL
George Kurian, Chief Executive Officer, NetApp, said: “Together, NetApp and VMware have helped thousands of customers solve their multi-cloud challenges by effectively managing their enterprise workloads in any environment. By delivering powerful new solutions that help companies optimize their virtual data centers, modernize their applications, and provide onmeetservicesenterprise-classcost-efficient,datamanagementtoVMwareCloud,wecancustomersanywheretheyaretheircloudjourney.”“Atthisstage,it’sclear:
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multicloud is the model we’re going to rely on for many years to come. It is the de facto operating model for the digital era, giving customers the freedom required to build, deploy, and manage applications in the way that best suits their business requirements,” said Raghu Raghuram, Chief Executive Officer, VMware.
is a global, cloud-led, data-centric software company that helps organizations to lead with data in the age of accelerated digital transformation.
Applications Using Kubernetes/ Containers: VMware Cloud Foundation with Tanzu allows IT to manage virtual machines and orchestrate containers from one unified platform. VMware Tanzu and VMware Cloud Foundation support the use of NetApp ONTAP-based storage arrays, providing customers the ability to seamlessly build out a flexible data fabric for traditional VMs and modern, containerized applications•Optimize
NETAPP AND VMWARE STRENGTHEN GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP TO HELP CUSTOMERS
10 SEPTEMBER 2022 www.VARonline.com
etApp and VMware have announced the expansion of the companies’ global alliance hoping that through innovative solutions and go-to-market initiatives, NetApp and VMware are helping customers reduce the cost, complexity, and risk of migrating and modernizing enterprise-class workloads in multicloud environments. In addition, organizations can accelerate the performance and delivery of both traditional and new modern applications and simplify daily operations through new integrations between VMware and NetApp data management infrastructure.
• Cost-Effective and Seamless Migration to Multicloud: NetApp and VMware are currently innovating together across the world’s three largest public cloud providers to certify and support VMware Cloud and NetApp Cloud Services. This helps customers running on VMware utilizing either NetApp or non-NetApp storage environments on-premises to seamlessly migrate, extend or protect data-demanding enterprise workloads and files to the cloud with reduced cost and risk
The renewed partnership between NetApp and VMware addresses these challenges by focusing on three major customer-driven initiatives:
George Kurian CEO, NetApp
• Accelerate Modernized
NETAPP AND VMWARE: POWERING THE MULTI-CLOUD ERA
DRIVING INNOVATION IN THE MIDDLE EAST WITH KUBERNETES
a hypervisor, organizations leveraging containers can enjoy faster resource provisioning and speedier availability of new applications. Instead of dedicating one operating system for each application, multiple applications can run independently from each other on the same operating system, which means less hardware and licenses and reduced load on servers.
Mohamad Rizk Regional Director - ME and CIS, Veeam
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The advantages of a virtualized infrastructure are well documented. Greater workload mobility, availability of resources, automated operations, and increased performance are all benefits of virtualization that make IT simpler to manage and less costly to own and operate. Containers are a lighter-weight, more agile way of handling virtualization. Without the need for
KUBERNETES IN THE MIDDLE EAST
WHY CONTAINERS AND KUBERNETES?
Containers and Kubernetes have greatly simplified operations for DevOps teams. Previously, to create a virtual machine or to provision a physical server, developers needed to talk to several different units including the infrastructure team, backup administrators, and network administrators. With containers and Kubernetes, that workflow is not needed anymore. Developers have become the A-team and are responsible for everything. The infrastructure team is still required to provision physical servers and put in the layer of Kubernetes and hypervisors, but they are no longer needed to create new applications or the resources needed for the applications.
ontainer use in enterprises is exploding across the globe. Kubernetes, the de facto platform for orchestrating containers today, is an open-source container orchestration platform that automates deploying, managing, and scaling containerized applications. A Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) survey found that 92% of responding companies run containers in production, and 83% of those deployments use Kubernetes. The Middle East is not far behind! According to findings of the Veeam Data Protection Trends Report 2022, 69% of UAE organizations and 76% of Saudi Arabian organizations are already running containers in production, while 29% and 22% respectively plan to do so in the next 12 months.
