Global cybersecurity and digital privacy company, Kaspersky, is simplifying its consumer products into Standard, Plus, and Premium. The products will be available on a subscription basis and bring an enhanced user interface (UI) and experience across Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android. The rebrand also introduces features covering security, privacy, performance, and identity.
Kaspersky Standard features security functionalities such as Real-time Protection, Safe Browsing, and Anti-Phishing. Against the latest digital threats and to provide defense from dangerous websites, downloads, and extensions. The Standard plan also offers users a Pre-Kaspersky virus removal tool that can find and remove viruses that may have found their way into users’ PCs before they installed Kaspersky. It includes a Firewall and Network Monitor which shows which apps are connected to the Internet. Additional performance tools, include Quick Startup, PC Speed-up, and Disk Space Cleanup tools. Game and Do Not Disturb mode.
Kaspersky Plus features more Privacy capabilities. It gives users access to everything in the Standard plan plus unlimited VPN and Premium Password Manager. Subscribers also get a Data Leak Checker which monitors the Internet and dark web, warning them of a compromise to their private data and gives remedy recommendations. In addition, the plan includes Password Safety Status and lets them see which devices are connected to the home network,
The Premium plan adds digital identity protection and premium technical support to the plus with priority phone calls, chat services, and remote expert installation.
Kaspersky’s new plan subscription price
Standard also dubbed essential provides security for one user account and up to ten devices. It starts at $24.99 for a device per year. The plus plan also known as the advanced plan starts at $35.99 per device per year and $39.99 for three devices per year for two user accounts. The premium plan which includes a one-year free Kaspersky Safe Kids is available to five accounts and starts at$54.99 per year for up to ten devices. Find out more about the plans here.
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Airtel Uganda is partnering with Microsoft and Microsoft partner, MC3 Cloud to improve the productivity of businesses in Uganda. Giving them access to Microsoft’s Cloud Services that will help to improve their business operations while maintaining good security.
The partnership will help businesses concentrate on the delivery of their core business, while Airtel Uganda and Microsoft will take away the worry about online collaboration, security, and productivity of the teams.
Commenting on the partnership, Allan Ssemakula, the Enterprise Business Director at Airtel Uganda revealed, “We are pleased to collaborate with Microsoft and MC3 Cloud to provide Microsoft cloud services that will be powered by Airtel Uganda’s high speed 4G internet services that cover the whole of Uganda. This means that business customers will have access to Microsoft Cloud Services on the go. We are enabling better productivity for businesses in Uganda”
Microsoft 365 brings together best-in-class productivity apps with powerful cloud services, device management, and advanced security in one connected experience.
With Microsoft Cloud Services businesses will be able to:
Use professional email and calendaring to reach customers and co-workers.
Store, access, and share files from anywhere with 1 Terabyte of online storage per user.
Keep their teams on the same page with group chat, online meetings, and calling in Microsoft Teams, the hub for teamwork.
Help protect their employees, personal data, and their customer information with advanced security and device management.
“Our partnership with Airtel Uganda is intended to give the end user the best experience while using Microsoft services. And Airtel’s 4G connectivity creates the desired platform that aids improved communication, plus information security for both business and personal use,” mentioned Mr. Patrick Okello the Regional Sales Manager at MC3 Cloud, the Accredited Microsoft Cloud partner.
Patrick Okello further said, “Microsoft 365 encompasses subscription plans that allow the use of the Microsoft Office software suite over the life of the subscription, as well as cloud-based software-as-a-service products for business environments, such as hosted Exchange Server (business email, calendar, and contacts), Skype for Business Server/Teams (Meetings, calling & Video Conferencing) and SharePoint (Intranet, Document Management & Teams Collaboration) among others. The suite of plans available to the Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) customers include; Exchange Online, Apps for Business, Business Basic, Business Standard, and Business Premium.”
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Microsoft is suspending all new sales of its products and services in Russia following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. This is after the company said it was providing technical advice to the Ukrainian government on steps to prevent destructive malware operations it had identified in systems belonging to multiple Ukrainian government agencies and organizations.
Microsoft President and Vice-Chair, Brad Smith, noted the company will continue to mobilize resources to help the people in Ukraine. It is taking steps to avoid the spread of disinformation and promote instead independent and trusted content. As well as matching employee contributions and providing technology support to first responders to provide help.
Microsoft’s announcement comes after Apple and Google also took actions in response to the Russian invasion. Apple stopped all exports into the sales channel in the country and is limiting Apple Pay and other services. Google, Snapchat and Twitter are all pausing ads and blocking monetizing of content.
Here is the full statement about suspension in Russia
Like the rest of the world, we are horrified, angered and saddened by the images and news coming from the war in Ukraine and condemn this unjustified, unprovoked and unlawful invasion by Russia.
