Mr. Murtaza Bhatia, Director, Cyber Security Sales, NTT Ltd. in India talks about how NTT Ltd. in India has been deploying their cyber security services to meet India’s growing need of adopting holistic approaches to Cyber security.
Kindly brief us about your journey in this highly promising sector.
I have been with NTT India since 2005 and held various lead positions for managing
solution practices including security, network, collaboration and data center. I have over
30 years of experience in various domains of IT industry across India, APAC and MEA. My
specialization extends across Security, Data Center, Network and Performance design and consultancy across industries like Banking, FSI, SP, IT/ITes, Manufacturing, Retail and more.
What are the key trends driving growth in cyber security?
With digital infrastructure expanding across all industries and functions, the cyber security landscape is also changing rapidly. There are several new trends that have gained traction in the recent times. For instance, the diversity of devices and platforms being used in the remote working period have led to an expansion of the coverage area. You need to go beyond on-premises infrastructure and secure cloud assets, applications and devices etc. The greater usage of third-party software is also leading to greater vulnerabilities, and thus, security monitoring has to expand to supply chains and vendors as well as. To protect organizations from such vulnerabilities, it is essential to opt for end-to-end security mesh that covers every aspect of digital operations, and companies are increasingly preferring to choose one vendor for their holistic cyber security needs. This consolidation of security solutions from single vendor allows greater synchronization and monitoring as well as adherence to cyber security policies and needs of the organization.
How is cyber security changing? What are some of the key technology transformations in this space?
Cyber security has become an extensive arena now. Earlier, it would be only about security from threats to own infrastructure and websites and as long as one installed an anti-virus on the computers or put-up firewalls, there was reasonable confidence in the security mechanisms. That’s no longer the case. Today’s cyber security landscape involves on-premises and remote devices that employees use while working from home or on-the-go. There is also a need to secure third-party software and cyber security in 2022 has become an entire ecosystem coverage.
To counter these threats, organizations are moving towards agile technologies that are alert and prevent breaches from taking place proactively. The most effective and increasingly favoured tech approach is to go for security automation. By automating the monitoring, speed of response is enhanced and the outcome more favourable.
SOAR (security orchestration, automation, and response) is a group of technologies that is enabling organizations to remain secure in the rapidly changing landscape. SOAR combines automated processing of security information, orchestrates elements of a workflow such as data collection, adding context, approvals and other audit-based markers to determine the right response or action.
How is NTT Ltd. in India leveraging the latest security technologies for its customers?
We are focusing on eliminating the risks ushered in by the remote working and reliance on cloud-based, third-party applications. We are advising our clients to adopt a holistic approach instead of the old perimeter-based security processes that are no longer adequate.
We have introduced Zero-Trust Solutions which include secure application access, security of the main DNS, and solutions which allow ‘need to know access and monitoring.’ Such a system offers robust monitoring of privileged activities alongside creating, deploying and enforcing privileged account security policies. We also offer an Enterprise Application Access Service which is a unique cloud architecture that closes all inbound firewall portals and allows access to internal applications only as per need and to authorized users and devices.
NTT also offers DAM-as-a-Service which continually monitors all data access in real-time and protects against internal and external threats by identifying data risks. Our Enterprise Threat Protector (ETP) allows companies with an emerging security approach to swiftly implement strong and holistic security solutions that don’t cause network disruptions and need minimal management.
How is NTT Ltd. in India helping customers deliver relevant business outcomes through adoption of the company’s cyber security innovations?
We are enabling thousands of our clients through some of the most advanced solutions in the arena of cyber security through holistic approaches such as Zero-Trust security. Our solutions are capable of providing the end-to-end cyber security mesh that goes far beyond the conventional on-premises anti-virus software and firewalls. Thus, the clients are able to enjoy complete peace of mind and focus on generating greater outcomes. Further, we have also put in place a DR and Disaster management solution for our clients that assures them of having their data secure even if a cyber attack takes place. We are actively enhancing and pushing for automation of cyber security for highly agile and responsive outcomes.
What is NTT Ltd’s take on the need for infrastructure-led innovation in network security?
With the expansion of a company’s device network in the remote working era, infrastructure-driven innovation is essential for robust network security. Secure logins through a cloud-based Zero-Trust framework instead of a VPN is one of the best choices. Another alternative is to adopt virtual desktops which allow employees to access data and application on a need basis alongside reducing the risk of cyber security breaches. We strongly recommend automation of the monitoring and response mechanisms to provide real-time alerts and for the systems to identify and respond to threats instantly. This automated SOAR approach is going to be the key to future of cyber security.
What are some of the challenges faced by NTT ‘s Security services today?
One of the biggest challenges faced by any cyber security provider today, is the rapidly changing nature of the security landscape. New threats are emerging and cyber-criminals are regularly coming up with new malware and tricks to bypass the system security. Therefore, it is quite challenging to dynamically identify, monitor emerging and existing threats and to respond proactively to each threat to secure our clients’ business.
What is NTT’s cyber security business roadmap like for the future?
NTT is a leading name in the cyber security arena and our future vision is to create solutions that secure all the technologies and services that we offer to our clients. We have integrated capabilities that can take care of the entire IT and security landscape and ensure that all dimensions of an organization’s IT is aligned to business goals. We have built a Secure by Design framework which we will be deploying across the board in the times to come. We are also focusing on building architecture that simplifies things for our clients and enables creation of a security fabric that can manage information changes and automatically respond as per the need. We have created a combination of technology from diverse leaders in the market including niche security providers that offer specific issue resolution. The aim is to develop a holistic Made in India range of security products and services for our global clientele.
