and put them into one single pane of glass,” said Jason Mical, Director of Network Forensics, Access Data.

“So we can see data that is moving and resting, all kinds of forensics, search and review and malware analysis, unlike any other vendor can. There are companies that do little pieces of them, but we’re the only one that can show it all in one dashboard,” he added.

According to Mical, the most important factor in organisations protecting themselves for attacks is timing.

“These attacks are hitting and the longer you let them go, the more damage that’s getting done. So having the capability to have full visibility of data without having to take the box offline and do an analysis, logs and traditional incident response is vital. We can get on the box in any location around the world from right here and do full forensic analysis, memory analysis and network analysis in a matter of seconds, and then be able to remediate it as well. So if we’re finding rogue processes or malicious content, we can immediately hit a

Security company Access Data will tomorrow launch version 2 of its CERT (Cyber Intelligence and Response Technology) product, which is the only solution to put cyber defence, incident response and digital forensics into a single pane of glass.

The Middle East has seen a large increase in demand for effective security solutions as organisations attempt to avoid the same fate as those that have suffered major

breaches, like the devastating ‘Shamoon’ malware attack of Saudi Aramco earlier this year.

“We do something that is very different to any other vendor people see at GITEX. There are a lot of niche players out there. Some of them do network-based forensics data-in-motion, some of them do host-based forensics and some of them do malware analysis. CERT has taken all of those technologies and processes

Access Data to unveil new release of CERT

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SanDisk launches client SSD caching solution

SanDisk has announced an affordable, easy-to-install SSD caching solution that lets consumers significantly improve their desktop computer’s performance. The SanDisk ReadyCache, solution, which will be available in the Middle East market at the end of this month, can boost a desktop computer’s boot, shutdown and application launch times, allowing consumers to enjoy a more responsive computing experience, while utilising their existing hard drive’s storage.

The SanDisk ReadyCache product is a performance enhancing caching solution that combines a 32 gigabyte

(GB) 2.5-inch SSD that resides alongside a desktop computer’s hard drive with ExpressCache software by Condusiv Technologies. The software, sold exclusively by SanDisk, is easily downloaded from the SanDisk website and can be installed on any desktop PC running Windows 7 operating system. After installing the SSD and software, the SanDisk ReadyCache solution’s advanced caching algorithms automatically manage data by caching frequently used files to improve overall performance.

“The SanDisk ReadyCache is an easy, affordable way to turbo-charge a desktop computer,” said Kent Perry, director, product marketing, SanDisk. “Our new SSD caching solution lets consumers enjoy the performance benefits of frequently used data coming from an SSD while retaining the storage capacity of their hard drive. It is an ideal combination of the benefits of an SSD and hard drive.”

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button and remove all the assets that are infected,” Mical said.

“That’s another big differentiator for us – we’re not signature based, so we’re not depending on known signatures. That’s how everything is getting through these front doors because the other technologies don’t trigger these events. We’re doing deep dive forensic analysis to uncover things that are happening under the operating system. They’re not visible to the end user. So we can find it very quickly anywhere in the world and address it via a keystroke,” he added.

With the numerous high profile attacks capturing the attention of CIOs around the globe, there has been a major paradigm shift in IT security.

“Historically, security has always been an insurance policy. Everyone always struggled to make an investment outside of what they already did. But everyone is now seeing that the paradigm is shifting because now everyone is acknowledge that they don’t have the capabilities to detect, remediate

and respond in the nature they need to. The breaches are getting more sophisticated and the magnitude of them are getting significantly larger, so having that visibility of all your data as it’s sitting at rest is a game changer and it is shifting everybody’s philosophies towards security,” Mical said.

He also emphasised that, whilst it is the breaches of major originations that gain the most attention, it is important to remember that all organisations are at risk.

“It doesn’t matter how big or small an organisation is or what vertical they are in, everyone is a potential target. If they have intellectual property they are concerned about, which all organisations do, or even if they just get a denial of service attack – every second that they’re not up they’ve losing money,” he concluded.

