Your data has left the building: don’t let it take you on a bumpy ride

“Ladies and gentlemen: Michael Jackson has left the stadium.”

These were the dramatic words spoken just after Michael Jackson, one of the most famous performers and entertainers in history, flew off the stage at the end of his 1992-1993 ‘Dangerous’ tour. It was one of the smoothest and most awe-inspiring endings to a stadium performance the world had ever seen – and Jackson did it for concert after concert during that spectacular global tour.

However, as was later revealed, the truth is that Michael Jackson didn’t actually fly out of any stadiums via a jetpack – it was a professional stuntman in his place(1). So, it wasn’t really correct to think that the King of Pop had left the building. But it surely is correct, nearly 30 years later, to know that your data has certainly left the building – and if it takes you with it, it’s not going to be a smooth ride, but a bumpy one.

So says Richard Broeke, MD of specialist managed IT security services company, Securicom, which has been developing and offering an end-to-end range of managed IT security solutions for over 20 years. Securicom's holistic suite of solutions, offered globally in more than 15 countries, provide comprehensive protection and intelligent monitoring for IT infrastructure, from the core and beyond.

Securicom’s Managing Director Richard Broeke.

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Broeke says: “The network has changed, with cloud versus on-premises being important points under discussion today. Also, of course, we have seen the rise of remote working and bring-your-own-devices (BYOD), which have all contributed to the fact that businesses’ intellectual property is no longer contained within their physical premises.

“We therefore need to consider two questions: how do we secure your data at rest, when it is able to be contained within your network, or cloud services – and how do we keep your users and your intellectual property secure when your data is moving and has, quite literally, left the building? This calls for a new set of security services that can provide security to the data that is not under your direct control.

“Two trends that are moulding the cyber security strategies of businesses currently are the simultaneous rise of cloud as well as remote working. The end result is that more and more of your organisation’s business is happening outside the corporate infrastructure, meaning lost visibility and an increased risk of data loss.

“At the same time, the cyber threat landscape is also evolving at warp speed. Addressing these security risks requires new thinking around how best to leverage the number of technologies available to us. This switch needs to be focused around managing your security, rather than technologies, and this requires a full time, always-on monitoring and response approach.”

Broeke notes that, while most businesses would love to have a dedicated and in-house cyber operations centre, this is in most cases not feasible due to lack of skill, costs involved or simply the time it takes to get these off the ground. Securicom, over the last 21 years, has built exactly this competence, and through the delivery of managed security, is able to deliver a cost-effective premium cyber security offering for any size business, anywhere.

Clarifying this, he explains: “Our security services encompass mature consumption-based security services for the securing of e-mail, Web and the endpoint; network security services, through the use of both on-premises and cloud-based offerings from multiple international vendor technologies; and data privacy via SIEM-only customer managed security, which provides automated monitoring of events and alerting based on requirements, as well as SOC services, whereby analysts interpret the traffic and alert customers as required, providing remediation advice and assistance. Through subscription to a combination of these, Securicom is able to deliver on the managed security promise.”

“We have been proud to partner with Securicom for over 15 years,” says Stefan van de Giessen: General Manager: Cybersecurity at Networks Unlimited Africa, “and recognise its excellent contribution to furthering cyber security managed services in South Africa. This partnership is important to us as it provides a fantastic example of enabling end-customers to manage their cyber security needs, while freeing them up to get on with the true business of their business.”

“Securicom has continuously evolved with the times and we believe that today’s cyber landscape means it is critical for organisations to make use of a service, rather than simply replacing technology at regular intervals,” adds Broeke.

“An enterprise requires a cyber security team that understands the threat landscape with security knowledge as well as technology knowledge. This, we believe, has become a key component in terms of putting you ahead of the pack. When your data today is leaving the building, you need to manage and control it and keep it secure, rather than allowing it to drag you along on a bumpy ride that could end in a crash scenario,” he concludes.

(1) https://www.glasgowlive.co.uk/news/history/michael-jackson-glasgow-council-ban-15866411