“…A huge number of data breaches in the last decade have made it possible for nearly any cybercriminal in the world to take over application accounts by checking to see where users have reused passwords across websites.” – Says Dhananjay Ganjoo, Managing Director at F5 , India in an exclusive interview with IT Security Wire.
ITSW Bureau: How can adaptive applications minimize the risk of cyber-attacks?
Dhananjay Ganjoo: Applications are at the core of digital experiences. Whenever you are interacting with any businesses online, whether through their website or their mobile app, the application those organizations design, build, and operate are the face of their customers. In a digital business, applications are the core of connecting with customers, employees, and partners. However, delivering a secure, personalized experience through these apps becomes a challenge in a complex digital transformation landscape and ever-expanding threat surfaces.
As attackers target applications by exploiting vulnerabilities, abusing logic to gain access to sensitive data, and inflicting large-scale fraud, it causes severe business disruption. Challenges around security are daunting and escalating at an alarming rate. Our latest F5 Labs research highlighted that 86% of cyberattacks target applications or identities associated with them.
The amount that companies lose from fraud and the number of attacks on apps increase every year, and now—amid the global pandemic—we’ve seen unprecedented spikes. Another reason is the rapidly evolving threat landscape, where the cost of sophisticated attacks keeps dropping, but the cost of defense keeps increasing.
In particular, the significant number of data breaches in the last decade has made it possible for nearly any cybercriminal in the world to take over application accounts by checking to see where users have reused passwords across the website. Through a portfolio of automation, security, performance, and insight solutions, we enable organizations to deliver and secure extraordinary digital experiences by:-
- Simplifying traditional app delivery for multi-cloud environments
- Enabling modern app delivery at scale
- Securing every app anywhere
ITSW Bureau: How have increased customer expectations ramped up the challenges around security and visibility?
Dhananjay Ganjoo: The pandemic is challenging businesses to think in different ways. The disruptions caused have left profound impacts on consumer behavior and preferences. While the reliance on applications and great digital experiences grew, customers are now increasingly exercising caution regarding how they transact and consume digitally.
To stay ahead and address customers’ concerns and demands, organizations have to remain committed to transforming digitally. However, while aspiring to transform digitally, many organizations are stuck somewhere between the old world and the new world—classic monolithic and three-tier architectures alongside cloud-native architectures.
While digital transformation journeys can take several forms, the outcomes organizations seek from those journeys are common: improved customer experience, business agility, and a clear return on investment. In pursuit of these outcomes, companies encounter several challenges, which leads to the number one challenge that customers face: lack of visibility. Most large organizations are unable to pinpoint how many applications they have. Nor do they know which environments those applications are running in.
Read More: Using Automation to Overcome Cyber Security Resilience Challenges
The second challenge customers are also experiencing is security. In particular, a huge number of data breaches in the last decade have made it possible for nearly any cybercriminal in the world to take over application accounts by checking to see where users have reused passwords across websites. Beyond monetary losses, data breaches also hurt a brand’s reputation and diminish customers’ trust in the brand.
As alarming as these challenges may be, they also represent an opportunity to take the next giant leap. What’s on the other side is worth it: the visibility and agility required to adapt to serve customers and maintain a competitive advantage continually.
ITSW Bureau: What are the major hurdles faced by enterprises in delivering personalized digital experiences?
Dhananjay Ganjoo: As organizations map out their digital transformation strategies, they must realize how these changes affect their general technical infrastructure – especially when it pertains to security. The adoption of new, connected technology means a vastly expanded attack landscape – just at a time when threats are becoming increasingly sophisticated. Security must be part of all digital business planning to ensure that innovations do not come at the expense of strong data security.
When designing application delivery architecture, an enterprise should first consider its most important stakeholders: its customers, both internal and external. The customer user experience must always be optimal, whether they are accessing an enterprise’s online store, checking on relationship status, or seeking customer care via the corporate website.
From a customer perspective, three fundamental requirements ensure a satisfying experience: optimized performance from any device, consistency, and unfailing but behind-the-scenes security.
ITSW Bureau: What role do adaptive applications play in making the world 5G ready?
Dhananjay Ganjoo: Migrating to new mobile technology is far from straightforward and requires strong collaboration to ensure success. 5G is the turning point of innovation, accelerating new opportunities with new technologies. Service providers are in a race against competitors, continuing to monetize their current investment in 4G while rapidly transitioning to 5G to ensure customer retention and competitive advantage.
Read More: Cybercrime Costs the Global Economy More Than $1 Trillion
Speaking at the inaugural ceremony of the India Mobile Congress 2020, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed telecom sector leaders that stakeholders need to operate together to ensure the timely roll-out of 5G tech, making India a global hub for telecom equipment, design, development, and manufacturing as the future holds great potential with the rapid technological progress.
Service providers also deploy many applications to support phone, internet, and account services and a host of other consumer-facing functions and features. There may be hundreds of solutions on the back end that help the delivery of all such services.
Networks continue to evolve in the face of ever-growing traffic volume and complexity—as well as the increasing pressure to reduce costs, grow the business faster, and drive profitability. 5G accelerates this transformation of the network. It enables new services and applications, from the RAN to the cloud: connected cars, smart homes, IoT smart meters, and more.
Dhananjay Ganjoo is the managing director at F5 for India and the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) region. In his current role, he is responsible for driving F5’s growth strategy in India and SAARC, establishing F5 as a leader in multi-cloud application services. Dhananjay has over 25+ years of experience across executive management, Consulting, and Sales for Technology Products and Services organizations.
