Category: Channel News

Today, Cato Networks announces a strategic partnership with e& (etisalat and) during International Telecoms Week (ITW) in the United States, a significant move that will see the establishment of a new Point-of-Presence (PoP) within the global technology group’s SmartHub data center in Fujairah. As one of the United Arab Emirates’ premier carrier-neutral data facilities, e&’s SmartHub will be a pivotal platform for Cato’s’ enterprise customers, enabling them to tap into a world of enhanced interconnectivity and Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) technology.

This collaboration is set to unlock many global interconnection opportunities for Cato’s customers. Enterprise customers will benefit from SmartHub’s extensive ecosystem, which offers unparalleled access to interconnected communities and ensures a broad reach to international markets. The integration into e&’s SmartHub will allow Cato’s customers to enjoy the advantages of reduced latency and superior connectivity performance, optimising their global communications and data transfer efficiency.

By leveraging SmartHub data center’s state-of-the-art infrastructure and strategic location, Cato reaffirms its commitment to providing businesses with cutting-edge SASE solutions that empower their growth and global presence.

“Our partnership with e& provides organisations with unparalleled connectivity and a seamless network security stack, setting a new standard in flexibility and agility. Legacy network tools and hardware fall short of meeting the needs of modern enterprise clients, leaving them vulnerable to breaches. Organisations today require the efficiency and effectiveness of a cloud-native platform, delivering a comprehensive network and security infrastructure within minutes and hours. The Cato SASE Cloud Platform offers unmatched control and visibility, allowing a seamless connection from any edge to any service. This enables rapid time to value, increased operational resilience, and reduced risk and run costs,” comments Kanwar Loyal, VP for Northern Europe & MEA. “Cato is dedicated to supporting the Gulf region and recognises the significance of collaborating with global leaders such as e& to deliver secure digital services in an ever-expanding interconnected world.”

Nabil Bacoucche, Group Chief Carrier & Wholesale Officer, e&, said: “We are excited to share our partnership with Cato Networks, which reflects our dedication to building a connected world that nurtures growth for both businesses and individuals. Leveraging our extensive network of strategically located data centers, we provide access to a significant portion of the global population through top-notch infrastructure. We are enthusiastic about supporting Cato Networks with a competitive advantage by seamlessly linking them to international digital networks.”

The robust infrastructure of SmartHub, embedded in submarine landing stations and terrestrial borders, connects the Middle East, Asia, and Europe and serves as an ICT bridge between continents. Ensuring seamless connectivity and continuity across regions, SmartHub offers a community-based ecosystem encompassing reliable caching servers and edge nodes serving internet users, hyper-scalers, content delivery networks (CDNs), video streaming and gaming platforms, and financial services providers.

Data center security plays a pivotal role in storing and managing sensitive information critical to businesses and organisations. With the rise in cyber threats and physical security concerns, SmartHub data center ensures safety and integrity and has achieved Uptime Institute TIER III, ISO/IEC 22301, and ISO/IEC 27001 certifications, validating its high standard of service delivery and ability to safeguard customers’ valuable assets effectively. The new SmartHub facility in Abu Dhabi received an ESTIDAMA Pearl Rating of 4 and USGBC LEED Gold Certification for sustainable operations and adherence to strict environmental standards.

As part of its green initiatives, e& is in the process of deploying efficient and sustainable systems in SmartHub Data Centres to achieve zero carbon emissions by 2030.

The post Cato Networks Partners with e& Further Expanding Global SASE Platform with New UAE PoP first appeared on IT Security Guru.

The post Cato Networks Partners with e& Further Expanding Global SASE Platform with New UAE PoP appeared first on IT Security Guru.

Goldilock, the British cybersecurity startup behind a unique physical network isolation solution, has partnered with CR14, a cyber defence organisation established by the Estonian ministry of defence and host of NATO’s operative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence (CCDCOE), to conduct testing activities with the aim of increasing the resilience of critical national infrastructure (CNI). Testing will occur under the banner of NATO’s Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA), a programme designed to equip governments and businesses of member countries with the skills and knowledge to navigate the world of deep tech and dual-use innovation and to which Goldilock was the only cybersecurity firm selected to become a member.

