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Why Security Vulnerability Assessments Are Necessary?

Security vulnerability assessment
Cybercrimes have increasingly become a matter of concern for companies worldwide. Over the past few years, the rise of big-ticket ransomware attacks and exposure of perilous software supply chain infections has awakened organizations to various digital dangers.

So, the big question is, how to combat the security threats that are on meteoric growth?

The best solution is to adopt a security vulnerability assessment.

What is Security Vulnerability Assessment?


A vulnerability assessment involves a systematic review of security hazards, which helps identify IT infrastructure’s weaknesses, risks, and vulnerabilities.

When it comes to mitigating vulnerabilities and resolving issues, the collective imperative is to analyze the problem areas before getting them fixed.

A security assessment is critically important to combat the complexities and with an effective vulnerability assessment program, organizations use the tools required to comprehend the probable security weaknesses and enable the protection of systems and data from intruders and unauthorized breaches.

For most organizations, ensuring the safety of devices, networks, applications, and digital assets are part of a broader vulnerability management strategy. It includes an extensive assessment, in-depth processes, and mitigation methods to explore the entire threat spectrum.

Typically, it is conducted regularly. Vulnerability assessment offers a firm assurance in the security of data, especially when some alterations have been implemented or a new service has been added, or, for that matter, and installation of new equipment has taken place.

Each assessment provides a perspective about the risk in its periphery and suggests solutions to control the risk factors and the evolving threats.

Why Security Vulnerability Assessment Is Necessary? 


The perpetual threat of cybercrime has necessitated the demand for vulnerability assessments significantly. They make organizations realize their security defects and contribute towards mitigating them.

Hackers are forever ready to make phishing attacks. As per reports, hackers are at work every 39 seconds. Thus, it is extremely important to be vigilant or complacent to activate hackers’ and cybercriminals’ machinations. Over the period, cybercrimes are fluctuating and thus need ongoing attention.

The ideal solution is to undertake consistent vulnerability assessments to safeguard confidential data, systems, and networks. Furthermore, it helps organizations understand the risk and enables smart decision-making.

To ensure security, companies ought to conduct both external and internal scans of their networks.

According to Gartner (paywall), “Large organizations with thousands of employees, tens of thousands of servers and many operating systems receive hundreds of requests per year to patch thousands of vulnerabilities that cannot be remediated in less than 15 days.”

One of the best reasons security vulnerability assessments are important is because it confirms an enterprise’s management processes and whether it has covered every critical patch through outlined existing remediation.

Why Do Companies Need Vulnerability Assessment?


A vulnerability assessment provides companies insightful details on all types of security discrepancies in their environment.

It paves ways to evaluate the risks associated with the flaws.

This helps organizations have a better knowledge of their security scare, overall weaknesses, and assets.

Moreover, the first thing that strikes us on hearing about a cyber-attack is the security of data. With the right and adequate implementation of security assessments, the safety and security of important data could be easily protected. A security assessment would be helpful to reduce irrelevant expenses and make space and increase the IT budget to invest in other key aspects.
Undoubtedly, data breach causes substantial loss to an organization, which leads to legal hassles and financial hazards. In fact, most of the time companies fail to recover the loss.

Thus, it doesn’t harm to place solid policies and methods to strengthen the entire security position of the organization and this can only be possible with a strategic security vulnerability assessment.

In a nutshell, this would keep the companies aware and, in all likelihood, keep the cyber-criminals at bay.

A CASE STUDY ANALYSIS


To cite an example, let’s take how Zensar conducted a three-pronged vulnerability assessment with port scan and penetration scanning. It determined the security of its offerings to meet customer requests for Brainshark, a leading provider of on-demand presentation solutions, helping customers deliver business interaction across 600+ ranking companies in the market.

While Brainshark knew their systems were secure and could also establish it through their documentation, they still undertook a third-party security vulnerability assessment.

Zensar’s vulnerability assessment procedures were based on the industry’s best practices that included tests for SQL injection, cookie manipulation, access control weakness, session state, and cross-site scripting.

The focus of the test was to identify the host and application security concerns. Upon completing the tests and assessments, Brainshark expressed satisfaction and was confident enough in their ability and solution. They knew their security posture was highly protected and secure.

Types of Vulnerability Assessments:


Vulnerability assessments unearth a variety of system and network vulnerabilities. This  indicates the reliability of the assessment process, which is implemented with different tools, scanners, and methods that helps discover the vulnerabilities, risks, and threats.

Network-based assessment scanning: It is used to determine the presumptive network security attacks. This kind of scanning can also detect the vulnerable systems on wired as well as wireless networks.

Host-based scans: It is easy to locate the vulnerabilities in servers or other network hosts with host-based scanning. This type of scanning provides visibility into the configuration settings and legacy systems.

Database scans: Database scans ascertain the weak points in a database to preclude malefic attacks.

Application Scans: It examines websites to identify and recognize software vulnerabilities and inaccurate configurations in network or web applications.

Summing Up


Organizations need to be watchful every minute and ensure the security posture is  rigorous, which is only possible with security vulnerability assessments. Based on this criterion, understanding company risks gets simplified in turn preventing intrusions and threats.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS


What Are the Advantages of Security Vulnerability Assessment?