12 SEPTEMBER 2022 www.VARonline.com COVER STORYVEEAMFEATURE
PROTECTING KUBERNETES ENVIRONMENTS
The competitive nature of the banking and financial industry is a big driver for Kubernetes adoption. Banks are constantly trying to be the first-to-market when it comes to innovative applications and services. Kubernetes short circuits the laborious app provisioning cycle, making it quick and easy to spin-up apps.
There is no doubt that the attack surface is growing as more companies adopt containers and do their orchestration using Kubernetes. The complexity that early adopters are finding is the lack of data management and data integrity when it comes to protecting Kubernetes and container workloads.
Enterprises that we talk to in the Middle East have a good understanding of Kubernetes. It’s not just a buzzword - like in the early days of cloud, companies were using the term “cloud” quite loosely by saying that they were moving to a private cloud or public cloud when most of the time they meant they were going to virtualize their environment. With Kubernetes, however, regional enterprises now have skilled teams in place (skillsets are unique in this space) and because it is controlled by developers and not infrastructure teams, there is a much better and deeper understanding which ultimately leads to high-quality deployments.
Written By: Mohamad Rizk, Regional Director - ME and CIS at Veeam
A STATS-BASED APPROACH TO HYBRID WORK IN THE FINANCIAL SECTOR
ost employees in the UAE want a hybrid or full-time remote work arrangement. It is a sentiment that is echoed by people working across industries, including the local finance and banking sectors. But as businesses began contemplating a return to office plans earlier this summer, the financial and banking sector seemed to be reverting to old habits and rallying for in-office presence.
Since the advent of remote working, many of us have experienced significant productivity increases. However, the quality of our interactions has dramatically fallen. As a result, work meetings have regularly failed to meet expectations. A recent study by Barco showed a 25-point decline between 2020 and 2021 on its meeting barometer.
Improved office layout isn’t the only change needed for a hybrid environment. There’s a great opportunity for businesses to upgrade outdated or inefficient collaboration technologies.
Like other industries, financial sector employees have embraced the laptop as the main device to work, collaborate, and host meetings, fuelling the surge
ALL-ROUND SECURITY
Ekta Puthran
Anyone who has entered an office since early 2020 would likely have experienced the eerie silence of the rows of empty desks and cubicles. Memories of battling colleagues for coveted meeting spaces and groups huddling around a single laptop are probably still fresh.
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in preference for Bring Your Own Meeting solutions (BYOM). Barco’s research indicates that 77% of respondents cannot imagine working without their laptops and have enjoyed sharing their screen and content with just a simple click. With meetings now controlled via the user’s laptop, businesses must invest in solutions that continue this seamless connectivity. To that end, agnostic solutions like Barco’s ClickShare allow workers to connect and collaborate irrespective of the meeting platform (Webex by Cisco, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, etc.).
Written By: Ekta Puthran, MEA Lead –Collaboration, Barco
Like others, the financial sector is still learning to shape a future of work that accommodates its employees' needs and preferences. As the industry begins to embrace hybrid work, it creates plenty of opportunities to eliminate the inefficiencies of the prepandemic world, thereby reimagining everything from work technology to office spaces.
Bolstered by the COVID-19 pandemic and a tight labor market, worker demands for more flexibility have only increased in recent months - even with the world reopening again. Standard Chartered showed foresight and committed to continue to offer permanent flexible work for its staff from as early as January 2021. The initiative started with 9 of its primary markets, including the TheUAE.bank
Recent changes are shaping a new paradigm, and businesses across the financial sector must keep up to meet employee expectations.