Access Data is launching version 2 of its CERT solution tomorrow at the Capital Club in DIFC, with the region’s major telcos and banks amongst those that will be in attendance. 

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Imagine a bank where it is possible, not only to arrange a car loan but also to select the make, model, colour and optional extras of your dream car, without visiting a car showroom. It sounds futuristic? It isn’t. It’s Noor Islamic Bank’s (Noor) vision of the Bank of the Future, which it is showcasing at GITEX Technology Week.

The high-tech, interactive, concept bank provides a unique, immersive, 3D experience of how the future of banking could develop. It includes the latest touch screen technology, 3D holographic projections, finger print recognition and surround sound, bringing together technology which is available

today, but has yet to make inroads into banking.

Visitors to GITEX Technology Week, underway at the Dubai International Exhibition and Conference Centre, can experience Noor’s vision of the Bank of the Future by visiting Noor’s experiential stand 2, in Hall 6.

Hussain AlQemzi, GCEO of Noor Investment Group and CEO of Noor Islamic Bank explained that Noor has invested in the Bank of the Future concept to kick start a debate on people’s expectations of banks in the future.

“We want ordinary people to help shape the future of banking in the UAE and elsewhere. We are known as a progressive bank that believes in using the latest technology to give our customers the best possible banking experience,” he added.

“Our concept Bank of the Future demonstrates our vision of how banks of the future may meet the next generation of customers’ expectations. It is futuristic but the technology and ideas that have gone into creating it are very much of today. It underlines our commitment to be the leader in digital banking.”

Supporting the Bank of the Future concept, Noor has launched an online competitions,

Noor Islamic Bank presents its vision at GITEX

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with a main prize of US $20,000, to solicit ideas from across the world on how the banking experience can be improved. Ideas can be submitted, by logging on to the dedicated ‘Shape Your Bank’ website www.shapeyourbank.com or via Noor’s Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/NoorIslamicBank . The closing date for entries is October 31.

“This is the latest step in a journey that began even before we launched, when we held our first ‘Shape Your Bank’ campaign,’ Al Qemzi explained. “We listened then and we are still listening. The ideas we receive, through this latest ‘Shape Your Bank’ campaign, will guide the way we conduct our business in the future.”

Also on show at GITEX is Noor’s new augmented reality ‘Bank In Your Hand’ smartphone and tablet app, the first of its kind in the Middle East. The Noor App, which will be available for download in November, will enable customers to access Noor’s full range of products and services, from opening an account to executing banking transactions, such as money transfers and utility bill payments. Future enhancements could include scanning and paying in cheques via the app.

French export-support agency UBIFRANCE is presenting 25 French companies at this year’s GITEX. The companies are using the opportunity to showcase a number of innovative products on the French pavilion.

The agency claims that a wide range of products will be exhibited, including those relating to business IT, business communications and networks,

ICT infrastructure, IT and telecoms accessories, future internet, consumables, open source, cards technologies, electrical protection systems, consulting, mobile content, HR IT solutions, electronic devices for taxi drivers, and more.

“According to the European Information Technology Observatory (EITO), worldwide IT expenditure is experiencing

substantial growth rates in emerging countries and should have risen by 4.3% in 2011, reaching €963.4 billion. In Europe, France enjoyed a 3.4% increase in expenditure,” UBIFRANCE said.

The EITO highlights the substantial upsurge — by 4.2% — in the French infrastructure software segment in 2011. This trend is expected to continue in

2012, with a forecasted 4.8% rise. The growth in this segment is primarily the result of rising sales in storage- and security-applications solutions, boosted by the proliferation of cloud computing offers.

Also according to the EITO, the worldwide IT market in 2012 will grow by 5.4%, exceeding €1,000 billion in sales for the first time.