The convergence of OT and IT in CNI networks makes them complex to defend, while they remain a prime target for state-sponsored cyber-attacks. The partnership between Goldilock and CR14 will demonstrate the benefit of being able to instantly disconnect and physically segment CNI networks such as those governing energy grids and gas and water utilities. Testing will be supported through NATO DIANA’s Test, Evaluation, Validation and Verification (TEVV) grant programme to tackle problems with CNI security architecture.

“Our testing partnership with CR14 will demonstrate exactly how CNI organisations can ensure assets remain secure and take back control,” said Tony Hasek, CEO and Co-Founder of Goldilock. “The global cyber threat landscape continues to grow, and as critical national infrastructure remains the focus of brazen cybercriminals – especially state-sponsored actors – no organisation operating in this sector is safe. It’s crucial, therefore, that organisations in NATO-member countries question whether their OT or IT systems and digital assets need to be constantly online. The new default should be disconnection, with connection and disconnection able to occur on-demand, which is precisely what Goldilock’s patented hardware solution delivers.”

The testing will take place in two phases, starting with a tabletop exercise that will bring together cybersecurity and CNI experts to determine It will also examine operational aspects such as personnel and skills requirements and optimal procedures for employment of Goldilock’s cybersecurity technology to ensure the strongest possible integrated cyber defence and safe operation of CNI systems. Building on these findings, the second phase will involve a ‘real-life’ scenario test. Using CR14’s power grid simulation, this stage will measure key performance parameters and assess the technology’s usability in a practical setting. CR14 and Goldilock will then present the results of the testing jointly in a simulation exercise at both the NATO DIANA Demo Day and also the Latitude59 Conference in May, where CR14 will bring their energy grid wall.

Peter Lenk, Technical Lead at Goldilock commented: “CR14’s wide range of cyber expertise, makes this partnership an incredibly effective one. Its ability to simulate sophisticated cyber-attacks and a physical emulation of a power grid will also demonstrate the true potential Goldilock’s kill-switch delivers in this sector. Recent attacks on UK critical national infrastructure, such as that on Southern Water earlier this year, have demonstrated the huge impact cyber incidents can have on society. Disconnecting CNI from the internet is key to keeping it safe and it allows industry managers to step outside of the cybersecurity arms race and hands them back control of system safety.”

“Goldilock’s hardware-based cyber solution is the perfect pairing to our cyber-physical approach to testing and then reinforcing the security of critical infrastructure,” said Silver Andre, CEO of CR14. “The results of this collaboration could be a game-changer across NATO member countries. Imagine power grids and water treatment plants impervious to cyberattacks – that’s the future we’re working towards here.”

The post Goldilock Partners with organisation behind NATO’s largest cyber defence exercise first appeared on IT Security Guru.

The post Goldilock Partners with organisation behind NATO’s largest cyber defence exercise appeared first on IT Security Guru.

Cato Networks, the leader in SASE, announced the addition of network incident detection and response tools to the Cato SASE Cloud platform. With Network Stories for Cato XDR, advanced AI algorithms instantly identify outages in customer networks and conduct root cause analysis. Network operations centre (NOC) and security operations centre (SOC) teams now have a common platform for improved collaboration and channel partners can quickly bring NOC-as-a-service (NOCaaS) offerings to market.

“With our converged security and networking platform, we leverage advances in one domain, in this case security, to help another domain – networking,” says Shlomo Kramer, CEO and co-founder of Cato Networks. “Our security-trained AI has now been expanded to help NOC teams become smarter, faster, and more proactive than ever. This is the value of a true SASE platform.”

Element Solutions, Inc. (ESI), a leading speciality chemicals company, relies on Cato SASE Cloud to connect and secure 118 locations and cloud instances, and nearly 4,000 remote users with Cato’s NGFW, threat prevention (NGAM, SWG, and IPS), and application protection (CASB).