OFFICE REVAMP: A MUCH-NEEDED INITIATIVE
TAPPING INTO HYBRID TECHNOLOGY
While security is important in any industry, the highly sensitive and data-driven nature of financial work makes it critical for success. Early in the pandemic, hijacked conferencing platforms and cyber-attacks by hackers/ pranksters became a regular occurrence. With meetings likely to continue in a hybrid fashion, any future tech invested must be secure.
MEA Lead – Collaboration, Barco
also collaborated with flexible workspace services provider IWG so employees worldwide can work from any of IWG’s 3,500 locations internationally. HSBC has also formally certified hybrid working with the ambition of reducing office space by 40%. On the flip side, Barclays announced that it was looking to ramp up employees’ return to its London and New York offices.
13SEPTEMBER 2022www.VARonline.com BARCO FEATURE
Our objective behind participating in events such as GITEX is to increase our opportunity to interact with our customers and prospects, understand the challenges they face in managing their IT and try to work with them to handle those challenges.
Describe the verticals of business, in which Analytics Plus can create a major impact. The IT department now influences every aspect of a business, and yet ends up under-utilizing analytics. Analytics Plus is primarily focused on helping IT teams showcase their value to the business. With the help of out-of-the-box connectors, Analytics Plus plugs into IT tools, analyses the data, and offers quick insight. Data blending capabilities help organizations tie data points from various IT and non-IT tools for a unified analysis of data.
CONVERT RAW DATA INTO ACTIONABLE INSIGHTS USING ANALYTICS PLUS
Organizations put several processes and procedures in place to run day-to-day operations. However, these processes are hardly ever periodically checked for inefficiencies. By analyzing historical data, Analytics Plus can spot inefficiencies in operations and help organizations take corrective action.
Discuss ManageEngine’s Middle East strategies in the context of its participation at GITEX 2022
During tough economic conditions, ensuring high levels of ROI on IT investments will be a key focus area for organizations. By automatically blending IT operations data with financial data, Analytics Plus can help CIOs and CTOs identify areas where resources are under-utilized, chart the viability of future investments, and ensure budgets are spent in the right areas which can create the most impact.
Rakesh Jayaprakash Product Manager, ManageEngine
MANAGEENGINE
ManageEngine, the enterprise IT management division of Zoho Corporation, offers real-time IT management tools to ensure optimal performance of enterprises’ IT infrastructure. Rakesh Jayaprakash, Product Manager at ManageEngine talks about the company’s new products and the Middle East strategies.
We recently launched Analytics Plus in the cloud, complementing the on-premise version that has been available for several years now. Our solution addresses this by cutting down on the time taken to transform raw data into actionable insights. Analytics Plus connects to popular IT and business applications, generating detailed analysis with over 100+ reports in less than 5 minutes.Besides
Briefly explain Ask Zia and its potential in generating user-specific insights
Ask Zia is an AI (artificial intelligence) and NLP (natural language processing) powered analytics assistant that can interpret questions in plain English and answer them in the form of reports. Users don't have to know what fields to use to build reports, which is most often the biggest barrier non-technical users face. Users can ask questions such as "What is the expected growth in issues next month?" or "What time of the day do SLA violations usually occur?" and get instant answers.
auto-generating reports, Analytics Plus also interprets the reports and highlights key patterns or insights from them. This means all that is left for decision makers to do is take corrective action that combat highlighted inefficiencies or problems.
14 SEPTEMBER 2022 www.VARonline.com INTERVIEW
Walk us through the competencies of Analytics Plus launched by ManageEngine recently
How does it help organizations in terms of improving their efficiency and profit?
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Paul Wright Senior Advisor – Forensic Technology, Accuracy
Paul Wright, Senior Advisor – Forensic Technology, Accuracy, a French financial services company, writes about the challenges and intelligence to stop financial cybercrimes.
Generating intelligence involves collecting information on cybercrime from a wide range of private, public, and open sources and then processing and analyzing that information. The objective is to enhance and grow intelligence, which will help the investigator fight cybercrime as effectively as possible.