There are several advantages attached to security vulnerability assessments. To put it precisely, it can help identify the vulnerabilities before cybercriminals do and determine the level of risk.

Undoubtedly, opting for vulnerability assessment would save a lot of time and money and mitigate the risk and prevent the irrelevant expenditure that follows after the cyber-attacks.

What Are the Disadvantages of Security Vulnerability Assessment?

While vulnerability assessments are highly advisable, it has its share of drawbacks which cannot be ignored. One of the primary limitations of vulnerability assessment is that it does not hint at every vulnerability that exists. Moreover, it sometimes signals false positives too.

Spotlight

SoftChef Inc.

SoftChef founded in Q1,2017 in Singapore and then build its R&D team based in Taiwan. It is a B-to-B software company focused on IoT total solution and also the creator of sensor.live. SoftChef holds its unique company culture of "Born-in-cloud", "Raised-on-the-ground" to support diversified industries who seeking for the IoT business transformation.

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Traffic classification ensures Quality of Service (QoS), planning ahead for capacity, security, performance analysis, etc. It helps with proper resource utilization by pinpointing unnecessary traffic in a critical application. Factors like cost-effectiveness, link utilization, operational capabilities, and policies are also considered by the ML model. Congestion Control ML models control the number of packets that enter a network to ensure that the network is stable, fairly utilize resources, and follow queue management employed for congestion control. Efficiently Managing Resources ML efficiently manages network resources like the CPU, frequency, switches, memory, routers, etc., by using analytical decision-making. ML Learning Curve ML models learn in the following ways: Pitfalls Like any other technology, machine learning application in networking comes with pitfalls and limitations. 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High FPR (False Positive Rates) Anomaly detection by ML in networking has not created enough buzz in the industry because it generates high FPRs during operations. Also, no detailed anomaly report is generated, so no anomaly history log can be maintained. Striking a Balance ML requires time to learn and mitigate issues. It is difficult to identify, in advance, how complex the ML’s approach will be. Striking a balance between the performance and computational cost is difficult. Deciphering comprehensive evaluation metrics is also a tedious task. No Theoretical Model There is no theoretical model, in turn, a unified theory, for ML in networking, so each network may have to be learned separately. The current machine learning applications in networking are made keeping in mind certain applications. Over time, more research to tailor ML for certain networks needs to be done. Cross-domain experts who understand both ML and networking are also rare. Solutions Software Defined Networking (SDN) CISCO helped PwC Italy set up a secure network at their new twenty-eight-floor tower with the help of their SD-Access product. PwC wanted a secure, robust network with increased Wi-Fi and wired connectivity for their 3000 employees by streamlining network operations. “We needed a robust and highly reliable wireless network infrastructure that’s as advanced as the tower itself.” -Simone Demaria,Network Architect and Infrastructure Manager at PwC Italy By applying Software Defined Network (SDN), IT personnel can remotely govern network policies in real-time through open interfaces, so traffic engineering is easily possible. SDN also contributes to network virtualization. SDN supports the upcoming 5G ecosystem. When combined with NFV and VNF, SDN can revolutionize networking. Going Beyond Traffic Volume & Prediction To tackle the limitations that TSF-based traffic prediction models have, leveraging features beyond traffic prediction and concentrating on traffic interpolation and sampling could be viable. Research is ongoing on this possibility. Summing It Up As the influx of data keeps on increasing, the complexity of networks will increase in tandem. For successfully implementing ML for streamlining networking, the ML approaches we are aware of today need to be upgraded to accommodate multi-layer networks and multi-tenancy so autonomic networking can be a reality. FAQs How Can ML Help in Making Networking Smarter? ML can streamline the network by automation, threat detection, and improving its performance. How Complex Is Integrating ML into Networking? The complexity depends on the type of network you are integrating it into. What to Keep in Mind Before Using Ml in Networking? Consider investment costs, data availability, feasibility, and scalability. { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "FAQPage", "mainEntity": [{ "@type": "Question", "name": "How Can ML Help in Making Networking Smarter?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "ML can streamline the network by automation, threat detection, and improving its performance." } },{ "@type": "Question", "name": "How Complex Is Integrating ML into Networking?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "The complexity depends on the type of network you are integrating it into." } },{ "@type": "Question", "name": "What to Keep in Mind Before Using Ml in Networking?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Consider investment costs, data availability, feasibility, and scalability." } }] }

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Impact of Widespread Implementation of 5G on Cloud Computing

