Gateway Group a global information technology services, solutions and product engineering company is marching towards successful completion of two decades in the industry. The parent organization, through its various offerings including multimedia, information security solutions and mobile development and testing services reaches their customers across 30 countries in 5 Continents.
G-Secure labs, the security arm of the Gateway group is always ready to e-protect and ensure business continuity for their clients across industries including the most-critical BFSI. Kenneth T, Vice President- Security Solutions, G-Secure Labs speaks to Swaminathan Balasubramanian on their company’s road map and the current landscape of security solutions.
Swaminathan Balasubramanian (Swami) : Gateway group on the whole is into multiple offerings including BI, cloud, mobility and more. How much importance is the security division for the organization on the whole.
Kenneth T (Kenneth) InfoSec is a key focus area for Gateway Group. It is one of key growth areas globally and also the focus of our comprehensive solutions to customers. With our customers going to the cloud more often, Privacy and Data Security have become the primary areas of concern. We have deep expertise and knowledge of the various IT systems that our customers use which enables us to design and implement solutions that are most effective.
Swami: There are many vendors having specialization for different expertise. So, what does any CIO’s top three priorities when it comes to deployment of security?
Kenneth :
Visibility: With the IT perimeter becoming porous and borderless with a variety of systems becoming part of the IT infrastructure, CIO’s are always looking at ways to improve visibility. In any large IT environment there are bound to be multiple blind spots in terms of physical assets, unknown applications and even sensitive data.
Compliance: External and Internal compliance mandates are a top-of-the-mind subject for CIO’s. With the number of breaches increasing with impact brands and business propositions, Board rooms are more vigilant and engaged with the Information Management Systems. The regulators also to ensure confidence in the system are constantly updating controls and mechanisms to counter the latest threat vectors.
Response and remediation: IT system breaches are happening at a blinding pace. Every time the InfoSec team builds a new system there is a different or an new threat to counter. In this environment it is inevitable to be either a target or victim in the cross-fire. Most CIO’s have acknowledged that at some point there is a possibility of a serious threat, this is nightmarish. Hence response and remediation mechanisms and processes are very critical. Though the CIO always hopes for not having to use this capability but is always prepared.
Swami: As a leading channel partner in the security sector, what are the top 3 key challenges you are facing when it comes to deployment and maintaining of service delivery related to security?
Kenneth:
People: Many well accepted reports and studies puts the global figure at one million cybersecurity job openings. Demand is expected to rise to 6 million globally by 2019, with a projected shortfall of 1.5 million. This is very relevant for India also. InfoSec professionals are in high demand, however the lack of quality training facilities and low awareness levels has led to fewer people with desired qualifications and experience. We as a Service Provider to our clients are in a continuous process of training our teams to deliver the right services.
Enablement: Trainings and programs for professional growth are lacking in the industry. All vendors have their specific programs, which does not offer holistic view of the security framework. What is needed is a vendor neutral approach to people training and enablement which will ensure that we have better prepared teams to respond.
Changing Landscape: The Infosec landscape is changing at a very rapid pace. With device proliferation increasing and infrastructure becoming borderless, threat vectors have become very difficult to point out. We as a service provider have to be at par with the latest threats and mitigation strategies. It is always a catch-up game.
Swami: Has security services are still seen as a cost-spend factor or it has been considered as a profit making aspect in IT budget?
Kennth: The financial sector is the quickest to adopt latest cutting edge technology. They definitely do not look at is only from a cost-spend perspective. For this very crucial sector being ahead of the bad guys is primary. However, most of the
other industry verticals are less pro-active. ROI and TCO are still the primary focus in Technology and Manufacturing industries. Over the last few quarters we see a change with high profile attacks which have been covered well by media, much of the industry is now being proactive.
Swami: What are the key plans of your organization in terms of security services in this financial year?
Kennth: We have been in this business for more than 12 years. This gives us deep understanding of the Security Services industry. We believe that outsourced Security will be more commonly adopted and services will be SLA driven. We are well prepared with this scenario with well-trained resources and robust backend infrastructure and knowledgebase to deliver the highest level of Security Services to our customers.
Swami: What are the key verticals you are planning to target?
Kenneth: We have been most active in the Technology and BFSI space. We will continue to work with our customers closely and look at increasing our reach in these verticals.