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Data gathering and usage is a fuel of successful campaigns. When it comes to working with data, breaches are the biggest threat. There has been a surge in cyberthreats and hackers have become more advanced in breaching data. So, cybersecurity becomes an essential part of an organisation to safeguard its valuable data and information. As more aspects of business move to digital, organizations are opting for better cybersecurity practices. Organisations can prevent cyber threats by using anti-malware software, multi-factor authentication, encryptions, frequent software updates etc. Businesses should also adopt segmentation of networks that involves running devices and storing data on different networks to ensure a breach can’t provide access to all the data.
Technologies such as AI/ML, IoT, AR/VR, cloud-based security are being readily adopted by companies to cope up with modern challenges. The new advanced technologies are able to process immense amount of data and can carry out large-scale tasks to detect suspicious behaviour, known weaknesses and zero-day attacks.
Let’s see what the industry leaders say about this:
People, process & technology needs to be put in place
Coping up with cyber threats
Cyber security is very important these days. Cyber hackers are becoming smarter by the day. It’s really necessary for each individual, whether in personal life or in professional lives, to ensure that cybersecurity is top priority. In the organizations, people have to work on three key areas- the people part, the process part and the technology part. The people part is the most important as it is the weakest link. Companies have to monitor this and all the processes have to be put in place.
Opting on-premise/off-premise/hybrid cloud for better business model
During corona, some of the companies which were on cloud really prospered, but being hybrid is the best thing because there will always be only some systems, some technology which one would like to be on-prem. To get the best of both worlds, hybrid cloud services should be opted.
Parameters for choosing new technologies
While looking at the parameters, one has to look at the objectives of the organisation. How mature the technology or the technology implementation partners are? If the technology is on cloud, then how secure it is? The overall TCO i.e., Total Cost of Ownership and the Return on Investment also has to be considered, because any technology that has been implemented, has to deliver value to the organization.
Trending technologies
There was a time when people were talking about SMAC i.e., social mobile analytics cloud. Then we moved on to the next step, to distributed ledger technology, blockchain, artificial intelligence, extended reality, augmented reality, mixed reality, virtual reality, quantum, IoT. All the industries are getting changed because of these technologies.
Vijay Sethi
Digital transformation and sustainability Evangelist
FORESIGHT FOR A PRODUCT HELPS IN ITS IMPLEMENTATION
Coping up with cyber threats
It is of paramount importance for any organisation to protect the data from any unauthorized access. Any vertical, be it the banking sector, the pharmaceutical sector, has been working on data being stored into their system and if this data is being unauthorisedly accessed by any hacker, the whole organization can collapse. Therefore, we have laid down a lot of procedures in place. First and foremost, we have ensured that the data of our customers and vendors is being protected at our backend with best of the firewall practices with the intrusion detections systems and the intrusion protection systems.
Parameters for choosing new technologies
The first thing we will do is the assessment of the product to find out whether that product will be in tune with the requirements of the organisation. Second thing, we also have to ensure that the product we implement is being used by the people working with us. The most important parameter for best cybersecurity practices is to think of what could happen for the next three years down the line. When we try to key in a product in an organisation, we always have a foresight of whether the product will scale up for the next three years. Lastly, the product that we are implementing should follow the law of the land, otherwise, it is of no use.
Dr. Harold D'Costa
President- Cyber Security Corporation
EDUCATING USERS FOR LESS CYBER ATTACKS
Coping up with cyber threats
Cybersecurity is very important these days as all the organizations are trying to protect themselves. Attackers have also become very intelligent enough. As a security person, you have to have the relevant security measures in place. Go for the regular audits, patch your systems regularly and create more awareness among the users. If the user will be more educated, there will be less chances of attack.
Opting on-premise/off-premise/hybrid cloud for better business model
I would always prefer the hybrid environment. Some of the core applications and compliances run on-premise and some of the applications require re-architecturing before going on a cloud. Because of that, you have to be hybrid, but cloud is always preferred. I always prefer to move the entire load on a cloud because of the manageability and the kind of security that comes in.
Best business practices
We have to always look at the kind business we are and accordingly design certain things. Today, people prefer to look for ready-to-go technologies which are easily available. We should look for a technology which is little economical, and ready-to-go.
Kapil Mehrotra
Group CTO, NCMS Ltd
BUSINESSES ARE REBUILDING AROUND EXPRIENCE
Digital transformation driving the industry
Digital transformation is happening around four distinct dimensions- real time automation, in the moment interaction, predictive intelligence and proactive analytics. As long as organizations are following these four parameters, they are well tuned in their organization and driving the digital transformation agenda.
Trending technologies
The basic foundation for digital transformation is secure hybrid cloud foundation and the technologies that are playing on top of that are artificial intelligence, machine learning, intelligent workflows, intelligent platforms, blockchain, IoT, and data being the core of everything. All are working together and helping the digital transformation agenda and the organizations to become a real cognitive enterprise.