Article | November 25, 2021

Introduction 5G is predicted to have a significant impact on how cloud computing operates in the future. It will undoubtedly revolutionize the communication and networking industry. In addition, it will have a significant impact on all other industries. Transmission speeds will be 10 times faster in 5G than in 4G. Apart from networking and communication industries, it will also revolutionize other healthcare, automotive, and many more. Commercial 5G smartphones are already in the market. A study report by Ericsson Mobility predicts that there will be one billion 5G subscriptions by 2023. It will account for about 20% of the mobile data traffic. 5G, with its features such as low latency performance and high speed, has all the capabilities of developing cloud computing and take to the next level. As a result, there will be an unpredictable positive impact of 5G on cloud computing, especially in the industries and sectors that use the latest technologies such as the Internet of Things, machine learning, and AI. It has already started redefining business networks. It is also expected to make tremendous, unpredictable progress and changes in how cloud computing and networks perform in storing, moving, and accessing data. It will be possible as 5G brings more technological applications to make digital transformations faster and more efficient for businesses. 5G Network- Advantages As said in the introduction, there are many advantages to 5G network. Some of them can be: Greater transmission speed Lower latency Higher capacity Compared to 4G, 5G has increased bandwidth. These features will change the way people work, live, and play in the future once the 5G network comes into play widely. How Will 5G Impact Cloud Computing? Undoubtedly 5G has the potential to redefine the future of cloud computing. It will transform edge computing. Let us look in detail at what impact 5G will bring in cloud computing. Mobile Cloud Applications to Become More Efficient and Widely Used Undoubtedly 5G has the potential to redefine the future of cloud computing. It will transform edge computing. Let us look in detail at what impact 5G will bring in cloud computing. Mobile Cloud Applications to Become More Efficient and Widely Used Organizations today widely use cloud-enabled applications for customer services as well as for their different operations. Once the widespread use of the 5G network starts, the mobile application will become more efficient and widely used. It will be reflected more in the industries such as healthcare and banking. Enabling Cloud Service Providers to Reach Customers Reliably and Easily 5G will make a machine to machine communication and larger computing possible. This will make accessing virtual machines via phones a common practice. Mobile users will get more features and options from cloud computing enterprises. Remote workers will access cloud services as hotspots will become faster and uninterrupted. Complete Transformation of Edge Computing The emergence of edge computing has solved the issues of unnecessary traffic on the cloud and latency. The need for edge computing became strong when internet penetration and IoT came into existence. Now, G5 will make edge computing grow, making it an essential thing. G5 will transform edge computing entirely and increase the demand for it. As a result, edge and 5G are becoming mutually reinforcing phenomena. 5G will work on edge computing to provide quick real-time data. This is because edge computing has the potential to provide low latency and higher bandwidth. Faster Streaming 5G network will surprise companies and entities with its fast data transfer capabilities. It will be ten times faster than the 4G network. It will facilitate storage and faster real-time streaming and thus productivity at its best. “If everything you touch has to go to a data center and back before you see the animation, you're going to notice. Working at the 5G Lab in a mobile edge cloud, all of a sudden, what we thought would be impossible can happen because the 5G network is so fast.” - Ian McLoughlin, LiquidSky Software founder, and CEO Work from any Location As 5G is ten times faster than 4G in transferring data due to its better connectivity, employees can work from any location. It will make remote work possible anywhere. Better Security Systems As technology is ever-evolving, hackers and online frauds come with advanced techniques to steal data. They hold the sensitive information of organizations and do unimaginable damage. Once 5G is rolled out widely, administrators will recognize such frauds in advance and prepare to mitigate such cyber-attacks. Summing up Cloud computing is undoubtedly going to have an impact on cloud computing. The connectivity of 5G is ten times faster than 4G. IT will help people connect to their workplaces from any location. Remote work will make it easier. Cloud mobile applications will become more efficient and reliable. The service providers will have a good relationship with customers as they will be providing prompt and reliable service in terms of connectivity. Joining together with other technologies such as edge computing, AI, ML, technology is expected to get into another level with the wide roll-out of 5G. Frequently Asked Questions How will 5G affect cloud computing? Cloud computing will have a complete transformation and improvement when 5G is rolled out widely. The 5G connectivity has the features such as cloud virtualization, Ultra-reliable low-latency communication, better latency, increased bandwidth, and more flexible cloud-based management. How is 5G going to impact lives? 5G is capable of controlling services remotely. In addition, 5G will enhance autonomous driving, personal communication, IoT, AI, and augmented reality. It will also change the way companies store, access, share and protect data. { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "FAQPage", "mainEntity": [{ "@type": "Question", "name": "How will 5G affect cloud computing?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Cloud computing will have a complete transformation and improvement when 5G is rolled out widely. The 5G connectivity has the features such as cloud virtualization, Ultra-reliable low-latency communication, better latency, increased bandwidth, and more flexible cloud-based management." } },{ "@type": "Question", "name": "How is 5G going to impact lives?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "5G is capable of controlling services remotely. In addition, 5G will enhance autonomous driving, personal communication, IoT, AI, and augmented reality. It will also change the way companies store, access, share and protect data." } }] }

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SoftChef Inc.

SoftChef founded in Q1,2017 in Singapore and then build its R&D team based in Taiwan. It is a B-to-B software company focused on IoT total solution and also the creator of sensor.live. SoftChef holds its unique company culture of "Born-in-cloud", "Raised-on-the-ground" to support diversified industries who seeking for the IoT business transformation.