CYBERCRIME INVESTIGATIONS AND INTELLIGENCE
Much of this approach is driven by the low-quality and ungraded intelligence that investigators receive. Poor source material and inadequate analytical platforms can, in turn, generate a 'throughput mentality' amongst investigators, where the focus is less on the
topping financial crimes is a multifaceted challenge, and the increase in cyber threats has made this significantly more complicated. According to PWC, external economic crimes cost the firms they surveyed $42 billion annually. As investigators quickly navigate change, bad actors look to exploit any widening gaps in investigation capabilities. As reported by the World Economic Forum, we are gradually seeing the rise of risk management rather than compliance-run cybercrime strategies to combat these threats.
USE OF INTELLIGENCE IN FINANCIAL CYBERCRIME INVESTIGATIONS
16 SEPTEMBER 2022 www.VARonline.com STORYCOVER
INVESTIGATORS AND INTELLIGENCE
The cybercrime investigator is at the forefront of the fight against financial crimes, undertaking an array of intelligence collection and investigative tasks. This involves using multiple analytical platforms, investigative tools, open-source intelligence, and other tools, which are constantly evolving. Thus, the techniques and tools keep changing. It happens pretty often, investigators' desks jumbled with paperwork, computers with multiple standalone applications, and separate computer screens to keep up with the volume of wrongdoing.Cybercrime investigations continue to be hindered by a fragmented approach. Numerous digital devices have proprietary operating systems and software that require specialized forensic tools to identify, collect, and preserve digital evidence. The time taken to investigate everything can seriously hamper or delay the identification of crucial evidence in an investigation.
ACCURACY
Financial cybercrime investigations happen regularly
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quality of the investigation and more on ensuring that volume-based targets have been met.
Do the public and private sectors need a more proactive and focused approach to cybercrime risks and threats, especially concerning investigation intelligence?
Intelligence grading, however, is a fundamental step in the intelligence process by investigators and others. Why? So, anyone reading it can have the confidence to depend on it. Once gathered, intelligence should go through a grading process where a handling code is attached to the content as part of an initial risk assessment process. Grading intelligence allows for a quick and accessible expression of this intelligence source risk assessment and sanitization to protect that source. Based on this grading, an investigator can begin prioritizing devices to review.
EVOLVEMENT OF INVESTIGATIONS
• Consistency of Intelligence: for example, opensource searches on the Internet will often produce results that vary depending on location, past user history, or what online vendors might be seeking to sell. The Internet is not designed to help investigators find information•Security of Investigations: Some investigations can leave potentially glaring online footprints on more sensitive sites such as social media platforms
WAY FORWARD
within financial institutions ("FIs"). Their quality can vary widely in many instances because FIs often do not work with optimal analytical and forensic tools or intelligence sources. Many FIs still use standard word processing and spreadsheets applications to collate, store and analyze customer behavior or first-generation analytical platforms to identify vital transactional relationships. Investigators must also work through various disconnected internal and external sources to collate material for their investigation.
Despite efforts by regulators and authorities to continuously evolve their strategies to fight financial cybercrime, bad actors continue to adapt, leading to more sophisticated threats and attacks in all areas of financial cybercrime. There are also significant challenges with ensuring that investigators get the right kind of contextual intelligence delivered in a way designed to support robust outcomes. Some of the problems an investigator may face include:
• In this modern age of technology, Digital Evidence is an integral part of an entire intelligence and investigation process. It helps investigators capture critical intelligence and evidence from computer systems and networks. Digital intelligence and evidence are growing exponentially and must be managed appropriately throughout an investigation
• Producing an All-Around View; rather than following numerous lines of intelligence on various platforms, investigators can work through a primary platform that brings together the right kind of graded intelligence – internal and external – in a single space in the shortest time possible
Experienced and well-trained investigators can help mitigate some of these problems, but even the best investigator must be equipped with the correct data and tools. A significant development is the advent of 'Intelligent Automation, which combines artificial intelligence and robotic process automation to put investigators at the center of seamless and carefullycurated intelligence environments.
