Veniamin Levtsov, the VP of Corporate Sales and Business at Kaspersky speaks to Channel Post about their participation at GITEX this year
Are you participating at GITEX Technology Week this year?
Kaspersky Lab is participating at Gitex Technology Week. It is a great platform for engaging with our audience and meeting our current and prospective partners and customers. We plan to raise the most acute issues in cybersecurity and also to showcase our security portfolio that was strengthened in 2016 with a range of brand new solutions and services.
We will present solutions that help organizations of all sizes ensure their business processes run continuously, their data and money are safe: from award-winning Endpoint Security products to the new Kaspersky Industrial Cyber Security, Anti Targeted Attack, ATM Security and Security Intelligence Services. Small and medium sized companies will be able to learn how to arrange their IT security in an optimal way, so that it is highly-effective and easily manageable from the cloud with Kaspersky Endpoint Security – Cloud. Additionally, recently updated consumer solutions will also be presented.
What is your theme going to be for GITEX Technology Week?
As always, we are ready to discuss with the guests of our stand the changing IT threat landscape and security requirements. This year special focus will be made on smart cities security.
The concept of a smart city involves bringing together various modern technologies and solutions that can ensure comfortable and convenient provision of services to people, efficient consumption of resources, etc. But a smart city’s infrastructure develops faster than security tools do, leaving ample room for the activities of both curious researchers and cybercriminals. Kaspersky Lab has made a series of researches in this field and accumulated experience in this topic and is ready to discuss it, and the solutions that can help for various aspects of smart cities.
Kaspersky Lab is committed to making IT in the region safer. At GTW, we will also present our recently launched solutions and showcase our portfolio for of security solutions and services to help organizations of all sizes more effectively and securely leverage the benefits of technologies.
What technology/market trends have you seen this year on the Middle East market?
Ransomware has been very successful recently, becoming one of the main threats of the year. In the first quarter of 2016, Kaspersky Lab security solutions prevented 372,602 ransomware attacks on customers, 17 percent of which targeted the corporate sector. The number of attacks increased by 30 percent compared to Q4, 2015. Kaspersky Lab’s database now includes about 15 thousand ransomware modifications and the number continues to grow.
Financial threats are also on the rise and we register the number and complexity of such attacks growing. One more thing I’d like to mention is a wave of targeted attacks in the region. In June 2016, Kaspersky Lab discovered targeted attacks (dubbed ‘Operation Ghoul’) against the industrial and engineering sectors in multiple countries around the world. Using spear-phishing emails and malware based on commercial spyware kit, criminals hunt for valuable business related data stored in their victims’ networks. In total over 130 organizations from 30 countries, including United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and other countries were successfully attacked by this group.
We see rising interest of big enterprise customers to service approach in IT Sec. They expect that security integrator and vendor take leadership in solving of company’s security issues, not just limit their contribution by shipping of appliance, installation software or providing pen-test.
Another trend is growing demand on security awareness program as a part of corporate academy. I am pleased to stress that Kaspersky Lab has developed such a program and have already set up partnership with one of our key local partners Injazat.
Will you be launching any new products or solutions at GITEX this year?
At Gitex, we will present our recently launched solutions. We are happy to meet our current partners and to establish relations with new ones at GITEX. Along with presenting our portfolio we are ready to showcase our recently updated B2B eCommerce platform that fast tracks partners’ IT security revenue.
Will you be recruiting new channel partners? If yes, for which markets?
We are open to new partnerships and we have a number of pre-arranged meetings at GITEX. I would especially stress the importance of partners in VSB-SMB segment. With our new Kaspersky B2B eCommerce Platform we are looking for resellers who have access to very small and medium business customers. We propose them to extend their revenue by adding Kaspersky Lab Endpoint Solutions to their mainstream software or hardware offerings. With our new Kaspersky Endpoint Security Cloud we are also looking for Managed Service Providers: companies that remotely manage a customer’s IT infrastructure and/or end-user systems, typically on a proactive basis and under a subscription model.
How does GITEX Technology Week fit into your overall regional strategies?
We see Gitex Technology Week as an immense opportunity for us to discuss important security issues with relevant people as well as meet our current and potential partners and customers. We take our responsibility to equip enterprises and SMBs in the region with the latest technology and protection very seriously and we aim to utilize this platform to deliver this message to our audience.