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Ampliphae, HPE Athonet and Arqit deliver Quantum-Safe Private 5G using Symmetric Key Agreement

PR Newswire | January 19, 2024

Arqit Quantum Inc, a leader in quantum-safe encryption, and Ampliphae Ltd (Ampliphae), a leader in network cyber security solutions, have today announced successful completion of a project that will deliver enhanced quantum-safe security for Private 5G networks. The Security Enhanced Virtualised Networking for 5G (SEViN-5G) project, funded by Innovate UK, the UK Government’s innovation agency, leveraged Ampliphae’s network security analytics technology and Arqit’s Symmetric Key Agreement Platform to deliver a quantum-secure Private 5G testbed that can protect against both current and future cyber threats. Athonet, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise acquisition, provided the Radio Access Network (RAN) equipment for the project with a cloud core hosted on AWS. Private enterprise networks based on 5G cellular technology are accelerating digital transformation across industries including manufacturing, healthcare, defence and smart cities. Private 5G gives enterprises access to high-speed, massively scalable, and ultra-reliable wireless connectivity, allowing them to implement innovative IoT and mobile solutions that enhance productivity, drive automation and improve customer engagement. The security of these networks will be paramount as they will support safety-critical infrastructure and carry highly sensitive data. But like any new technology, 5G comes with potential new threats and security risks including the threat from quantum computing. The project finished in December 2023 and customer engagement has already begun. David Williams, Arqit Founder, Chairman and CEO said: “Enterprises want to deploy Private 5G networks with complete confidence that they will be safe from both current and future cyber threats including from quantum computers. Working alongside Ampliphae, we have shown that a quantum-safe Private 5G network is deliverable using Arqit’s unique encryption technology.” Trevor Graham, Ampliphae CEO said: “Private 5G can be hosted partly or completely in the Cloud, giving enterprises the opportunity to rapidly set up their own cellular networks customised to support their operations. With Ampliphae and Arqit they can now be certain that those Private 5G networks are monitored and secure against eavesdropping and disruption.” Nanda Menon, Senior Advisor Hewlett Packard Enterprise said: “In an era where security is paramount, the completion of the SEViN-5G project is a significant milestone. The delivery of a quantum-secure Private 5G testbed, achieved where Athonet have combined the Athonet core with CableFree radios, underscores the commitment to innovation and reinforces the confidence enterprises can have in deploying networks that are both cutting-edge and secure from both present and future threats.” About Arqit Arqit Quantum Inc. (Nasdaq: ARQQ, ARQQW) (Arqit) supplies a unique encryption Platform as a Service which makes the communications links of any networked device, cloud machine or data at rest secure against both current and future forms of attack on encryption – even from a quantum computer. Compliant with NSA standards, Arqit’s Symmetric Key Agreement Platform delivers a lightweight software agent that allows devices to create encryption keys locally in partnership with any number of other devices. The keys are computationally secure and operate over zero trust networks. It can create limitless volumes of keys with any group size and refresh rate and can regulate the secure entrance and exit of a device in a group. The agent is lightweight and will thus run on the smallest of end point devices. The Product sits within a growing portfolio of granted patents. It also works in a standards compliant manner which does not oblige customers to make a disruptive rip and replace of their technology. Recognised for groundbreaking innovation at the Institution of Engineering and Technology awards in 2023, Arqit has also won the Innovation in Cyber Award at the National Cyber Awards and Cyber Security Software Company of the Year Award at the Cyber Security Awards. Arqit is ISO 27001 Standard certified. www.arqit.uk About Ampliphae Ampliphae’s distributed network analytics technology provides insight into how networks are used to support enterprise operations at every level. A graduate of the prestigious LORCA cyber accelerator in London, and the AWS European Defence Accelerator, Ampliphae’s technology is already used by enterprises across multiple verticals to discover, analyse and secure the network traffic that supports their key applications and business processes. Ampliphae’s Encryption Intelligence product operates at enterprise scale to discover devices and applications that use cryptography, analysing their encryption capabilities to detect risks, including assets that are vulnerable to future quantum computer attack. Using Encryption Intelligence, the organisation can gather effective operational intelligence about their encryption landscape, both within and outside the organisation, and build an effective mitigation program to address current and future vulnerabilities.