We are announcing today that we will suspend all new sales of Microsoft products and services in Russia.
In addition, we are coordinating closely and working in lockstep with the governments of the United States, the European Union and the United Kingdom, and we are stopping many aspects of our business in Russia in compliance with governmental sanctions decisions.
Our single most impactful area of work almost certainly is the protection of Ukraine’s cybersecurity. We continue to work proactively to help cybersecurity officials in Ukraine defend against Russian attacks, including most recently a cyberattack against a major Ukrainian broadcaster.
Since the war began, we have acted against Russian positioning, destructive or disruptive measures against more than 20 Ukrainian government, IT and financial sector organizations. We have also acted against cyberattacks targeting several additional civilian sites. We have publicly raised our concerns that these attacks against civilians violate the Geneva Convention.
We are also continuing to mobilize our resources to help the people in Ukraine. Our Microsoft Philanthropies and UN Affairs teams are working closely with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and multiple UN agencies to help refugees by providing technology and financial support for key NGOs and, where needed, we are defending these groups from ongoing cyberattacks.
As a company, we are committed to the safety of our employees in Ukraine and we are in constant contact with them to offer support in many forms, including those who have needed to flee for their lives or safety.
Like so many others, we stand with Ukraine in calling for the restoration of peace, respect for Ukraine’s sovereignty and the protection of its people.
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Cairo ICT 2021 is underway in Egypt and Microsoft is taking the opportunity to showcase its latest technological innovations in the areas of the Cloud, AI, Security and modern work. It is also showing off the latest Surface products, the Surface Pro 7+, Surface Laptop Go and Surface Go 2.
The international telecom, information, technology and media trade fair and forum event is taking place from 7-10 November. The event is co-locating with PAFIX 2021 at the Egypt International Exhibition Center, New Cairo.
We are delighted to be participating as Official Cloud Sponsor at the 25th edition of Cairo ICT, says Mirna Arif, Country Manager, Microsoft Egypt. We are looking forward to welcoming you at our booth to reimagine together a stronger future for Egypt. And to explore how organizations can harness the power of technology to thrive in an increasingly digital economy, she adds.
Microsoft will be participating and contributing to the conversation on the Digital Challenge during the event. Mirna will join other technology leaders to discuss “How ICT is changing the face of the world”. Other Microsoft discussions to look out for include:
8th – Cloud-Tech & DevOps – Mr. Chadi Haddad, Data & Ai Regional Director, Microsoft
9th – IoT & IIoT – Leading the way to Industry 5.0 – Ahmed Farag, Public Sector Industry Lead, Microsoft
You can find the Microsoft Egypt booth on the Cairo ICT 2021 event floor at Hall E stand 3E2. Where you can have a hands-on with their products and learn about their solutions.
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Illusive, winner of the Identity Trailblazer award category at the second annual Microsoft Security 20/20 award event is announcing the Illusive Identity Risk Management for Microsoft Active Directory. The integrated solution combines the discovery, automated mitigation and protection of exploitable privileged identities.
Research from the Identity Defined Security Alliance shows that in the last two years 79% of organizations have had an identity-related breach. And Brendan O’Connell, chief product officer, Illusive, says despite significant investments in the current threat landscape to protect identity, the reality is that every organization has exploitable privileged identities.
“Illusive Identity Risk Management provides a much-needed solution to address a common gap in organizations’ security stack. Allowing them to avoid identity-related security incidents through the enablement of zero trust principles.”
Brendan O’Connell
“Illusive’s integration with Microsoft Azure Active Directory will enable organizations to discover privileged identities that are at risk of exploitation. Then mitigate these risks by dynamically stepping up Conditional Access policies. That will provide customers with the peace of mind that these most sensitive credentials are secure,” says Sue Bohn, VP Identity and Network Access division, Microsoft.
Benefits of protecting Azure Active Directory (AAD) with Illusive Identity Risk Management offering
Security & threat visibility on Active Directory and Azure
Visualize and automate the discovery of critical assets in AAD
Detect AAD misconfigurations for rapid remediation before attackers can take advantage
Detect insider threats attempting to leverage policy gaps between AD and AAD
Expose connections between privileged users on premise and in the cloud
Create AAD deceptions that provide high-fidelity threat detection
The integrated solution is now available for purchase from both Illusive and Microsoft. Through the Microsoft Azure Marketplace and from select, mutual value-added resellers and system integrators.
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Lucy Kerner, Senior Principal Global Cybersecurity Evangelistand Strategist at Red Hat talks about the cybersecurity problem and shares four ways to strengthen your cybersecurity position as an organization.
Lucy notes in this insight that when it comes to cybersecurity, a lack of resources can be a bigger threat than the criminals. Read on to find out more.
