“Security is not just about what you prevent. Security is about what you make possible.” Thus remarked Blue Coat Systems, Inc.’s Chief Security Strategist and SVP Hugh Thompson, as he announced a new approach to security known as Business Assurance Technology, and the required core competencies to make this business empowerment security model possible, particularly in the Philippines.
“We think it can be transformative here in the Philippines particularly now that it is enjoying a high growth,” Thompson said. “But security technology has to be done correctly to continue this growth path.”
Thompson claimed he has seen the transformation in the way people work, in the way they integrate their personal technology with their business technology, and in the way they adopt a new technology personally and very quickly. “If you want to be productive, you work and you have no choice but to use the technology. You work because you have access to email and people expect you to be productive.”
These scenes are happening in the Philippines particularly because of the massive penetration of smartphones in the country. It was reported that an average person in Manila owns 4.6 connected devices. According to Thompson, the reason for this is because the Philippines, in general, tends to be a very social environment – that an incredible collaboration of workers creates a greater productivity for the Philippines.
“All these are changing how security is used even if the company has a policy on it. We’re moving to an idea of securing a perimeter that was defined, just securing users,” Thompson said.
Business Assurance Technology is a new approach that builds on sophisticated prevention methods with new technology that delivers value to the business users, customers and IT. It has five critical competencies or centers of excellence that businesses must have to be able to assure themselves of customers. These are Security and Policy Enforcement, Mobility Empowerment, Trusted Applications, Performance, and Resolution.
Security and Policy Enforcement consists of the rules of the business which, according to Thompson, are quickly changing. The aim is to reduce threats and data loss by scanning and blocking attacks, and enforce all security policies across the enterprise.
The second center is the Mobility Empowerment which is extended to mobile workers who have an average of 4.6 mobile devices to actually be productive and secure from untrusted devices, network connections, and apps at the same time.
Thompson believes the third center or the Trusted Applications is critical in the market. Users must be updated with the rapidly changing application landscape, and able to understand and control applications to prevent or reduce the increase in privacy and access risks.
Performance is important in security space as its purpose is to promote quality assurance, ensure quality of service, and optimize appliances. “It goes hand in hand with security – if you make the user’s experience terrible with the very secured solution, people would just work their way around it. Performance increases the users’ experience on whatever media they’re using – video, data, cloud, or Web,” says Thompson.
Thompson said that when bad things happen, resolution or the fifth center of excellence allows us to get down to the root cause of the problem. One must find a way to centralize and consistently manage policy across multiple clouds and systems.
Security in the past has been seen as prevention but it gets to a certain point where security technology connotes business empowerment. It is used to boost efficiency and productivity, increasing collaboration and accelerating innovation, optimize user experiences, and expand the power of technology.
“Securing the technology with the new security model is now in the hands of the users, being controlled by the users and perhaps by the business at the same time,” added Thompson.