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Network Security

Cato Networks Introduces World's First SASE-based XDR

PR Newswire | January 25, 2024

Cato Networks, the leader in SASE, announced the expansion of the Cato SASE Cloud platform into threat detection and incident response with Cato XDR, the world's first SASE-based, extended detection and response (XDR) solution. Available immediately, Cato XDR utilizes the functional and operational capabilities of the Cato SASE Cloud to overcome the protracted deployment times, limited data quality, and inadequate investigation and response experience too often associated with legacy XDR solutions. Cato also introduced Cato EPP, the first SASE-managed endpoint protection platform (EPP/EDR). Together, Cato XDR and Cato EPP mark the first expansion beyond the original SASE scope pioneered by Cato in 2016 and defined by industry analysts in 2019. SASE's security capabilities encompassed threat prevention and data protection in a common, easy-to-manage, and easy-to-adopt global platform. With today's announcement, Cato is expanding SASE into threat detection, incident response, and endpoint protection without compromising on the architectural elegance captured by the original SASE definition. "Cato SASE continues to be the antidote to security complexity," says Shlomo Kramer, CEO and co-founder of Cato Networks. "Today, we extend our one-of-a-kind SASE platform beyond threat prevention and into threat detection and response. Only Cato and our simple, automated, and elegant platform can streamline security this way." An early adopter of Cato XDR is Redner's Markets, an employee-owned supermarket chain headquartered in Reading, Pennsylvania, with 75 locations. Redner's Markets' vice president of IT and Infrastructure, Nick Hidalgo, said, "The Cato platform gave us better visibility, saved time on incident response, resolved application issues, and improved network performance ten-fold." (Read more about Redner's Markets and Cato in this blog. "The convergence of XDR and EPP into SASE is not just another product; it's a game-changer for the industry," said Art Nichols, CTO of Windstream Enterprise, a Cato partner. "The innovative integration of these capabilities brings together advanced threat detection, response capabilities, and endpoint security within a unified, cloud-native architecture—revolutionizing the way enterprises protect their networks and data against increasingly sophisticated cyber threats." (Read more about what Cato partners are saying about today's news in this blog.) Platform vs. Product: The Difference Matters Cato XDR takes full advantage of the enormous benefits of the Cato SASE Cloud platform, the first platform built from the ground up to enable enterprises to connect, secure, and manage sites, users, and cloud resources anywhere in the world. Unlike disjointed point solutions and security appliances, Cato capabilities are instantly on, always available at scale, and fully converged, giving IT teams a single, shared context worldwide to understand their networks, prevent threats, and resolve problems. As an autonomous platform, Cato SASE Cloud sustains its evolution, resiliency, optimal performance, and security posture, saving enterprises the operational overhead of maintaining enterprise infrastructure. Enterprises simply subscribe to Cato to meet their business needs. Cato's cloud-native model revolutionized security and networking operations when it was introduced in 2016, a fact validated three years later in 2019 when the Cato approach was formally recognized by the industry as SASE. Breach Times Still Too Long; Limitations of Legacy XDR Cato is again revolutionizing cybersecurity with the first SASE platform to expand into threat detection, empowering security teams to become smarter and remediate incidents faster. The flood of security alerts triggered by network sensors, such as firewalls and IPS, complicates threat identification. In 2023, enterprises required 204 days on average to identify breaches.1 XDR tools help security analysts close this gap by ingesting, correlating, and contextualizing threat intelligence information with the data from native and third-party sensors. However, legacy XDR tools suffer from numerous problems relating to data quality. Sensor deployment extends the time-to-value as IT must not only install the sensors but also develop a baseline of specific organizational activity for accurate assessments. Data quality is also compromised when importing and normalizing third-party sensor data, complicating threat identification and incident response. Security analysts waste time sorting through incident stories to identify the ones most critical for immediate remediation. Once determined, incident remediation is often hampered by missing information, requiring analysts to master and switch between disparate tools. No wonder in 2023, average breach containment required more than two months.1 Cato XDR and Cato EPP Expands the Meaning of SASE Cato XDR addresses legacy XDR's limitations. Instantly activated globally, Cato XDR provides enterprises with immediate insights into threats on their networks. Incident detection is accurate due to Cato's many native sensors – NGFW, advanced threat prevention (IPS, NGAM, and DNS Security), SWG, CASB, DLP, ZTNA, RBI, and now EPP/EDR. Powered by Bitdefender's world-leading malware prevention technology, Cato EPP protects endpoints from attack – in the Cato way. Endpoint threat and user data are stored in the same converged Cato data lake as the rest of the customer's network data, simplifying cross-domain event correlation. The result is incredibly high-quality data that improves the incident identification and remediation process. Cato AI uses the data to accurately identify and rank incidents, empowering analysts to focus critical resources on an organization's most important remediation cases. Cato AI is battle-tested and proven across years of threat hunting and remediation handling by Cato MDR service agents. Remediation times reduce as detected incident stories contain the relevant information for in-depth investigation. Cato's tools sit in the same console as the native engines, enabling security analysts to view everything in one place -- the current security policy and the reviewed story. Finally, incident reporting is simplified with generative AI. Purpose-built for investigations, this natural language engine provides human-readable explanations of incident stories. Analysts save time sharing incident information with other teams and reporting to their managers.

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Network Infrastructure

DISH Wireless Awarded $50 Million NTIA Grant for 5G Open RAN Integration and Deployment Center

