Founded in 2004, A10 Networks is driving innovation with a range of high-performance application networking solutions that help organizations ensure that their data center applications and networks remain highly available, accelerated and secure.
In an exclusive interview with Simon Jackson, Systems Engineering Director EMEA and Adil Baghir, Technology Consultant Lead MEA at A10 Networks, Telecom Review tackled the importance of automation in cybersecurity and the drivers of increasing cyberattacks.
How can the automation of cybersecurity systems help expedite intervention during breaches?
SIMON: Currently, cyberattacks are very challenging in a sense that it’s very difficult to predict when an attack might occur. Automation combined with machine learning and artificial intelligence allow us to respond to attacks quickly. Today, everybody will be attacked, but what’s important is how quickly you can react to counter the attack and take the decision to mitigate it.
We have different strategies depending on the types of attacks. For example, for DDoS attacks, our cloud solution brings us intelligence about when the attack is going to happen. Combined with machine learning that shows us when the attack actually started, we then react and try to solve the problem.
ADIL: We use our innovative technology which is Zero-Day Pattern Recognition where we try to learn and identify the type of attack because we can’t really expect the kind of attack or where it’s coming from. Then, we apply the DDoS policies accordingly.
In your opinion, should enterprises create CSO positions within their human resources structure?
SIMON: If a company doesn’t realize that it needs to look after cybersecurity, then it’s never going to be secure. Security is built from the ground up and investing in people and creating a role within the business to protect it is crucial.
CSOs take the best action and set the targets for everyone so having such as a position within a company is essential because such employees realize the importance of security.
ADIL: We have been noticing in the past couple of years, notably in 5G era, that service providers are investing a lot in security to be able to adapt to the cybersecurity challenges. Mobile service providers are investing in their resources to ensure that they have the right skill set, policies and security defenses.
Reports show that while technology is evolving, cybersecurity threats are increasing in parallel. In your opinion, what is the main reason behind it?
SIMON: Money is the main motive. All businesses are dependent on IT infrastructure and therefore are always at risk. If there’s risk and money can be made, there are people who will try to make money from it.
We never know when the next attack is going to occur, we have to find out while we’re learning about attacks which brings us back to the importance of automation, machine learning and artificial intelligence.
ADIL: For example, in IoT, the number of connected devices is increasing, thus the possibility of attacks will be higher. That’s in line with what we see in the market: the more demand we have on bandwidth and connected devices, the more security challenges will be presented.
SIMON: There used to be a parameter of the enterprise and all the incoming and outgoing traffic was easy to manage, but now, there is no enterprise edge, data was moved to the cloud. Security is no longer limited to just putting up one firewall. The cyber environment has become more complicated and cybercriminals will try to find a loophole to get access to data which they can turn into money.
What do you hope to achieve in 2020?
ADIL: One of our key objects is to work with our strategic customers, especially mobile providers to enable them to protect their network from attacks. We will also work with our enterprise customers to ensure that they have the right mitigation strategies in place.
SIMON: As a company, we are moving our solutions to be containerized and are leveraging machine learning to respond to attacks and threats. Two weeks ago, we launched a couple of Office 365 solutions for multi-cloud. We are continuously working on the evolution of our multi-cloud portfolio by adding further enhancements and new developments to the A10 Networks portfolio.