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Security in a cloud-first, mobile-first world

Lauren Kate Rawlins
By Lauren Kate Rawlins, ITWeb digital and innovation contributor.
Johannesburg, 18 May 2016
Microsoft is the biggest security company you have never heard of, says Cyril Voisin, MEA chief security officer.
Microsoft is the biggest security company you have never heard of, says Cyril Voisin, MEA chief security officer.

Today, mobility is the new norm and cloud is becoming the way business is done and IT is provided. However, the use of cloud and mobile technologies opens companies up to a massive number of security threats.

"The world we live in is a world where the users are mobile and not just the devices," said Cyril Voisin, MEA chief security officer for Microsoft, speaking at ITWeb Security Summit 2016 at Vodacom World in Midrand today. "So users need access to the cloud."

The three golden rules for protection when employing these necessary technologies, says Voisin, are updates, privileges and white-listing.

"If you don't do updates on your technology, people will attack you by exploiting vulnerabilities you didn't know you had," noted Voisin, adding this is very easy to do. New ware is safe ware, he commented.

"Do not give admins privileges they don't need and protect the few accounts that have these privileges."

Microsoft has a service that allows companies to secure privileged accounts.

"White-listing of applications is not mainstream yet. It is basically a list of what the system will allow on and not what is forbidden.

"If you have a list of sites forbidden, it will be constantly growing on a daily basis and you will never be able to keep up. However, a list of what is allowed is better, as you authorise what you want to accept, and reject everything else."

Microsoft is the biggest security company you have never heard of, because it builds security into its products, said Voisin, adding the company is working on various tools to incorporate these rules.

Voisin said machines in SA are infected by malware more often than the worldwide average.

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