The proliferation of separate data sources and intelligence streams can decelerate the investigation process, creating voids that allow mistakes and potentially missed connections that will undermine the value of the final assessment produced by the investigator. This 'multiple system' approach makes the investigation process more challenging to record, manage, and ultimately audit.
• Use of Digital Evidence: the primary goal of digital forensics is to extract data from electronic evidence, process it into actionable intelligence, and present the findings.
17SEPTEMBER 2022www.VARonline.com STORYCOVERACCURACY
These environments make the collation, analysis, and assessment of material as frictionless as possible by:
The decisions made by financial investigators within FIs are incredibly significant and can influence management decisions or the future of a customer relationship. If genuinely suspicious activity is missed due to poor investigative practices, poorly equipped analytical platforms, or inefficient use of intelligence, a crime that might otherwise have been detected and disrupted will be allowed to proceed. Having the best investigative tools to hand enables organizations to make these kinds of risk-based decisions confidently. At the same time, similar failings could lead to an innocent person being treated as a subject of concern, raising issues of fairness and having implications for financial inclusion. Whether the investigator gets it right or wrong will significantly affect how well an FI tackles financial crime, keeps its reputation intact, reduces monetary loss, and protects its customers.
Investigator-led approaches have better success against high-profile risks using improved and integrated intelligence settings within the Intelligent Automation process. Their deployment within the financial services sector for cybercrimes is already beginning to show fruit, primarily when allied with closer cooperation across private and public sectors in sharing risk information. As financial cybercrime practitioners focus increasingly on delivering results, it seems evident that empowering the investigator with the right tools to automate, collate and grade intelligence will significantly aid the quality and efficiency of investigations.
• Refining the Intelligence Deluge; instead of chasing down untold disparate sources from scratch, graded and improved intelligence allows an investigator to start with a solid set of foundation stones
• Developing a Structured Approach; investigations can rapidly become unstructured as they move across different evidential sources. Having a structured dashboard will facilitate a more systematic approach
• Quantity of Intelligence: this is a matter of either feast or famine, especially concerning the Open Source Intelligence ("OSINT") framework
• Quality of Intelligence: the provenance and reliability of material are often hard to assess and lead to extended and fruitless efforts to corroborate information
data protection and backup solutions to meet the organization’s constantly evolving data protection needs. The new solutions will enable Dubai Customs to save time and resources and allow staff to manage and use data insights to facilitate trade movement in Dubai while providing customer services.
DUBAI CUSTOMS OPTS FOR DELL TECHNOLOGIES DATA PROTECTION SOLUTIONS
ubai Customs has implemented Dell protectionsuiteTechnologies'ofdata solutions itsacceleratetodigital agenda.transformation
Arecent report on the experience of 5G technology in six GCC countries, revealed that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has achieved strong growth in both speed, video experience, and the availability of the 5G network, despite its large geographical area, compared to the rest of the GCC OpenSignal'scountries."Benchmarking the GCC 5G Experience" report analyzed and compared the 5G experiences of users in different GCC countries based on the quality of mobile video streaming, mobile multiplayer gaming, voice application connectivity, availability, and speed.The report described the availability of the 5G network (the time that users spend in an active connection with 5G) in Saudi Arabia as “outstanding,” as the Kingdom recorded an availability rate of 28.2%, even though it is the
D
OPENSIGNAL REPORT: KSA MADE GREAT STRIDES IN AVAILABILITY5G
Walid Yehia, Sr. Director and General Manager – UAE, at Dell Technologies said, “as part of our collaboration, we have developed an agile, software-defined data protection platform that provides flexible data management and compliance across applications while safeguarding critical data. As Dubai Customs drives its digitization agenda forward, we are committed to providing cutting edge technologies that will help Dubai Customs achieve their goal of transforming Dubai into a global trading hub of the future.”
