The pandemic has disrupted the way we do business, changed our working environments, and redefined our lifestyle itself. Maher Jadallah, Senior Director, Middle East and North Africa, Tenable, tells Rabab Zehra that in the dynamic landscape of business, cybersecurity needs to innovate with Security as Code.
The way we work was completely overhauled in 2021—hybrid working environments are now the norm, critical functions are permanently housed in the cloud, services have been outsourced to third parties, digital divides between operational technology and IT systems have been torn down. While necessity drove these changes this highly dynamic environment has seen the attack surface explode with devastating consequences.
For security teams difficulty managing the plethora of technologies made enterprises more vulnerable and propelled cyberattacks. According to a research conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Tenable, 92 percent of organisations experienced a business-impacting cyberattack or compromise within the past 12 months with 67 percent saying these attacks targeted remote workers.
The end of 2021 has also kept us on our toes with the discovery of Apache Log4j, a vulnerability that shines a bright light on the risky practice of relying on open-source code libraries to build enterprise-scale applications. Many organisations around the world rely on open-source libraries as a key element in their ability to bring applications to market quickly. Yet, these libraries often stop short of a security-first approach. This dependence on code libraries will continue to leave organisations vulnerable until time and resources are invested to make them more secure.
We are witnessing the rise of the Infrastructure as Code (IaC) movement, and to support this movement, cybersecurity needs to innovate with Security as Code.As organisations move towards everything as code—including applications, cloud infrastructure, even integration and delivery processes for agile development—they have an opportunity to start securing systems earlier and more often than their existing processes. IaC fits into a class of technologies that enable “shifting left”, or moving traditionally late processes earlier. This “shift left” movement promises to improve velocity, resiliency, and security even as systems become more complex.
At Tenable, we’re excited to help organisations navigate this new path. We’ve enhanced our platform, through product development and acquisition, to make sure we’re best positioned to help our customers change their perception of risk, achieve a comprehensive understanding of their expanded attack surface, and make informed decisions that secures their infrastructure.
Tenable’s channel strategy is tailored for each country to address the market dynamics and provide the needed support for local partners. As a vendor, we look for and actively nurture relationships with partners that do more than just sell our products. We want to see commitment as we know that is what our customers demand, and we’re prepared to offer the same. Our partners need to be as invested in the technology as we are, and from this basis we will actively work to help and support them build services and value around our solutions. This could include complementary technologies that ultimately address the challenge the customer is facing. Tenable is committed to the region and the strategy we have built has managed to successfully win major customers across all sectors.
The last twelve months have been challenging for everyone. I’d like to thank all our customers for the confidence they have shown in Tenable’s solution. To our partners I’d like to thank them for their continued support and commitment to Tenable’s missions.