Best business practices
Today, businesses are actually rebuilding around experiences. There is change in the new business model, there is a new way of working, and at the same time, there is a focus on building restless talent within the organization. Most of the CIOs are focused on these three dimensions to help transform their organization. Today, every CIO needs to plan for a probable, possible and a plausible solution to help leapfrog the organization into the next level of transformation agenda.
Dr. Biswajit Mohapatra,
AWS
TODAY'S TREND IS CONNECTIVITY
Coping up with cyber threats
Everything is online today, everything is on cloud. You need to be very alert in terms of securing data, private legacies, and important messages. It may be your mobile data, your cloud data, or your laptop or desktop data. Cybersecurity is one of the key areas where you need to ensure the data is protected for the organization’s benefits.
Opting on-premise/off-premise/hybrid cloud for better business model
It depends on different industry verticals, based on their compliances, based on the regulations they prefer. Today, most of the domains are going for a hybrid cloud. Some of the industries always prefer to be on-prem based on their compliances.
Trending technologies
As a digital-infra team, we see the trend is on connectivity. The entire world is talking about good connectivity. As part of Make in India, we are also a part of the digitised connectivity, where we talk about 5G as well.
Adopting best practices for secure business
We ensure our team is up-to-date in terms of data and cyberthreats. We ensure that our team members get proper training from time to time which has been driven by our HR in terms of protecting data from cyber threats.
Bishwajit Sutradhar,
National Sales Head, Passive Networking Business, Polycab
HYBRID INFRASTRUCTURE PROVIDES FLEXIBILITY AND SECURITY TO PROTECT DATA
Coping up with cyber threats
Personal information is one of the most critical assets of the healthcare sector. We go an extra mile to protect the patient's information. We have extensive IT infrastructure like cybersecurity, tools and services to monitor any kind of activity that is happening around our data, besides a robust infrastructure to manage the entire data operations on a day-to-day basis.
Opting on-premise/off-premise/hybrid cloud for better business model
We started with a data-center model and the moment we decided to move into cloud, we took the decision to be on hybrid mode because of the kind of flexibility we want, at the same time, the need to enforce security around the data.
Best business practices
We adopted digital transformation as a process nearly four years ago that led to huge transformation in the way the entire industry is working now. We use a lot of stuff around analytics. In the first place, we are moving more into an NLP based analytics and in terms of design and development we are moving more into low-code and no-code. In terms of adopting newer solutions and technologies, we are primarily moving into APA based development.
Parameters for choosing new technologies
We tend to adopt more trusted, secure and proven technologies. Our leap of faith is largely on a trusted solution and then moving into cutting-edge. Our first and foremost focus is to see how good and trusted the technology is, how it can be sustainable and maintainable with the skills available and whether it would be supported by the cloud environment.
S. Chandra Mouli
Chief Information & Technology Officer, Sankara Nethralaya
ADOPTING TECHNOLOGIES FOR MITIGATING ANY RISK
Coping up with cyber threats
Ransomware attacks have been the key to the data breaches in this whole year. Right now, the compliance teams and the cybersecurity teams have a dual role to play. One, they have to ensure that business continuity is maintained in this remote working environment. Secondly, they have to plan their defences in a manner that data security is there and they have to move towards cyber resilience. In our organisation, we are also having our defences in place to ensure that we are resilient and protected against any data security threats.
Opting on-premise/off-premise/hybrid cloud for better business model
It should all depend on the threat landscape of an organization. First and foremost, you need to do a risk assessment of your organization. Based on that, you should plan your digital transformation journey and your cloud strategy, then you will be able to understand whether you want to go in for a private cloud or public cloud. In some cases, you may want to go in for a hybrid cloud where you want to keep some information in the public domain and some information protected.
Trending technologies
Some of the key technologies would be AI/ML. There will be a lot of automation that would be required. Organizations would be looking for some solutions which can give them a unified and holistic view of the threat landscape. Instead of giving it a fragmented view, it will provide one single view for all the compliance requirements. Any tools which help in implementing data security and cloud security will be there as a trend in the next coming years.
Parameters for choosing new technologies
Any technology that you have in your organization should be mitigating any risk. Any tools and technologies that you are implementing, should be a result of your risk assessment of your organization. First, we conduct a risk assessment of the threat landscape. In order to protect those threats, accordingly we go ahead and implement those controls that could be in the form of processes, tools and technologies.
Mitali Sharma
Head- Risk Compliance & Information Security, SDG Software
MORE ADOPTION FROM THE STAKEHOLDERS INITIATES BETTER DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
Trending technologies
There is a large volume of digital transformation happening in the power industry. Distribution has primarily been an area which interfaces with the consumers and is undergoing a fast change. The entire grid, which used to be a traditionally legacy grid, is changing into a smart grid with the introduction of various digital technologies like IoT devices, smart meters, SCADA systems and various similar systems which are enabling and changing the grid into a smart grid.
Best business practices
Most of the practices which we are adopting in the digital transformation are working towards better adoption at the consumer level, at the employee level and at various stakeholder level. The more adoption we have from the stakeholders the better digital transformation is taking place. Second focus is on convenience, where various methods and workflow can be moved digitally for better efficiency. The third focus is on the transparency piece. While the workflow happens, the various information which we make available to various stakeholders become easily visible to them so that the entire workflow becomes much faster and easier.