PR Newswire | January 16, 2024

DISH Wireless, a subsidiary of EchoStar, was awarded a historic $50 million grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to establish the Open RAN Center for Integration & Deployment (ORCID). ORCID will allow participants to test and validate their hardware and software solutions (RU, DU and CU) against a complete commercial-grade Open RAN network deployed by DISH. "The Open RAN Center for Integration and Deployment (ORCID) will serve a critical role in strengthening the global Open RAN ecosystem and building the next generation of wireless networks," said Charlie Ergen, co-founder and chairman, EchoStar. "By leveraging DISH's experience deploying the world's first standalone Open RAN 5G network, ORCID will be uniquely positioned to test and evaluate Open RAN interoperability, performance and security from domestic and international vendors. We appreciate NTIA's recognition of DISH and ORCID's role in driving Open RAN innovation and the Administration's ongoing commitment to U.S. leadership in wireless connectivity." To date, this grant represents NTIA's largest award under the Public Wireless Supply Chain Innovation Fund (Innovation Fund). ORCID will be housed in DISH's secure Cheyenne, Wyoming campus and will be supported by consortium partners Fujitsu, Mavenir and VMware by Broadcom and technology partners Analog Devices, ARM, Cisco, Dell Technologies, Intel, JMA Wireless, NVIDIA, Qualcomm and Samsung. NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson and Innovation Fund Director Amanda Toman will join EchoStar Co-Founder and Chairman Charlie Ergen, EchoStar CEO Hamid Akhavan, EVP and Chief Network Officer Marc Rouanne and other stakeholders to announce the grant and tour a DISH 5G Open RAN cell site later today in Las Vegas. During this event, DISH will outline ORCID's unique advantages, including that it will leverage DISH's experience as the only operator in the United States to commercially deploy a standalone Open RAN 5G network. DISH and its industry partners have validated Open RAN technology at scale across the country; today DISH's network covers over 246 million Americans nationwide. At ORCID, participants will be able to test and evaluate individual or multiple network elements to ensure Open RAN interoperability, performance and security, and contribute to the development, deployment and adoption of open and interoperable standards-based radio access networks. ORCID's "living laboratory" will drive the Open RAN ecosystem — from lab testing to commercial deployment. Below are highlights of ORCID: ORCID will combine both lab and field testing and evaluation activities. ORCID will be able to test elements brought by any qualified vendor against DISH's live, complete and commercial-grade Open RAN stack. ORCID will use DISH's spectrum holdings, a combination of low-, mid- and high-band frequencies, enabling field testing and evaluation. ORCID will evaluate Open RAN elements through mixing and matching with those of other vendors, rather than validating a single vendor's stack. DISH's experience in a multi-vendor environment will give ORCID unique insights about the integration of Open RAN into brownfield networks. ORCID's multi-tenant lab and field testing will occur in DISH's secure Cheyenne, Wyoming facility, which is already compliant with stringent security protocols in light of its satellite functions. About DISH Wireless DISH Wireless, a subsidiary of EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ: SATS), is changing the way the world communicates with the Boost Wireless Network. In 2020, the company became a nationwide U.S. wireless carrier through the acquisition of Boost Mobile. The company continues to innovate in wireless, building the nation's first virtualized, Open RAN 5G broadband network, and is inclusive of the Boost Infinite, Boost Mobile and Gen Mobile wireless brands.

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Network Security

Ampliphae, HPE Athonet and Arqit deliver Quantum-Safe Private 5G using Symmetric Key Agreement

PR Newswire | January 19, 2024

Arqit Quantum Inc, a leader in quantum-safe encryption, and Ampliphae Ltd (Ampliphae), a leader in network cyber security solutions, have today announced successful completion of a project that will deliver enhanced quantum-safe security for Private 5G networks. The Security Enhanced Virtualised Networking for 5G (SEViN-5G) project, funded by Innovate UK, the UK Government’s innovation agency, leveraged Ampliphae’s network security analytics technology and Arqit’s Symmetric Key Agreement Platform to deliver a quantum-secure Private 5G testbed that can protect against both current and future cyber threats. Athonet, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise acquisition, provided the Radio Access Network (RAN) equipment for the project with a cloud core hosted on AWS. Private enterprise networks based on 5G cellular technology are accelerating digital transformation across industries including manufacturing, healthcare, defence and smart cities. Private 5G gives enterprises access to high-speed, massively scalable, and ultra-reliable wireless connectivity, allowing them to implement innovative IoT and mobile solutions that enhance productivity, drive automation and improve customer engagement. The security of these networks will be paramount as they will support safety-critical infrastructure and carry highly sensitive data. But like any new technology, 5G comes with potential new threats and security risks including the threat from quantum computing. The project finished in December 2023 and customer engagement has already begun. David Williams, Arqit Founder, Chairman and CEO said: “Enterprises want to deploy Private 5G networks with complete confidence that they will be safe from both current and future cyber threats including from quantum computers. Working alongside Ampliphae, we have shown that a quantum-safe Private 5G network is deliverable using Arqit’s unique encryption technology.” Trevor Graham, Ampliphae CEO said: “Private 5G can be hosted partly or completely in the Cloud, giving enterprises the opportunity to rapidly set up their own cellular networks customised to support their operations. With Ampliphae and Arqit they can now be certain that those Private 5G networks are monitored and secure against eavesdropping and disruption.” Nanda Menon, Senior Advisor Hewlett Packard Enterprise said: “In an era where security is paramount, the completion of the SEViN-5G project is a significant milestone. The delivery of a quantum-secure Private 5G testbed, achieved where Athonet have combined the Athonet core with CableFree radios, underscores the commitment to innovation and reinforces the confidence enterprises can have in deploying networks that are both cutting-edge and secure from both present and future threats.” About Arqit Arqit Quantum Inc. (Nasdaq: ARQQ, ARQQW) (Arqit) supplies a unique encryption Platform as a Service which makes the communications links of any networked device, cloud machine or data at rest secure against both current and future forms of attack on encryption – even from a quantum computer. Compliant with NSA standards, Arqit’s Symmetric Key Agreement Platform delivers a lightweight software agent that allows devices to create encryption keys locally in partnership with any number of other devices. The keys are computationally secure and operate over zero trust networks. It can create limitless volumes of keys with any group size and refresh rate and can regulate the secure entrance and exit of a device in a group. The agent is lightweight and will thus run on the smallest of end point devices. The Product sits within a growing portfolio of granted patents. It also works in a standards compliant manner which does not oblige customers to make a disruptive rip and replace of their technology. Recognised for groundbreaking innovation at the Institution of Engineering and Technology awards in 2023, Arqit has also won the Innovation in Cyber Award at the National Cyber Awards and Cyber Security Software Company of the Year Award at the Cyber Security Awards. Arqit is ISO 27001 Standard certified. www.arqit.uk About Ampliphae Ampliphae’s distributed network analytics technology provides insight into how networks are used to support enterprise operations at every level. A graduate of the prestigious LORCA cyber accelerator in London, and the AWS European Defence Accelerator, Ampliphae’s technology is already used by enterprises across multiple verticals to discover, analyse and secure the network traffic that supports their key applications and business processes. Ampliphae’s Encryption Intelligence product operates at enterprise scale to discover devices and applications that use cryptography, analysing their encryption capabilities to detect risks, including assets that are vulnerable to future quantum computer attack. Using Encryption Intelligence, the organisation can gather effective operational intelligence about their encryption landscape, both within and outside the organisation, and build an effective mitigation program to address current and future vulnerabilities.