French companies participate at GITEX

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Ford showcases driver assist technologies

Mitsumi explores partnership opportunities

Participating in GITEX Technology Week as the official automotive partner for the fifth straight year, Ford Middle East is showcasing a host of its latest Driver Assist Technologies, and giving exclusive glimpses of intelligent, next generation innovations being researched by

Ford Labs as part of the company’s commitment to aiding drivers through technology. Additionally, show visitors can experience the brand new, tech-laden 2013 Taurus and the super performance Taurus SHO – dubbed as Ford’s smartest sedans.

“GITEX is such a great opportunity for visitors to see the exciting and innovative technology inside Ford vehicles, and this year they’re able to use the most stimulating and spectacular ways to find out more about how Ford is going further to revolutionise the driving experience, both on the stand and at our expanded outdoor test drive arena,” said Paul Anderson, Ford Middle East’s Marketing director.

One of the men behind many of the current and developing Driver Assist Technologies – especially those with a safety aspect – is also attending GITEX having made his way from Detroit for the show to provide unique insights into Ford’s dedication to developing driver aids and safety technologies. Dr. Saeed Barbat, Ford Motor Company’s

Executive Technical Leader for Safety, Research and Advanced Engineering, is a key figure in the research and development of many of the technologies found in Ford’s vehicles today, having been with Ford for 20 years.

Dr. Barbat has worked tirelessly in pursuit of developing technologies which have become intrinsic to Ford’s vehicle safety features, and is the holder of 13 issued and 12 filed U.S. patents. He has also received numerous industry awards recognising his efforts and achievements.

His area of focus during GITEX is introducing the unique Biometric Seat that Ford’s research team is using to test a number of different sensors and gather data on how drivers respond to a variety of inputs for a driver behavior model.

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Mitsumi IT Distribution, one of the Africa’s largest IT distributors, is participating at GITEX for the very first time to exhibit its world-class product portfolio from global vendor partners HP, Dell, Acer, Toshiba, Lenovo, Samsung, Microsoft, BenQ and Tripplite. The MITSUMI stall is located at A8-10, Hall 8 during GITEX 2012.

With GITEX having an “Africa in Focus” theme this year, Mitsumi is expecting an increase in the number of delegations from countries that have expressed interest like Algeria, Kenya, Libya, Cameroon, Ghana,

Morocco, Nigeria, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Uganda and Tunisia among others. Mitsumi’s participation at GITEX 2012 is to ensure the company’s commitment to showcasing the rich opportunities available in Africa and to cement and further grow its reseller and vendor partner base.

Mitsumi has Sales offices in Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Uganda, Rwanda, DRC, South Sudan, Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Benin, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Mozambique, Zambia, Namibia, Mauritius and Madagascar which

adds up to 15 Warehouses and 8 Service Centres, thereby, making it the only truly ‘Africa Centric IT Distributor’ guaranteeing maximum reach to all global IT vendors.

Jagat Shah, Chairman & CEO at Mitsumi IT Distribution said, “We realise that GITEX is an excellent platform to showcase Mitsumi’s Africa operations and consolidate partnerships. At GITEX 2012, our main message and thrust will be to increase partnerships thereby, propelling our PC and components portfolio forward”

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Combating the next-gen heist

Technology has changed all manner of scenarios – even the classic bank robbery. The days of rolling up at a city bank armed with a balaclava, a firearm and a getaway car in tow are largely gone. Nowadays, data is far more valuable than physical money and, if banks aren’t careful, far more accessible. First Energy Bank of Bahrain has tackled this issue by implementing a data loss prevention (DLP) solution.

Confidential data protection and overall information security has become a top priority for CIOs of public and private organisations around the world. None more so than banks, where not only is most of the data sensitive, but where the data itself is the most sensitive to the user.

First Energy Bank of Bahrain (FEB), which is licensed by the Central Bank of Bahrain, was incorporated in Bahrain in June 2008 as the first Islamic investment bank entirely focused on the global energy sector. It has a security department with two employees and an IT department with five employees. The whole bank employees 66 members of staff.