18 SEPTEMBER 2022 www.VARonline.com BYTESNEWS DUBAI CUSTOMS
“Dubai Customs’ keenness to develop its capabilities and provide the best services by using the latest advanced IT applications enabled the department to respond quickly to the challenges imposed by the pandemic and leverage integrated data protection,” said Younis Othman, Director of Information Technology Department at Dubai Customs.
According to an official release, Dubai Customs chose a ofcombinationDell’snextgeneration
Younis Othman Director, ITD, Dubai Customs
C
topped the GCC countries in 5G download speeds, as users achieved average speeds of 316.8 Mbit/s, followed by Qatar with 278.5 Mbit/s, and Kuwait with 263.4 Mbit/s.
According to the report, the results for 5G upload speed were considerably slower than the 5G download speed. Average 5G upload speeds were approximately one-tenth the speed of users’ average 5G download speeds because the designers of these initial versions of 5G technologies focused on the download connection, the report stated.
19SEPTEMBER 2022www.VARonline.com BYTESNEWSCOMMERCETOOLS
COMMERCETOOLS’ OFFERS
The%).UAE
ommercetools, a provider of headless commerce, has announced B2B functionalities as part of the core offering of Commercetools Composable Commerce.
Commercetools Composable Commerce for B2B enables manufacturers, distributors, and wholesalers to future-proof their business in an increasingly complex and competitive market, so no matter what market forces or trends may arise, businesses can adapt their commerce offerings to meet the needs of their customers. With one portfolio that can serve a wide range of business models, including B2B, B2C, and D2C, and a low cost of experimentation, commercetools enables the rapid development of effective and beautifully designed commerce experiences.
FUNCTIONALITIESFUTURE-PROOF
The same three countries also topped the list of download speeds in terms of the peak rate. The UAE scored 743.3 Mbit/s, Qatar 713.4 Mbit/s, and Kuwait 663.7 Mbit/s. As for Saudi Arabia and Oman, the difference was closer to three times as fast — the ratio between 5G peak and average speeds was 2.7 times.
Mike Sharp Chief Product Officer Commercetools
largest market in the region geographically and in terms of its population.
The report indicated that although Saudi Arabia ranked third in terms of the availability of the 5G network, its score is only a few percentage points behind Bahrain (34.9%) and Kuwait (33.6%). These countries are followed by Qatar (16.9%), the UAE (15.3%), and Oman (13.9
“To achieve longevity, businesses must be technologically agile enough to meet current and prospective customers wherever they may be, delivering a cohesive narrative experience across touchpoints,” said Mike Sharp, commercetools Chief Product Officer.
From virtual meetings to immersive 3D customer experiences or even property tours, the Metaverse will transform the way that companies operate. Gartner predicts that by 2026, a quarter of us will spend at least one hour a day in the Metaverse for work, shopping, education, social media, and/or entertainment. Some brands are already there today, such as Nike and Coca-Cola, who are using them to drive brand awareness and the purchase of physical products. With so much buzz around the Metaverse, it’s easy to see why more and more companies will start to do business there. But are they thinking about the risks? We will certainly need a different approach to security in a virtual world compared to the physical, but what will that entail? Let’s take a look at what the risks are
Organizations will need to be much more reliant on their partners around the world to help mitigate risk, as this is very much a global phenomenon. But there will always be some risk and for those that take them and get it right, there will be huge rewards. At the end of the day though, businesses won’t be able to do it themselves, it will take a great deal of partnering with organizations that work within that space. The Metaverse will hit everyone, and there’s no denying that mistakes will be made, similar to those that were made in the early days of the Internet.
