Recognized time and again as a leading channel partner in the Middle East, Help AG has been making quick strides towards becoming the top managed security services provider in the UAE.
STEPHAN BERNER, MANAGING DIRECTOR AT HELP AG:
“In order to address the growing cyber threat posed by politically motivated hactivism, Help AG has unveiled the new anti-defacement feature of its Co-ordinated Threat Mitigation (CTM) service. With groups such as Anonymous and the Syrian Electronic Army taking the fight to the cyber battlefield, it is time for organizations to take affirmative action.”
What’s your view on the Security Landscape in ME and how does Help AG fit in the puzzle?
Help AG as an organization focuses on information security solutions and services. Starting in this region in 2004, we are currently present in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha. IT information security was a nice topic until three-four years from now and has now become a “must-have” technology. Businesses have begun to understand the importance of investing in security for securing their businesses on the whole.
From an organisational point of view, we address information security as a whole. It really starts from information security services; we help our customers in strategic security consulting, looking into international as well as local frameworks. We address the business impact analysis; do risk assessment services trying to identify the security gaps within an organization- that really helps our customers in the Government and Enterprise sector to look into policies, processes and procedures as well as the technical security controls.
What kind of growth have you achieved and where next lays your target?
Information security market has seen a tremendous growth in the recent years. Looking at Help AG, well, starting from 2004, we have witnessed 80% year-on-year growth in our business; this is very much driven by our services and solutions business. We are targeting KSA markets as well with a focused and selective approach.
The tides are turning towards Managed Security Services ; where’s Help AG in this race?
The growth strategy in Help AG is based on four pillars- the first is strengthening of our position in UAE, the second is moving into new markets like Saudi Arabia and the third peak investment is going into Managed Security Services. Our main objective is to become the leading organization for managed security services and serving the enterprise and Government organizations within the UAE market.
As we know cyberspace is a battlefield these days; what is the latest weapon from Help AG?
In order to address the growing cyber threat posed by politically motivated hactivism, Help AG has unveiled the new anti-defacement feature of its Co-ordinated Threat Mitigation (CTM) service. With groups such as Anonymous and the Syrian Electronic Army taking the fight to the cyber battlefield, it is time for organizations to take affirmative action. For many Middle East customers today, a company’s website if their first and primary association with the brand.
Defacement of the portal can therefore have significant negative impact on their perception of the brand. Understanding this, Help AG has created a solution which mitigates defacement and leaves our customer’s image untarnished even if they do fall victim to such an attack. This service is part of Help AG’s broader CTM offering which is cloud-based. The company has made sure to address two of the primary cloud-related security concerns i.e. sharing of information with a third-party provider and data storage at an external location. We carry out all the processing at the customer’s site and only extract generic data that does not contain any sensitive information. Furthermore, the service is hosted in a data center within the Middle East itself and is therefore not subject to any other nations’ laws that could potentially jeopardize the security of the information. We have been completely transparent in our approach which is why even government customers with the greatest security demands have not hesitated to sign up for the service.
