Kunal Bajaj, Chief Business Officer, eSec Forte Technologies

Kunal, an ever-enthusiastic visionary, has been heading the Global Business operations and Strategy at eSec Forte Technologies since past 8 years. eSec Forte is a leading Multinational with services spanning across Information Security and Cyber Forensics serving Fortune 500, Defence and several Govt Organizations.

Before beginning his stint with eSec Forte, Kunal was associated with Wipro Technologies as lead Consultant for Emerging Technologies. Kunal is a Business professional with over years of experience and a demonstrated history. Further, Kunal is skilled in strategizing, steering and expanding businesses, driving growth for technology-led products, and marketing.

 

A survey commissioned by Infosys found that 70 percent in the hi-tech industry have a well defined strategy implemented. They are anxious about hackers, low security awareness among employees and insider threats. While digital technologies are making us susceptible to cyber-crime we do have a host of options before us that enable us to fight the menace of the future.

Artificial Intelligence is the future

As we progress towards artificial intelligence one can leverage AI technologies to protect against sophisticated malware, ransomware and social engineering attacks. Machine learning which forms the backbone of AI might prove beneficial to identify new cyber-attacks, draw statistical inferences and help security platforms by providing reliable information. 

Automation also allows horizon scanning and monitoring of networks that can report on deviations and anomalies in real time. 

Privacy is the key

Privacy enhancing computation enables protection of data while it is being used. It came into being as organizations collaborate on research securely across regions without sacrificing confidentiality. It provides a secure environment where sensitive data can be processed, can be done in a decentralized manner and can also encrypt data and algorithms before processing or analytics. 

Supercomputing is the next alternative

Humans are prone to errors. This might cost organizations if something gets unnoticed. In this respect, supercomputing can be a gamechanger in the field of cyber security. According to MIT Lincoln Labs Fellow Jeremy Kepner, detecting cyber threats can be enhanced if we have an accurate model of normal background network traffic. Analysts could easily compare the internet traffic data they are investigating with these models to detect anomalous behaviour and raise an alarm. 

Let clouds be distributed

The pandemic has taught us that operations should be conducted seamlessly from anywhere. Distributed cloud helps cloud services to be distributed to different geographic locations but the operations remain the responsibility of the public cloud provider. It also helps companies to be compliant to country specific law that dictates data to be located within the national boundaries. It also helps organizations to deal with low latency scenarios and also helps in reducing data costs.

Studying behaviour 

While behavioral analytics has so far helped in delivering social media and online advertisements to the right set of audience it is being explored in the field of cyber security. It helps detect potential and real-time cyber threats. For example, if there’s a sudden spike in data transmission from your device it might ring an alarm. So far behavioural analytics has been used for networks but now it is increasingly used in systems and user devices.

Using hardware for authentication 

Gone are the days when we used to rely on PIN and password to verify a user’s identity. Intel has achieved a breakthrough in this field. It has come up with  Sixth-generation vPro Chips which are embedded in the hardware itself. Embedded Hardware Authentication would make use of multiple levels and methods of authentication that would work in tandem.

Leverage blockchain as well

While blockchain works on the principle of identification between two parties in a transaction, the same process can be used in ensuring a secure cyberspace wherein the members involved in a transaction would be responsible for authenticating the data that has been added. Thus blockchain paired with Artificial Intelligence can be used effectively to protect against cyber threats.

Be on alert all the time

The Zero-trust model works on the principle that the network is always prone to be compromised and hence one must always be on their toes and identify data critical to business, map the flow of data, logical and physical segmentation and enforcement through automation.

Reimagining cybersecurity in today’s world

In today’s world when ‘work from home’ is the norm, a cybersecurity mesh allows for the security perimeter to be defined around the identity of a person or thing which enables a more modular, responsive security approach by centralizing policy orchestration and distributing policy enforcement. 

The Internet of things, artificial intelligence, 5G network and a host of other technologies are going to make cyber security a huge deal. Though we are more vulnerable to cyber threats in today’s context we must also look at the new-age technologies that are booming which would help us in fighting cyber crime. Let us embrace technology and be on alert as well. 

 

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