Read More

Network Security

Cato Networks Introduces World's First SASE-based XDR

PR Newswire | January 25, 2024

Cato Networks, the leader in SASE, announced the expansion of the Cato SASE Cloud platform into threat detection and incident response with Cato XDR, the world's first SASE-based, extended detection and response (XDR) solution. Available immediately, Cato XDR utilizes the functional and operational capabilities of the Cato SASE Cloud to overcome the protracted deployment times, limited data quality, and inadequate investigation and response experience too often associated with legacy XDR solutions. Cato also introduced Cato EPP, the first SASE-managed endpoint protection platform (EPP/EDR). Together, Cato XDR and Cato EPP mark the first expansion beyond the original SASE scope pioneered by Cato in 2016 and defined by industry analysts in 2019. SASE's security capabilities encompassed threat prevention and data protection in a common, easy-to-manage, and easy-to-adopt global platform. With today's announcement, Cato is expanding SASE into threat detection, incident response, and endpoint protection without compromising on the architectural elegance captured by the original SASE definition. "Cato SASE continues to be the antidote to security complexity," says Shlomo Kramer, CEO and co-founder of Cato Networks. "Today, we extend our one-of-a-kind SASE platform beyond threat prevention and into threat detection and response. Only Cato and our simple, automated, and elegant platform can streamline security this way." An early adopter of Cato XDR is Redner's Markets, an employee-owned supermarket chain headquartered in Reading, Pennsylvania, with 75 locations. Redner's Markets' vice president of IT and Infrastructure, Nick Hidalgo, said, "The Cato platform gave us better visibility, saved time on incident response, resolved application issues, and improved network performance ten-fold." (Read more about Redner's Markets and Cato in this blog. "The convergence of XDR and EPP into SASE is not just another product; it's a game-changer for the industry," said Art Nichols, CTO of Windstream Enterprise, a Cato partner. "The innovative integration of these capabilities brings together advanced threat detection, response capabilities, and endpoint security within a unified, cloud-native architecture—revolutionizing the way enterprises protect their networks and data against increasingly sophisticated cyber threats." (Read more about what Cato partners are saying about today's news in this blog.) Platform vs. Product: The Difference Matters Cato XDR takes full advantage of the enormous benefits of the Cato SASE Cloud platform, the first platform built from the ground up to enable enterprises to connect, secure, and manage sites, users, and cloud resources anywhere in the world. Unlike disjointed point solutions and security appliances, Cato capabilities are instantly on, always available at scale, and fully converged, giving IT teams a single, shared context worldwide to understand their networks, prevent threats, and resolve problems. As an autonomous platform, Cato SASE Cloud sustains its evolution, resiliency, optimal performance, and security posture, saving enterprises the operational overhead of maintaining enterprise infrastructure. Enterprises simply subscribe to Cato to meet their business needs. Cato's cloud-native model revolutionized security and networking operations when it was introduced in 2016, a fact validated three years later in 2019 when the Cato approach was formally recognized by the industry as SASE. Breach Times Still Too Long; Limitations of Legacy XDR Cato is again revolutionizing cybersecurity with the first SASE platform to expand into threat detection, empowering security teams to become smarter and remediate incidents faster. The flood of security alerts triggered by network sensors, such as firewalls and IPS, complicates threat identification. In 2023, enterprises required 204 days on average to identify breaches.1 XDR tools help security analysts close this gap by ingesting, correlating, and contextualizing threat intelligence information with the data from native and third-party sensors. However, legacy XDR tools suffer from numerous problems relating to data quality. Sensor deployment extends the time-to-value as IT must not only install the sensors but also develop a baseline of specific organizational activity for accurate assessments. Data quality is also compromised when importing and normalizing third-party sensor data, complicating threat identification and incident response. Security analysts waste time sorting through incident stories to identify the ones most critical for immediate remediation. Once determined, incident remediation is often hampered by missing information, requiring analysts to master and switch between disparate tools. No wonder in 2023, average breach containment required more than two months.1 Cato XDR and Cato EPP Expands the Meaning of SASE Cato XDR addresses legacy XDR's limitations. Instantly activated globally, Cato XDR provides enterprises with immediate insights into threats on their networks. Incident detection is accurate due to Cato's many native sensors – NGFW, advanced threat prevention (IPS, NGAM, and DNS Security), SWG, CASB, DLP, ZTNA, RBI, and now EPP/EDR. Powered by Bitdefender's world-leading malware prevention technology, Cato EPP protects endpoints from attack – in the Cato way. Endpoint threat and user data are stored in the same converged Cato data lake as the rest of the customer's network data, simplifying cross-domain event correlation. The result is incredibly high-quality data that improves the incident identification and remediation process. Cato AI uses the data to accurately identify and rank incidents, empowering analysts to focus critical resources on an organization's most important remediation cases. Cato AI is battle-tested and proven across years of threat hunting and remediation handling by Cato MDR service agents. Remediation times reduce as detected incident stories contain the relevant information for in-depth investigation. Cato's tools sit in the same console as the native engines, enabling security analysts to view everything in one place -- the current security policy and the reviewed story. Finally, incident reporting is simplified with generative AI. Purpose-built for investigations, this natural language engine provides human-readable explanations of incident stories. Analysts save time sharing incident information with other teams and reporting to their managers.