Coping up with cyber threats
Cybersecurity has been the number one focus for us in the entire digital adoption. With the adoption of various digital technologies, there has been a large volume of data which gets generated. It is important for us to keep that data secure. Power sector typically works in two areas of technology, one is the operation technology and the other one is information technology. Both require an adequate amount of security and the convergence of these two areas has always been the point of discussion among the power security forums. When we converge in future, we will be taking adequate steps to ensure high security in both these areas.
Opting on-premise/off-premise/hybrid cloud for better business model
The world is moving towards cloud technology because of its benefits in terms of scalability, in terms of costs, in terms of security. One of the good benefits of cloud comes with having an Opex instead of a CapEx, that saves the initial cost of the company which we can incur when we scale up higher. Therefore, while distributing between on-premises and cloud, we often go for hybrid cloud.
Parameters for choosing new technologies
We look at ROI and their benefit to the organization before evaluating and choosing to implement any technology in the organization. These are typical ways in which a technology is adopted.
Sanjeev Sinha
President- IT & Digitization, IPCL
SECURITY IS EVERYBODY'S RESPONSIBILITY
Coping up with cyber threats
Cybersecurity and cloud are the buzzwords today. We are trying to educate people and make them aware of what it is because cyber security and cyber threats are growing too much. It is very essential and critical to pay attention to cybersecurity because everything is data today and we have all the applications running on-prem or on cloud or in hybrid cloud mode. There are a lot of threats, a lot of attacks and a lot of people who are running these kinds of practices to get ransom by holding data captive.
Opting on-premise/off-premise/hybrid cloud for better business model
It is completely dependent on the choice of the client, the nature of business and the nature of data which we hold because just going to the cloud because everybody is going to the cloud is not the option. The only problem is that whatever you put in the cloud, you are always at risk of attacks. One has to think about it and have to protect it from your point of view. If you see businesses like banks have very critical data from the clients that cannot be shared on cloud. Some organizations choose to be on-prem, and some put their workload on cloud because cloud has its own benefits. I would say hybrid is the best option where I can choose what to keep on cloud and what not to keep.
Trending technologies
We do automation and a lot of robotics. We use a lot of AI/ML stuff for analytics because EXL is an analytics company and we have a lot of work done in NLP as well. We are also venturing into Metaverse and Blockchain technologies.
Parameters for choosing new technologies
First and foremost is the business benefit, the value which it provides, even if something is in trend, unless it gives some value, some benefits, something for the clients, or something for their businesses to grow. We do a lot of awareness to the employees because security is everybody’s responsibility. We send a lot of mailers, mock drills for cybersecurity. We also have a lot of sessions, a lot of training for employees to secure their data and their workstations.
Ritesh Kumar
Assistant VP- Technology, EXL
UNDERSTANDING BUSINESS FOR BUILDING CYBERSECURITY PORTFOLIO
Trending technologies
In the BFSI sector, we can see a lot of emerging technologies such as attack surface monitoring and many other. Artificial Intelligence is continuously going to increase whether through technology audit or maybe automation of incident response. Edge computing and remote working are going to increase and accordingly use of some of the traditional technology is also going to continue.
Coping up with cyber threats
When you are digital, you have the risks of cyber threats. The attack and the sophistication of the attack is increasing and you need to deal with that every day. The industry leaders need to understand the business. They need to look at their entire technology portfolio. Based on that, they need to understand the risks related to technology and accordingly they need to build a cybersecurity portfolio to protect the asset. It is very important to know the asset and the kind of critical data the platform is hosting. They need to also think about the security technology they are actually onboarding and how securely they are configuring them.
Opting on-premise/off-premise/hybrid cloud for better business model
This completely depends on the business. It totally depends on what kind of data you are handling and how critical or sensitive the data is, what your regulator is actually asking or expecting to handle the data.
Dr. Lopa Mudraa Basu
Advisor-Cloud Security Alliance, APAC Research Council
MANAGING SECURITY & CONVENIENCE IS A CHALLENGE IN THE DIGITAL IT SPACE
Trending technologies
The trending technologies predominantly work around credit underwriting. In credit underwriting, there is a way of understanding whether we should sanction the loan or not. In the vintage analysis, it is predicted when the customer will be defaulted between the DPD buckets or he’ll turn into an NPA customer. For these two crucial things, the most important thing is using AI and ML. There was a time where we were using data analytics to understand and figure out something but now with machine learning in the picture, there is a lot of data which is getting stored and it creates multiple patterns to predict these two areas.
Best business practices
There is a lot of digital transformation happening across the industry. The demand to manage security and convenience is a challenge for anyone in the digital and IT space.
Parameters for choosing new technologies
The cost benefit analysis is what we always do. When we try to take any new technology, we validate whether that would fit for our industry or not, especially for our customers. In the end, it should result in the influence of the bottom-line numbers as well.
Sivakumar Nandipati
Chief Digital Officer, FEDBANK
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