Each day, cybercriminals find more ways to exploit gaps within enterprise systems. Jesper Andersen, CEO, Infoblox, speaks with CNME about the threats surrounding DNS and how the company can help address the issue.
What have been the major highlights for Infoblox during the last 12 months?
I think we have done really well over the last year in terms of building our market momentum in DDI. We have got some great quarters under our belt now, where we have managed to exceed our own expectations in terms of growth.
We have also significantly accelerated our growth in the security space. I believe this is due to the trend around DNS increasingly becoming an important attack vector. Recently, DNS attacks have become more and more sophisticated, whether it’s re-direction or data exfiltration, it is now a predominant issue in the market. Being able to provide solutions for issues regarding DNS is an area where we have progressed. We have grown from having almost no security revenue to having a considerable portion of our revenues coming from security.
Also, in terms of offerings, we were able to introduce cloud solutions where we have integrated frameworks and automation suites from players such as VMware, OpenStack and Cisco among others. We have also launched our own solutions for Amazon Web Services and created a comprehensive cloud solution portfolio.
Your company specialises in developing solutions that can protect the DNS infrastructure of enterprises, among many things. With the increasingly evolving threat landscape, how prevalent are DNS attacks as a cybersecurity problem in the market? Is this gaining steam in the Middle East region as well?
The issue is prevalent in the region. We have done 700 security assessments in the last year and over 80 percent of those we have evaluated showed proof of malware on their networks. That statistic is also applicable in the Middle East region as well.
DNS threats are prevailing in sectors such as government, education, telcos and enterprise. These are the industries we have demonstrated strength in and where our team here is continuously improving .
In the most recent DNS Threat Index that Infoblox released, you have identified that DNS threats are up by 58 percent from last year. What do you think has prompted this increase?
The cybersecurity space is like a cat and mouse game. What I mean by this is that the bad guys find a vulnerability and the good guys come up with solutions to solve this, and then it starts over again. If you think of it, a couple of years back, there were a lot of vulnerabilities within the perimeter, but over time companies such as Palo Alto Networks and Fortinet were able to create better defences for companies. However, cyber attackers today are exploiting weaknesses brought by the BYOD trend in organisations. The threat landscape has definitely changed, leaving organisations with gaps that they need to be able to address. Lately, cyber attackers have found that DNS is an attack vector, and this is where Infoblox can assist organisations.
What kind of advice do you give enterprises to help them prepare against these kinds of attacks?
DNS has been among our primary focuses recently. Now, depending on the level of conversation between Infoblox and a company, we usually tell them we can conduct a security assessment for them and give them a fully confidential report. Through this, we are able to provide them with proof of what malware is sitting on their systems. With the assessments that we conduct, not only do we detect the kinds of malware they have, we also find out which machine and user caused it.
We often do this free of charge, and without asking for any commitments from them. At the very least, they will become wiser about the potential threats in their domain, and will be able to find out how they can take control of the factors that contributed to this problem.
Is there really a difference between the cybersecurity landscapes in the Middle East and other regions like Europe?
In my opinion, the geopolitical issues in this region are a big factor affecting the security landscape. So, if in the Western regions, cyber-attacks are being used primarily for financial gains, here in the Middle East they could be more than that. They could be utilised to rupture the political stability of governments in this part of the world and that presents a huge challenge.