CYBERATTACKS VIA VULNERABLE AR/VR DEVICES
THE METAVERSE REALITY CHECK THAT YOUR BUSINESS NEEDS
Another key security challenge is in the safe spaces needed to conduct business. Imagine you’re on a Zoom or Teams call. It’s a private meeting space, right? But what will that be like in the Metaverse? How do we know that a chair someone is sitting on isn’t an avatar and we have an impostor in our midst? You may think that can't possibly happen, but it's a virtual world. Of course, it can. We need to be able to discern between what’s real and what’s fake, and having a safe space to meet and transact will be crucial. When the Internet first came out, threat actors exploited the average human’s unfamiliarity with the tech by creating malicious sites that impersonated banks to obtain
financial details. Phishing scams like this still occur, albeit we now see more sophisticated forms of social engineering. The Metaverse is like a whole new Internet, and you can guarantee that people’s unfamiliarity with it, both businesses and consumers, will be exploited.
Other cybersecurity risks within the Metaverse abound such as cyberattacks via the use of vulnerable AR/VR devices, as an entryway for evolving malware and data breaches. These devices inherently collect large amounts of user data and information such as biometrics, making them attractive to hackers. Concerns around data privacy are also a growing voice amongst Metaverse skeptics, with additional data being collected through avenues like Second Life, potentially violating user privacy.
Ram Narayanan Country Manager – ME, Check Point Software Technologies
20 SEPTEMBER 2022 www.VARonline.com FEATURE CHECK POINT
REDEFINING REALITY
and how to start getting prepared (because you do need to start now).
The biggest hurdle to the Metaverse being a secure environment is in its foundations. The Metaverse is built on blockchain technology and we have already seen serious security gaps in NFT marketplaces and blockchain platforms such as OpenSea, Rarible, and Everscale. Due to the sheer amount of malicious activity that we already see exploiting services based on the blockchain, we believe it won’t be long before we start to see initial attacks in the Metaverse too. It will likely be based on authorization, and user accounts will get hijacked, so we expect that identity and authentication will sit at the heart of everything we want to do.
Written By: Ram Narayanan, Country Manager – ME, Check Point Software Technologies
CONVERSATIONAL AI
Withcenters.thetransition to a more digital economy, traditional enterprises —financial services, telecommunications, insurance, or e-commerce — will need to change their business models accordingly.
Conversational AI solution provides contact center employees with increased information flow during a call. The platform can present them with real-time information relevant to the conversation they are having with their customer. This empowers better customer service and enriches the overall service experience.
Written By: Ravi Saraogi, Co-founder and President of Uniphore APAC
An AI-driven platform can co-pilot the call, and assist contact center employees with advanced capabilities such as real-time insights and guidance, suggestions for added value, and real-time automation of repetitive tasks. AI-driven tools can also pick up on the tone of a customer’s voice and ascertain their mood – alerting supervisors if the call needs
Organizations can leverage technologies such as omnichannel, AI-driven intelligent virtual assistants (IVAs) to free up time for human agents and allow them to focus on higher-level tasks starting at the front office. This form of automation removes a layer of repetitive, lower-level tasks and provides a quick and efficient way for customers to find the correct department or be led towards the information they require to complete their inquiry.
THE ROLE OF CX IN DRIVING BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION IN THE MIDDLE EAST
rtificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) have played a big part in accelerating digital transformation since COVID-19, with companies moving business processes toward a smarter and data-driven future. AI and ML allow organizations to streamline and automate essential functions and improve Accordingefficiency.toanestimation
escalation. Such features can help build detailed customer personas, thus playing a pivotal role in improving customer experience.
THE COURSE TO SUCCESS
Ravi Saraogi Co-founder and President, Uniphore APAC
A
IMPROVING CX WITH BETTER TECHNOLOGIES
The organization can capture much data for every call that comes into a contact center. Instead of siphoning that information into storage and potentially reducing its potential and risk it becoming siloed, organizations can apply it directly to their customer experience platform, further enriching the knowledge it holds. This allows AI-led technology to analyze and detect behavior patterns, make sense of a customer’s preferences, uncover previously hidden relations between the customer and products or services, and systematize the data on that customer. This data and knowledge can make every customer journey more comprehensible for contact center agents and empower them to perform the best possible job for every customer interaction.
