As cyber-attacks become a reality, enterprises today face the challenge of managing their security posture. Cybersecurity is costly to manage, pushing small enterprises into threat zone. To address this, Paladion Networks has introduced industry’s first Cybersecurity-as-a-Service platform ‘Paladion OnDemand’ to provide robust security as a service to SMEs. Paladion OnDemand SBU Head Rohit Kumar discussed the prevailing threats and security trends with SMEpost.com. Here are the edited excerpts.
Q: What are the major cyber security trends lately?
A: We are witnessing a very dynamic threat environment. Cyber threats and cyberattacks are only increasing both in terms of the number of attacks and sophistication. Targeted attacks, advanced persistent threats and complex malware such as Ransomware are all mighty challenges for security professionals everywhere. With the growing adoption of mobility and cloud, attackers now have a much wider attack surface to breach the defences of an organization – from network and web applications to desktops, PCs and mobile devices. A lot of attacks are targeted on the endpoints to get the initial foothold, and securing the endpoints (including mobile devices) against advanced attacks and malware is a significant challenge for organizations.
Further, all organizations, irrespective of size, are keenly exploring the IT-as-a-service consumption model. This is also extending to cyber security, and progressive organizations are now looking to consume security also in the same consumption model. Organizations no longer want to go through hassles of procuring, deploying and managing technologies, hardware, software, updates & upgrades and maintaining skills and resources – it’s not only time-and-effort intensive, but more importantly, it is not giving them the desired results. What customers today clearly want are security outcomes and not more security products to add to their stack.
Q: We understand Paladion Networks has introduced industry’s first Cybersecurity-as-a-Service platform ‘Paladion OnDemand’. Please tell us about it. How is it different from traditional information security offerings?
A: Paladion OnDemand is CyberSecurity-as-a-Service that integrates protection across endpoints, network, applications, users, mobile and cloud environment to provide security outcomes in an affordable pay-as-you-go consumption model without the customers having to make huge investments in security software, hardware or skills.
Paladion OnDemand delivers Active Cyber Protection against cyber risks and threats, as against the passive protection that is offered in the traditional model. Our Cybersecurity-as-a-Service platform integrates best-of-breed security & analytics technologies and comes bundled with 24×7 fully managed services by a large pool of 450+ security experts from our Global Security Operations Centers (SOCs). We help organizations actively hunt for suspicious activities and risks in their environment and take proactive corrective actions rather than passively wait for risks to show up. And security is enforced 24×7 everywhere from our SOCs.
With PaladionOnDemand, customers buy security outcomes for active cyber protection, and not just products or technologies. And, they get security outcomes with zero overheads that significantly reduces their overall costs.
Q: Which sectors does OnDemand extend its industry expertise?
A: Paladion OnDemand security offerings are suited for all organizations, large enterprises as well fast-growing firms, to help them achieve enterprise-grade security outcomes in a simple and affordable manner. Over the last 15 years, we have worked closely with customers across diverse verticals including banking & finance, pharma and healthcare, retail and eCommerce, ITeS and manufacturing amongst others, and have a deep understanding and experience of addressing the security and compliance challenges for diverse industries with Paladion OnDemand’s comprehensive portfolio of security offerings.
Q: What are the various services provided by OnDemand? Please give us a brief idea about them?
A: With Paladion OnDemand, customers can choose from 20+ security offerings across endpoint security, network security, mobile devices and BYOD security, security monitoring, security assessments, data protection including data loss prevention and data encryption, identity and access management, cloud and SaaS security and compliance (such as PCI). We offer the complete suite of security solutions in a fully managed mode to help customers protect against all cyber risks and threats.
Q: Is there any customization of these services for SMEs? If yes, please tell us about them?
A: For each Paladion OnDemand offering, customers have multiple levels of security outcomes to choose from depending on their specific requirements. For example, we have 3 levels (standard, advanced and premium) of outcomes for web application security assessment-as-a-service depending on the depth of assessment and the vulnerabilities that are tested. The standard offering identifies the security weaknesses in the public pages of the web application. The advanced offering identifies the security weaknesses in the public pages as well as the post-login pages of the web application. The premium offering is a customized assessment that goes beyond the standard and advanced offerings to also identify the security weaknesses in the business logic of that web application which could make it vulnerable to cyber attacks.
Thus, a customer could choose to buy standard offering for low and medium-critical web applications that do not have login pages; they could buy advanced offering for medium-critical web applications that have login pages with sensitive data (such as corporate websites or business partner portals); and they could buy premium offering for mission-critical applications that handle sensitive customer data and financial transactions (such as eCommerce applications).
Q: With increasing demand for high level information security controls and a spurt in online startups, how does OnDemand meet up with their needs?
A: For startups and fast-growing firms, speed of execution while getting things done within tight budgets are key priorities. Paladion OnDemand is very well suited to meet the requirements of online start-up firms.
They can instantly achieve all security outcomes that they need from a single source with Paladion OnDemand Cybersecurity-as-a-Service. They do not need to wait for several weeks or months to implement security controls and provide assurance on information and data security to their customers, partners and other stakeholders.
And they get the security outcomes in a very affordable pay-as-you-go pricing model with zero overheads. They do not need to incur large upfrontcosts to procure security software and hardware or recruit, train and maintain security skills to protect their data and digital assets, and can instead focus on their business growth priorities. They have a cost-effective way to manage their security demand – pay only for what they need now, and easily scale their security requirements as they grow.
Q: What are your plans for the future?
A: Our mission is to empower all organizations to safely embrace modern technologies such as mobility, cloud, business automation and workforce productivity without being hindered by cyber security risks.
We are working towards increasing our reach and coverage in the market, not only in India but in USA, Canada, Middle East and Africa. We are extending our reach by developing a strong channel partner eco-system comprising of Managed Service Providers (MSPs) & Hosting Providers, Resellers, System Integrators, Consultants and Telcos.
As a pure-play information security firm, we continuously research and track the latest developments in cyber risks and threats. We will continue to expand our offerings portfolio to provide active cyber protection against new and emerging threats that will become significant with adoption of latest technological advances such as IoT.
