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Turning the network IT threat on its head

Sariya IT head urges partners to seize the opportunities created by heightened threats

The financial and reputational cost of data breaches is creating significant challenges for unprepared IT staff in many businesses. However, for innovative partners, these same challenge presents vast commercial opportunities. The risks facing IT organizations are considerable, Amjad Fathi Al-Omar, general manager at Sariya IT observes. One of the biggest network security threats today is ransomware, an increasingly dangerous menace where users are prevented from accessing their data on their computers or networks until a payment is made. DDoS attacks are also an evolving threat and are today characterized by massive volumetric DDoS attacks where multiple compromised systems, often infected with a Trojan, are used to target a single system. The ME region is also an attractive target for hacktivists, motivated to publicly damage their target’s reputation by overriding safety mechanisms or publishing confidential documents. Insider threats continue to grow, with 40-50% of recent data breaches due to the insider threats. Of these, more than two-thirds were people with malicious intent, Al-Omar observes.

MEA is an attractive target for hacktivists, says Al-Omar.

A recent phenomenon has been fake ads, associated with phishing attacks that have eroded trust in most net-based marketing collateral. Sariya IT, headquartered in Saudi Arabia, is a leading value-added distributor whose security portfolio include Kasper-sky Lab, Sophos and Cyberoam.

Partner opportunities “For the channel, the rise of cyberattacks and security threats is creating opportunities in providing security services and multi-layered security products such as NGFW and email security to their customers,” Al-Omar observes. Another emerging opportunity for the channel is digital transformation, “Most applications have moved to the cloud and this is creating significant opportunities for IT channels to help their customers in the migration process,” says Al-Omar.