Interviews

To provide reliable security solutions, Indusface regularly checks and manages vulnerabilities.

Indusface, an application security SaaS startup, protects 3000+ global customers’ important Web, mobile, and API applications. Web application scanner, web application firewall, DDoS & BOT Mitigation, CDN, and threat intelligence engine are all included in its fully managed platform. In an interview with CXOToday, Ashish Tandon, CEO and Co-Founder of Indusface, discusses current security trends, their security solutions, latest security technologies, critical event management, future road map, and more.

 

What are the key trends driving the growth in Big Data analytics/Cybersecurity/AI/?

With remote and hybrid working taking centre-stage, the cyber security threat potential has expanded significantly. One of the key trends of the day is to expand the attack surface, and focus on end-to-end monitoring and coverage instead of just the conventional practice of installing anti-virus solutions on computer systems or putting up network firewalls.

Another major trend is to consolidate end-to-end IT solutions — whether it is the digital tools required for operations or the cyber security products. Instead of opting for multiple vendors for different services, enterprises are now increasingly entrusting single vendor security support for every need. With convergence of cloud and on-premises infrastructure, there is a growing trend of seamless cybersecurity mesh wherein irrespective of the device or platform, a company’s digital infrastructure and networks remain under constant and consistent security net.

Also, the cybersecurity solutions of the future have now been integrated with AI and big data analytics. This is essential for threat assessment, identification and real-time response to security risks that might emanate from any of the multiple channels. AI and big data-driven cyber security solutions offer a much more flexible and robust coverage that is not only going to make an organization feel safer in the virtual arena, but also reduce the cost of damages caused by cyber-attacks in future.

 

How is Big Data/Cybersecurity/AI changing? What are some of the key technology transformations in this space?

There has been a major surge in digital transformation recently. Companies across sectors are switching to new digital tools and platforms that can keep them virtually connected with their audiences. In this journey towards digital transformation, businesses tend to consider security only as an afterthought. However, as security solutions providers, it is crucial to quickly and precisely identify vulnerabilities and threats. This kind of proactive security approach powered by big data analytics and AI has become a major trend. The capabilities offered by AI and analytics offer superior and more holistic cyber risk analysis as well as creation of prevention systems. There is a diversity of data flowing in from sources such as networks, computers, cloud platforms and IoT sensors that enables security analysts and system administrators to create a framework that can manage existing and emerging threats. It is absolutely clear now that all successful cyber security solutions are going to rely on integration of AI and big data analytics to counter future risks.

 

The advancement of Cybersecurity technology has influenced customers on their current and future needs. Explain the challenges faced by this Industry?

In the world of technology, change is the only constant. With the operational landscape being digitized, there is a great deal of dynamic alteration witnessed in the security environment, tools and threats, almost on a daily basis. In such a scenario, the challenge for the industry is to build the right software solutions and service combinations. The customer demand is ever changing and the solutions have to be efficient, effective and capable of providing quick protection. Usage of most advanced technologies such as big data analytics, and AI is necessary to achieve desired outcomes at all times.

 

How are disruptive technologies like IoT/Big Data analyics/AI/Machine Learning/Cloud Computing impacting today’s innovation?

Modern cybersecurity professionals have to comprehend huge volumes of security event data from diverse sources to predict, identify, and segregate security threats as well as to respond to them. It is essential to accurately identify and understand these datasets that help analysts understand cyber-attack patterns and create smart solutions capable of raising alerts against potential risks. This is where, big data analytics, AI, machine learning and cloud technologies are being integrated to create holistic cloud-based security solutions. These are automated and comprehensive tools that can detect patterns, correlations, activity trends and other crucial information. AI algorithms are deployed to understand the context and through machine learning, constant improvements are made. This kind of advanced solutions offer greater innovation and capabilities compared to conventional cyber security products.

 

What are some of the challenges faced by your company today?

We are an organization operating in the cybersecurity arena, and the key challenges faced by us are related to the constantly changing security landscape. There are new threats coming up almost every day, and we need to create agile, automated and intelligent products that act as security nets for the client applications and other digital assets. We have been using the most advanced tools such as AI, and big data analytics to monitor, and understand digital behaviours, identify patterns and predict risks to the client businesses. Accordingly, our intuitive solutions are capable of proactively responding to emerging threats and ensuring safe and smooth operations for the clients.

 

How can businesses efficiently extract the value from data, without increasing cost and complexity?

To begin with businesses should implement a data architecture that could be leveraged by the new age tools i.e. Big Data, AI/ML etc to get desired outcomes. Lack of proper planning and implementation could lead to a significant drain on its resources, time and money.  Once the architecture is in place it is equally important to be clear on the desired outcomes based on the use cases. For e.g. we at Indusface have bucketed our outcomes in two areas, 1. Immediate and Automating blocking of attacks based on patterns and anomalies and 2. Provide advance analytics to constantly improve our 24*7 monitoring.

 

What is your Leadership Mantra? 

My journey of entrepreneurial success across ventures has taught me that nothing can be overpowering if we have the will to do it. One has to be a team player, choose the right team, and research in detail on what needs to be done, who will do it, and how. At no point in time should one be overawed by the competitors’ offering or scale. These thoughts have held me in good stead throughout my journey.

 

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