Gaurav Mohan, the VP of Sales for SAARC and Middle East at NETSCOUT, says his company has been enhancing digital infrastructures by leveraging cyber intelligence
How was 2021 for the industry and your company?
Against the backdrop of immense disruption and the increasing prevalence of remote workers across the region, enterprises have dealt with a constantly evolving cyber threat landscape. As such, many organizations found themselves defending a more distributed and vulnerable environment, as hybrid work and online collaboration services create vulnerabilities that attackers are quick to exploit. In short, cybercriminals have become bold in their ability to hit users where it hurts.
Adversaries developed new DDoS attack techniques designed to evade traditional defenses. Using adaptive DDoS principles, threat actors can now customize each attack to bypass cloud-based and on-premises static DDoS defenses. These attacks can directly affect the organization’s ability to service customers, thus impacting revenue and profitability.
Enterprises have also seen a surge of cyberattacks including phishing, data breaches, and ransomware in the past few months. The consequences of these ranged from critical data loss to financial damage. Ransomware gangs also added triple extortion attacks to their service offerings. By combining file encryption, data theft, and DDoS attacks, threat actors have hit a ransomware trifecta designed to increase the possibility of payment.
At NETSCOUT, we’ve been enhancing our client’s digital infrastructures by leveraging our unique cyber intelligence, in-depth attack analytics, and effective incident response.
What promises does 2022 bring along?
Adversaries thrive on constant innovation. Armed with an ever-improving set of tools that have lowered the bar to entry for launching more complex and more disruptive attacks, cybercriminals have eagerly leveraged the weaknesses of organizations in the region. In 2022, we can logically expect to see threat actors target vulnerabilities exposed by the global crisis and discover and use new attack vectors that poke at the weak spots of our new normal.
After all, cybercrime is a multi-billion-dollar business. These adversaries are smart and motivated, and we can count on them to discover and weaponize new vectors or use innovative techniques on existing ones. Thus, we expect adaptive DDoS attacks, triple extortion, and DDoS extortion attacks to carry over into 2022.
Increased global complexity means there will always be challenges. Therefore, it is imperative that defenders and security professionals remain vigilant to protect the critical infrastructure that connects and enables the modern world.
Do you see opportunities in the regional markets with new markets opening up?
The Middle East is one of the fastest-growing commercial hubs, and many of our target markets are pioneering digital transformation in the region. Recently, this region has experienced a new wave of cyber-attacks, which are a considerable obstacle to overall growth and development. However, enterprises cannot protect what they can’t see.
Therefore, the need for comprehensive solutions that provide visibility into complex network infrastructures cannot be understated. Our solutions deliver real-time, pervasive visibility and insights that customers need to accelerate and secure their digital transformation. These capabilities are driving our growth and expansion in the region.
What will be your key focus areas for 2022?
We’ve noticed the need for robust security has significantly increased. In 2022, we’re committed to leveraging our threat intelligence tailoring our solutions to our clients, and acting as partners on their journey to comprehensive network security.
At NETSCOUT, we assure digital business services against availability, performance, and security disruptions. Our patented Smart Data technology and continuous monitoring were engineered to penetrate the countless layers of services, applications, and hybrid cloud servers that comprise today’s digital architectures.
Regional private and public sectors are engaging in rapid digital transformation. Their digital success requires seamless visibility and monitoring for performance and security across a complex set of platforms, locations, and providers. In 2022, we are committed to further enhancing the performance of our customer’s digital ecosystems.
