

Publish Date
08/08/2023
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Migrating to the cloud is today’s essential for business efficiency, improved productivity, data security, business continuity and regulatory compliance. Cloud migration has become even more vital in today’s remote working environment. Databases, applications, workloads, systems, and projects now need to be easily and securely accessed from anywhere, anytime. While migration is not as onerous as you may think, it does require detailed preparation.
There are 5 steps to ensuring swift and seamless migration to the cloud.
Successful cloud migration starts with an assessment of the current state of an on-premises or hybrid environment. It includes identifying all infrastructure elements and their current and anticipated utilization to reveal insights on cloud readiness, compatibility, and interdependencies of I.T. infrastructure, apps, databases, and workloads. The insights will then inform evaluation of cloud readiness and any measures needed to make them cloud ready.
You need to plan how you will move your data and applications from your on-premises architecture to the cloud. The plan will be your roadmap to the most efficient way to prioritize and migrate applications.
You need to clean, standardize, catalogue, and group your data and identify which datasets you want to move.
There’s more to cloud adoption that just migrating to the cloud. To get the most out of your migration, it’s important to ensure your team understands the shift and how to operate within it.
By identifying the compliance standards, you need to meet, you can design the best security controls for your business and totally adhere to your regulatory environment, maintain data integrity and engender customer trust.
These five steps will be the foundation of an effective cloud migration roadmap that includes detailed information about the apps you want to migrate, app/database availability, downtime constraints, and migration milestones. The plan will detail how long the data copy takes and include a realistic buffer for post-migration testing. A comprehensive migration roadmap when adhered to will minimize downtime and limit the potential operational and business impact during migration.
Our Cloud experts are ready to help. If you would like to schedule a free cloud assessment or want to know more about the benefits of migration, please click here.
Get in touch now on: sales.uae@cobweb.com or call us on +971 4 455 3100.
Publish Date
02/08/2023
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As businesses increasingly rely on digital infrastructure to drive efficiency and innovation, cloud migration is now critical. Cloud computing is the game-changer for businesses seeking a competitive edge providing unparalleled scalability, cost savings, security, and agility to organizations of all sizes.
Microsoft research suggests the global cloud computing market value could reach a staggering $1,240.9 billion by 2027. Here we explore why more organizations than ever are migrating to the cloud and why you should turn to Microsoft Azure as your go-to cloud solution. By adopting Azure, organizations can unlock an array of tools and services to accelerate their digital transformation and stay ahead in today’s fiercely competitive landscape.
Scalability and Flexibility: The Azure cloud infrastructure lets organizations scale their resources on-demand, ensuring seamless growth and adaptability to ever evolving business needs.
Cost Savings: Migration to Azure eliminates the need for expensive on-premises hardware, maintenance, and upgrades. The figures speak for themselves:
Enhanced Security: Microsoft invests heavily in state-of-the-art Azure security measures, ensuring data protection and regulatory and industry standards compliance.
Business Continuity: Azure’s disaster recovery and backup solutions will keep your operations running, even in the face of unforeseen events.
Local Reach: Microsoft has data centers in the UAE (Dubai and Abu Dhabi) providing customers with low-latency access.
Fast Implementation: Azure empowers development teams to optimize and accelerate workflows, fostering rapid digital innovation.
Future Proofing: The Azure cloud enables businesses to leverage advanced artificial intelligence, machine learning, and internet of things (IoT) technologies – the business tools of today & tomorrow!
Reach out to us to understand how Microsoft Azure can benefit your organization
Azure, Your Go-To Cloud Solution Provides:
According to Cyber magazine, UAE organizations have made great progress in cloud transition, now ranking as the world’s second-highest adopter of public cloud services (https://cybermagazine.com/company-reports/the-future-of-cloud-security-in-the-middle-east-report.) This puts businesses in the Emirates in the digital transformation fast lane, unlocking the full potential of the cloud. If you haven’t migrated yet, don’t get left behind in the competition stakes. Makethe shift to Azure, and drive innovation, enhance efficiency, and stay ahead in the UAE’s dynamic digital landscape.
For more information, reach out to our Azure experts to go beyond the limits of on-premises datacenters. Write to us at sales.uae@cobweb.com or reach out to us direct on +971 4 455 3100.
Disclaimer: The landscape of cloud computing and Microsoft Azure's offerings may evolve over time. Therefore, readers are advised to refer to the latest official sources and updates from Microsoft Azure for the most up-to-date information.
Publish Date
23/07/2023
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According to recent data from research firm IDC, the global revenue generated by public cloud services surpassed the US$500 billion mark in 2022.
IDC’s research revealed that the actual figure reached US$545.8 billion, representing a substantial 22.9% increase compared to the previous year. The growth was even more pronounced in foundational cloud services, which include infrastructure, platform, and system infrastructure software delivered as services. These foundational services experienced a remarkable 28.8% year-on-year growth.
IDC attributes this surge in spending to organizations’ increasing reliance on data and artificial intelligence (AI) services, distributed computing, and app frameworks. Investments in infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) and platform-as-a-service (PaaS) are expected to continue outpacing the overall public cloud market. Cloud providers are responding to this trend by deploying high-performance infrastructure.
Dave McCarthy, IDC’s research vice president, noted that these investments have two significant implications. First, they enable the migration of enterprise applications that were previously hosted on-premises. Second, they establish the foundation for the rapid deployment of scalable AI software. These investments present ample growth opportunities for the market.