Resources have always been a problem when it comes to cybersecurity. You are not always rewarded for doing security the way you are when you develop a new business application quickly. This usually leads to security teams being understaffed and overworked. At the same time, skilled cybersecurity professionals are in high demand, and there is significant turnover in cybersecurity positions.
In fact, when it comes to cybersecurity, a lack of resources can be a bigger threat than the criminals who have their sights set on stealing organizations’ data, money, time, and reputation. This has long been true, but COVID-19 turned the cybersecurity resource challenge into a full-blown problem, causing security to be overlooked in many cases.
In the best of times—or, at least, more normal times—talented cybersecurity resources are difficult to find, expensive to procure, and hard to retain. The pandemic has exacerbated the cybersecurity skills shortage as organizations’ focus and resources have shifted to shoring up, or even building from scratch, work-from-home capabilities. Proactive security has been put on the back burner for many companies, exposing big gaps between the cybersecurity resources.
In a pre-pandemic study conducted by (ISC)2, an international, nonprofit membership association for information security leaders, the cybersecurity workforce gap in the United States was estimated to be nearly 500,000. By combining its US cybersecurity workforce estimates and gap data, the association found that the cybersecurity workforce needs to grow by 62% in order to meet the demands of US businesses today. Using the workforce estimate of 2.8 million based on the 11 economies it studied and a global gap estimate of 4.07 million, the association estimated that the global workforce needs to grow by 145%.
Indeed, respondents to the survey that was used to develop the study said that a lack of skilled/experienced cybersecurity personnel is their top concern, and that the gap puts their companies at moderate or extreme risk. Research for the Ponemon Institute’s 2020 Cost of a Data Breach Report began months before COVID-19 had widespread impact, but supplemental questions related to the potential impact of remote workforces due to the pandemic revealed that 76% of organizations predict that remote work will make responding to a potential data breach more difficult.
With the Ponemon research estimating that the average total cost of a data breach is $3.86 million, preventing a cybersecurity incident in the first place is critical. But all is not lost. Solving the cybersecurity resource problem outright is not going to happen right away, but there are things that organizations can do beyond adding more security bodies. Here’s how to strengthen your cybersecurity position.
1. Establish internal security training and certification programs
Savvy organizations realize that true cybersecurity requires a cultural shift. Essentially, some level of cybersecurity must be part of each employee’s responsibility. That’s not to say that your marketing director will be on the security front lines, of course, but every employee should take part in security education and certification programs. And that doesn’t mean that you can just create a PowerPoint presentation that you force employees to sit through so they can check off a box; it means developing meaningful and relevant programs that engage employees and help them understand the cybersecurity threat and their roles in mitigating it. Think about “lunch and learns,” mock breaches, and even escape rooms.
2. Encourage security cross-pollination
If security is everyone’s job, then security resources should not be limited to the IT department. Think about ways security can cross-pollinate within the organization. Just as security is infiltrating the development arena through the growing DevSecOps movement, security resources could be integrated into other areas, as well. This will not only develop company-wide understanding of security issues, but it will also encourage cross-collaboration and the opportunity to build security into processes, products, and services from the ground up.
3. Take a hard look at your security tooling
Many organizations have security tools they don’t really need or that are out of date and can’t support new technologies such as cloud, containers, or Kubernetes. This wastes time and money. For example, many companies are running legacy security tools designed to protect systems that are no longer used.
Companies also often have too many tools to keep track of, leading to redundant tooling and the inability to manage the growing number of tools. Also, many companies aren’t making full use of security tools that are already built into existing systems, such as the operating system, container platform, or security tooling provided by the cloud provider. A thorough inventory of existing security tooling will reveal what’s needed (and not needed) to address current security concerns.
4. Put a consistent automation strategy in place
With so many moving parts in place, no human or group of humans could ever fill every security hole. Indeed, as IT environments and the world around us become more complex, so do the security events facing IT teams. A consistent automation strategy can help organizations more effectively mitigate risks by reducing human errors, remediate issues, respond quickly to security alerts, and develop repeatable security and compliance workflows.
It’s important to note, however, that automation isn’t one product or even a collection of products. Organizations should look for an approach that overlays a consistent automation strategy across app dev, infrastructure, security operations, and so on. In fact, Ponemon’s Cost of a Data Breach Report noted that organizations with fully deployed automation—versus those with no automation deployed—realize a savings of $3.58 million in average total cost of a data breach.
Is the cybersecurity resource problem unsolvable?
It’s true that, realistically, the resource problem can’t be completely solved, but it’s a problem that you can effectively address and manage with proactive planning, strategic technology implementation, and widespread, ongoing, and engaging security awareness training and collaboration.
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