Unlocking business value by deploying these technologies requires strategic thinking and a clear roadmap. The process involves an evaluation of how best to integrate smarter technologies into contact
21SEPTEMBER 2022www.VARonline.com COLUMNUNIPHORE
by McKinsey, AI could potentially deliver an additional economic output of around $13 trillion by 2030, boosting global GDP by about 1.2 percent yearly. The Middle East is expected to accrue US$320 billion in benefits from AI by 2030, and the annual growth in the contribution of AI is expected to range between 20-34% per year, according to PwC’s report The potential impact of AI in the Middle CustomerEast.experience (CX) is one area that can benefit from AIpowered tools.
DATA ANALYSIS AND CAPTURE
SECURITY
SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SECURITY AND IDENTITY INDUSTRY
2
Alex Tan Commercial Director, Physical Access Control Solutions, Asean, HID Global
minimizes resources.
Written By: Alex Tan, Commercial Director, HID Global
EMBRACING SUSTAINABILITY TO EMPOWER
Having been accustomed to low-cost operations and revenue-based management, traditional companies would expectedly be less inclined to opt for the sustainability track. The underlying trend introduces exceptional action and modernization, effectively placing sustainability at the forefront in driving longterm return on investment (ROI).
According to a survey conducted by InformaTech, two-thirds of technology companies expressed that sustainability remains a top-three driver of product innovation and decision-making in the subsequent five years. Sustainability is perceived as an essential practice for organizations and not merely a trendy value-added feature.Visionary and environmentally savvy providers understand that sustainability plays an important role in technology deployment decisions. Technological advancements such as 5G networks and artificial intelligence (AI) will facilitate the deployment of endto-end and cloud-based solutions while reducing their carbonSecurityfootprint.teams are leveraging the cloud and the Internet of Things (IoT) to deliver seamless end-user experiences that utilize connected architecture, multiapplications, and mobile devices for secure access that simplifies complexities, optimizes processes, and
021 has demonstrated a growing consensus that end users prefer to work with suppliers that adopt sustainability as a cornerstone of their business decisions and operations. In 2022, the focus on sustainability will grow, driving suppliers to increase their focus on digital solutions, including end-to-end mobile and multi-application technologies that reduce the industry’s Governments,footprint.organizations, and individuals must take immediate actions to address environmental concerns. Suppliers inevitably will need to provide footprint transparency in terms of their operations, product sourcing, and research and development (R&D) practices. Consumers, including those in the B2B space, are now placing sustainability at the center stage of their decisions, including in the security and identity industry. To accommodate this noble and worthwhile trend, security business leaders should increasingly consider initiating the sustainability strategies that drive planning to reap highly beneficial environmental, social and governance (ESG) returns.
THE WAY FORWARD
As consumers encourage businesses to disclose information on issues such as energy usage, waste minimization, and resource optimization, organizations need to define and position a clear sustainability strategy to not only adapt to but anticipate environmental, social, and regulatory changes both in the short and long term.
enhanced digital model enables a tremendous reduction of plastic use, pleasing customers and end users and further fuelling manufacturers to conceive more sustainable products and solutions.
22 SEPTEMBER 2022 www.VARonline.com COLUMN HID GLOBAL
Encompassing a multi-pronged approach that harnesses cross-functional alignment and commitment, leading organizations have been spurred to integrate sustainable practices into their R&D processes.
Key drivers transforming how institutions operate include the maturity of mobile technologies, digital credentialing, and passwordless multi-factor authentication. For example, financial service institutions are pivoting from issuing plastic credit cards to implementing open banking. Universities are also embarking on a mobile-first approach by offering mobile credentials with the ability to open doors, check out library books and transact cafeteria payments amongst others.This