In 2009 it began to recognise the exponential growth of data volumes and the increasing diversity of IT

infrastructure. On top of that, the general workforce was getting more involved in using various web and mobile services – making information protection a great concern.

“Handling the volumes of data that come in and out of a bank is a very difficult task, especially when working in investment banking. We don’t deal directly with cash, but with data. We obviously handle a high volume of confidential data across a range of banking practices. Therefore it is important to have data classification,” says Ali Al Saegh, IT security manager at First Energy Bank of Bahrain.

More of a concern was the bank’s realisation that its security was not sufficient. “Before I joined in 2009 there was no security officer. When I arrived we agreed on a base line security and implemented three layers – firewalls, IPS and proxies. However, we then had an internal security breach. We only had antivirus – we didn’t have any control over things like device control and encryption,” Al Saegh explains.

This led to the bank getting encryption and DLP solutions from McAfee. However it encountered “a lot of challenges.”

“We came across some problems during the implementation process

and some applications didn’t work with this agent of McAfee. We reached a point where we had to change. It was not compatible technically and disturbed some of our applications. It was also not practical in terms of usage,” Al Saegh says.

FEB wanted a new solution that was industry-proven, and evaluated several vendors. It sought a solution that would sufficiently safeguard its confidential information, “zeroday” documentation and a variety of other sensitive data from leakage and improper distribution, while simplifying security management with minimal IT resources.

Also among its major requirements was the need for full support of Arabic languages, while complying with general and banking industry-specific info security standards and regulations.

In November 2011, after a successful demonstration from InfoWatch, FEB decided to deploy the InfoWatch Data Lost Precention & Protection Enterprise Banking suite, including the vendor’s Traffic Monitor Enterprise & CryptoStorage Enterprise software solutions.

FEB said it selected InfoWatch over the rest of the competition not only due to its functionality, reliable performance and compliance, but also because of its expertise in addressing the specific banking business needs and fast time-to-benefit.

InfoWatch DLP Banking Suite comprises a set of preloaded banking-specific data processing and decision making rules (including the Arabian Linguistic Analysis Engine) and policies. It automatically detects banking-sensitive data and renders a comprehensive verdict on its further handling according to banking security or compliance policies.

“Another InfoWatch advantage is the capability of archiving terabytes of analytical data, including those from corporate email streams for further retrospective analysis and forensic compliance,” Al Saegh says.

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The Suite secures confidential banking data by controlling its distribution and addresses critical security and compliance requirements. InfoWatch Traffic Monitor Enterprise delivers functionality of DLP both on gateway and endpoint levels.

CryptoStorage Enterprise enables transparent encryption of sensitive data on laptops, desktops, USB drives, optical media, local and network folders. It restricts access to encrypted data solely by the person who encrypted it.

Subsequently, an integrated InfoWatch Forensic Storage technology archives the data for further analysis and investigation, in compliance with banking security requirements.

“Our staff regularly communicates with thirds parties and we wanted to improve and enhance our ability to monitor or control this information exchange.  We also had a large number of requests from our staff to use USB devices, which previously needed to go through a lot of checks and signatures from our management,” Al Saegh says.

“InfoWatch has now provided the solution for device control monitoring, which enables our team to use such devices whilst also allowing us to maintain control and the ability to monitor. InfoWatch monitors everything from VOIP (such as Skype) and USB devices through to email accounts and photocopiers,” he adds.

The implementation took two weeks with no down time and Al Saegh says the bank’s employees didn’t even realise it was taking place.

He adds that the knowledge transfer was also easy, due to the basic knowledge FEB had accumulated from working with its previous DLP solutions.  “The only thing that changed was the actual replacement of the old solution with InfoWatch. I can’t say there were any problems. InfoWatch has a very smooth implementation process and a very well organised system. FEB IT staff were trained personally by InfoWatch with no third parties involved.”