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Shortage of IT security specialists? Outsourcing security services may be an option
Research shows that the East Africa is facing a critical shortage of IT specialists. Another standout issue relates to the low proportion of security experts among IT specialists. Kenya is reported to have only 1700 certified cyber security professionals showing a huge skills gap for large businesses requiring these skills. This industry-wide issue can be confirmed by ESET, challenges shared by companies we have business relationships with and as a conclusion of our ongoing market research.
“Finding good IT specialists is difficult enough but finding good security experts is almost like a Sci-Fi Fantasy,” explains Michal Jankech, Chief Product Manager, ESET. Security experts must have very comprehensive knowledge, however, there are too few of them and their numbers may actually decrease further due to a lack of understanding about their importance to core IT practice.
The “neurosurgeons” of IT specialists
Let’s make a comparison to healthcare specialists. Assume an IT specialist is the equivalent of a general practitioner (GP), then a cybersecurity expert represents a neurosurgeon. IT specialists primarily support an organization’s business, but also help protect corporate networks by setting up hardware and checking basic security settings, functions, and automatic alerts. However, there are many situations where a technical or business need arises that may have a security impact that must be assessed by a security expert. These can include: advanced security settings, enabling remote access and management of IT systems, use of collaborative tools, cloud accessibility, use of encryption and or two factor authentication, as well as managing and securing collected data. To address these and other areas, experts need specialized knowledge and tailor fit tools that assist them tin securing the network, and both searching for and detecting suspicious activities and behaviors.
“It is similar to a GP referring a patient to a neurologist, then on to a neurosurgeon, who then examines a CT scan of the brain and decides whether a suspicious object is a blood vessel or may be something worse. Subsequent analyses determine further diagnostic methods to determine whether the object in question is a blood vessel or a tumor,” Jankech says, describing the work of a security expert
Security services outsourcing—a way forward
According to Jankech, one reason for the lack of such a skill set on the labor market may be the fact that globally, education systems have failed to adapt to the wide gap between supply and demand of such specialized skills. In the past, many countries provided top-level education in various engineering disciplines, but now the market needs top-level IT and more specifically IT security education. But there are simply too few schools and not enough training institutions focusing on the education of security experts.
ESET’s response to the situation has been to invest in an extended offer of security products and services for businesses and organizations. These include ESET Security Management Centre and ESET Dynamic Threat Defense.
ESET Security Management Center provides real-time visibility for on-premise and off-premise endpoints as well as full reporting for ESET enterprise-grade solutions from a single pane of glass securely deployed on premise or in cloud.
ESET Dynamic Threat Defense provides another layer of security for ESET products like Mail Security and Endpoint products by utilizing a cloud-based sandboxing technology to detect new, never before seen type of threats.
Security services for specific corporate needs
At ESET, we know that every company and organization is unique. Therefore, our service offers are configured on needs-based analysis and provide recommendations on what is appropriate for the business in terms of its physical capabilities, network topology, etc. This enables us to cover all the needs of large companies across a wide range of industries.
Ransomware Protection Crucial to Enterprise
Ransomware is by far the biggest threat among Enterprises. So what is Ransomware? It is a malicious code that blocks or encrypts the contents of a device and demands a ransom to restore access to the data.
According to research done by ESET, Companies named ransomware their number one concern.
In response to customer needs and concerns, ESET integrated Ransomware Shield into its security solutions. ESET has long been providing its customers with very good behavior-based malware detection and also with Host-based Intrusion Prevention System (HIPS) that allows users to set custom rules for the protection against ransomware. However, should something slip past the 11 other security layers, Ransomware Shield will be automatically activated.
While ransomware infection often starts with clicking a suspicious link or a fictitious invoice, ESET found that email remains the most common distribution method.
To combat these scenarios, enter ESET Dynamic Threat Defense (EDTD). EDTD provides another layer of security for ESET products like Mail Security and Endpoint products. It utilizes a cloud-based sandboxing technology and multiple machine learning models to detect new, never before seen type of threats. In result, attachments that were classified as malicious are stripped off the email and the recipient gets information about the detection.
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