“We’re very excited about what we’re seeing in Cato’s Network Stories. It’ll save us the time normally spent hunting around other tools and that’s a big deal,” says Brandon Benchley, senior network engineer at ESI. The company’s three-person network team is responsible for all site designs, deployments, switches, and upgrades. “We handle all the network operations, engineering, and planning for locations and Azure. It’s a lot. Cato Network Stories should solve a key pain point for us.”

Cato Network Stories: Slashing Downtime for Enterprises Everywhere

Network outages continue to disrupt enterprise operations. Network and connectivity related accounted for nearly a third of IT outages and 53% of major outages caused by third-party IT providers*. Even with Cato and its managed private backbone, network outages and slowdowns can occur in the last-mile or customer networks.

Diagnosing network incidents requires NOC teams to sift through and correlate a flood of network alerts. Too often, outages begin as unreported line degradations or occur after hours, extending their impact on the organisation.

With Network Stories for Cato XDR, AI algorithms trained for threat detection now collect and analyse network signals and incidents to identify the root cause behind blackouts, downed links, BGP session disconnects, SLA issues, and other network incidents. Cato AI triages those incidents by criticality, empowering network operations teams to focus critical resources on an organisation’s most important cases. 

Once NOC teams act, Cato provides them with a complete set of incident response tools. Generative AI summarises Network Stories into human-readable explanations. Cato Playbooks enable NOC teams to understand what happened and how to remediate those incidents.

When Cato Support adopted Networks Stories last-mile packet loss identification became nearly instantaneous, instead of customers taking several days to report an outage. The average root cause analysis time dropped by 30% to under 35 minutes.

Cato: The First SASE-based Platform for SOC and NOC Teams

Cato enables tighter SOC-NOC collaboration, improving efficiency and service quality. In Cato’s recent 2023 SASE Adoption Survey, 82% of respondents indicated that security and networking teams were consolidating or had a management directive to improve collaboration.

“In an environment where any part of the network might be a key component of the security infrastructure, and any anomalous event could require a comprehensive network AND security response, the convergence of the NOC and the SOC makes more sense than ever,” writes John Burke, CTO of Nemertes, an industry consultancy.

With Cato, the root-cause analysis conducted in one area benefits the other. Collaboration is improved by sharing a common toolset, speaking a common language, and having a common reference point. With Cato RBAC+ rules, fine-grained access controls enable IT to determine what information and capabilities team members can view and change.

The post Cato Unveils Industry First AI-driven Networking and Security Incident Detection and Response first appeared on IT Security Guru.

The post Cato Unveils Industry First AI-driven Networking and Security Incident Detection and Response appeared first on IT Security Guru.

Recent reports indicate that SME resellers specialising in security are optimistic about the future, expecting a better year ahead than the challenges they faced in the previous 12 months. 

With increasing cyber threats and the need for secure and reliable solutions, these resellers are poised to provide valuable services to businesses seeking to safeguard their networks and data.

Mark Appleton, Chief Customer Officer at ALSO Cloud UK, believes many businesses are putting a greater focus in security solutions to safeguard themselves from cyber threats and thus, increasing their profits.

“SMEs need to ensure that they are well-prepared to meet the increasing demand in the market; the priority should be focused on investing in the right security solutions that can protect their business from potential cyber threats. This can include implementing firewalls, antivirus software, and other security measures to safeguard their systems and data.

By investing in the right security solutions and delivering top-notch customer service, SMEs can differentiate themselves from their competitors and build a solid reputation in the market. This will help them retain and attract new customers, leading to increased revenue and business growth”. 

Appleton concluded that SMEs face complex security challenges requiring a nuanced approach to risk mitigation.

“SMEs should take a proactive approach towards security measures to safeguard their assets and stakeholders. The most common cyber-attacks that SMEs face include phishing attacks, ransomware, data breaches, and malware infections. 

These attacks can lead to financial losses, damage to reputation, and disruption of business operations. Therefore, SMEs must implement strong security measures and update themselves on the latest cybersecurity practices. The Channel can also be vital in protecting SMEs from security threats.” 

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