Read More

Network Infrastructure

DISH Wireless Awarded $50 Million NTIA Grant for 5G Open RAN Integration and Deployment Center

PR Newswire | January 16, 2024

DISH Wireless, a subsidiary of EchoStar, was awarded a historic $50 million grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to establish the Open RAN Center for Integration & Deployment (ORCID). ORCID will allow participants to test and validate their hardware and software solutions (RU, DU and CU) against a complete commercial-grade Open RAN network deployed by DISH. "The Open RAN Center for Integration and Deployment (ORCID) will serve a critical role in strengthening the global Open RAN ecosystem and building the next generation of wireless networks," said Charlie Ergen, co-founder and chairman, EchoStar. "By leveraging DISH's experience deploying the world's first standalone Open RAN 5G network, ORCID will be uniquely positioned to test and evaluate Open RAN interoperability, performance and security from domestic and international vendors. We appreciate NTIA's recognition of DISH and ORCID's role in driving Open RAN innovation and the Administration's ongoing commitment to U.S. leadership in wireless connectivity." To date, this grant represents NTIA's largest award under the Public Wireless Supply Chain Innovation Fund (Innovation Fund). ORCID will be housed in DISH's secure Cheyenne, Wyoming campus and will be supported by consortium partners Fujitsu, Mavenir and VMware by Broadcom and technology partners Analog Devices, ARM, Cisco, Dell Technologies, Intel, JMA Wireless, NVIDIA, Qualcomm and Samsung. NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson and Innovation Fund Director Amanda Toman will join EchoStar Co-Founder and Chairman Charlie Ergen, EchoStar CEO Hamid Akhavan, EVP and Chief Network Officer Marc Rouanne and other stakeholders to announce the grant and tour a DISH 5G Open RAN cell site later today in Las Vegas. During this event, DISH will outline ORCID's unique advantages, including that it will leverage DISH's experience as the only operator in the United States to commercially deploy a standalone Open RAN 5G network. DISH and its industry partners have validated Open RAN technology at scale across the country; today DISH's network covers over 246 million Americans nationwide. At ORCID, participants will be able to test and evaluate individual or multiple network elements to ensure Open RAN interoperability, performance and security, and contribute to the development, deployment and adoption of open and interoperable standards-based radio access networks. ORCID's "living laboratory" will drive the Open RAN ecosystem — from lab testing to commercial deployment. Below are highlights of ORCID: ORCID will combine both lab and field testing and evaluation activities. ORCID will be able to test elements brought by any qualified vendor against DISH's live, complete and commercial-grade Open RAN stack. ORCID will use DISH's spectrum holdings, a combination of low-, mid- and high-band frequencies, enabling field testing and evaluation. ORCID will evaluate Open RAN elements through mixing and matching with those of other vendors, rather than validating a single vendor's stack. DISH's experience in a multi-vendor environment will give ORCID unique insights about the integration of Open RAN into brownfield networks. ORCID's multi-tenant lab and field testing will occur in DISH's secure Cheyenne, Wyoming facility, which is already compliant with stringent security protocols in light of its satellite functions. About DISH Wireless DISH Wireless, a subsidiary of EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ: SATS), is changing the way the world communicates with the Boost Wireless Network. In 2020, the company became a nationwide U.S. wireless carrier through the acquisition of Boost Mobile. The company continues to innovate in wireless, building the nation's first virtualized, Open RAN 5G broadband network, and is inclusive of the Boost Infinite, Boost Mobile and Gen Mobile wireless brands.

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