IDC’s data also highlighted a consolidation within the public cloud market. Although the top five providers account for less than half of the market, their revenue grew at a faster rate than the market, experiencing a 27.3% increase last year.
IDC’s information places Microsoft as the largest public cloud provider globally, with a 16.8% market share, closely followed by AWS (Amazon Web Services) at 13.5%. Salesforce, Google, and Oracle round out the top five players.
Generative AI is expected to be a key driver of new public cloud spending. AI capabilities are becoming increasingly important for organizations, and the role of public cloud in supporting AI offerings cannot be overstated.
Lara Greden, research director at IDC, stated that most organizations consider their public cloud provider as their most strategic technology partner. As organizations plan for platform-as-a-service (PaaS) developer and data services, AI-enabled applications are gaining prioritization. Those already adopting AI find themselves well-positioned to evaluate the adoption of generative AI capabilities within their intelligent application strategies.
In terms of spending, software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications accounted for the largest portion, generating US$246.3 billion in revenue in 2022. Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) followed at US$115.5 billion.
There can be multiple questions that crop up in the head when planning to migrate. Organizations require a complete picture before moving to the cloud. To get a clear view of this picture, you can fill in your details below & one of our cloud experts will connect with you.
In case you want to harness the potential of cloud, email: sales.uae@cobweb.com or call us on: +971 44553100 for more details and assistance.
Publish Date
09/06/2023
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Cobweb’s recent webinar, exclusively held in collaboration with KnowBe4, the leading and most advanced platform for security awareness training and simulated phishing, provided us with a significant wake-up call. During the webinar, Dr. Martin Kraemer, the company’s security awareness advisor, shared alarming insights, stating that within a short span of two years, the financial impact of cybercrime is expected to reach an astonishing number of trillions of dollars, specifically estimated at US $10.5 trillion. What’s even more concerning is that human behaviour will be the primary cause, accounting for over 70% of these cybercrimes.
That’s worrying for sure, but it also means we can all do something about it if we act responsibly and act now!
Dr. Kraemer identified the Top 10 threats to businesses in the Middle East this year as:
What’s even more alarming is the notion that, as if the complexity of the cybercrime landscape isn’t daunting enough, it is set to worsen with the emergence of generative AI. This development is expected to provide attackers with easier access to sophisticated code, enabling them to localize mass phishing emails in various languages, making them increasingly believable. Additionally, the quality of business email compromise and CEO fraud is likely to escalate as AI can flawlessly imitate writing styles.
Dr. Kraemer emphasizes that defending your business against industrial-scale cybercrime entails more than just investing in technology. It requires empowering employees to make better security decisions daily. This means that we all need to develop competence in cyber awareness and manage behaviours to ensure that our people become our strongest defence assets instead of our weakest links. Furthermore, he cautions that security awareness and secure behaviour are not synonymous, which is why traditional awareness programs are no longer sufficient.
According to Dr. Kraemer, establishing a successful cybersecurity culture necessitates an A, B, C approach: Awareness, Behaviour, and Culture. This approach involves the following key elements:
To explore the KnowBe4 offering and experience a demo of our joint solution, email: sales.uae@cobweb.com or call us on: +971 44553100 for more details and assistance. This close partnership between KnowBe4 and Cobweb underscores our shared commitment to empowering businesses with the necessary tools and knowledge to combat cyber threats effectively.
Publish Date
22/03/2023
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Mimecast Finds C-Suite is Now Ready to Confront Cyber Threats
The much-anticipated ‘State of Email Security 2023’ report from cloud cybersecurity experts is out. Mimecast reveals a breakthrough in Boardroom attitudes towards cybersecurity & a greater C-suite willingness to confront cybersecurity risks.
The report, collated from a survey of over 1,700 I.T. and C-suite professionals across 13 countries including Saudi Arabia and the UAE, is the largest sampling in Mimecast’s report history. It shows management now ranks cybersecurity threats as bigger business risks than inflation.
C-suite respondents now views digital risk as unacceptable. They have expressed concern over disruptions which can result from emerging technologies and the shared risks of the networked economy.
The Findings:
Mimecast says supply chain vulnerabilities, growing online collaboration and digital networking are making the cyber landscape more treacherous. Multi-stage, multi-vector attacks are becoming the norm and the smallest of security shortcomings can have devastating effect. The average cost of a data breach is now US $4.35 million, while it can take 212 days to detect it and another 75 to contain it.
Email remains the primary attack route and with more emails, comes a bigger threat. The emergence of collaboration tools is opening a new threat pathway. Three-out-of-four (76%) respondents expect an email-borne attack will seriously impact their organization in the coming year. The main email-borne threats are phishing, ransomware, and spoofing with collaboration tool pathways entering the fray.
66% of respondents admit their organization’s cybersecurity budget is under-funded and largely unchanged from 2022 despite the increasing threat and a modest under-resourced gap of around 8%.
AI & ML
AI and machine learning, that provide real-time, contextual warnings to email and collaboration tool users, can help you stay ahead of the cyber criminals. They can deliver more accurate threat detection, improve the ability to block threats and more quickly remediate attack damage. The criminals are using AI – you should too.
An Aware Workforce
Over 95% of all data breaches are due to human error – you must foster a cyber-savvy workforce. Regular, best-in-class training is essential. Cyber-security is the responsibility of all, not just the I.T. team!
The Mimecast 2023 report stresses that cyber-security insurance is no substitute for a cyber-security preparedness plan. Do you have one in place? Has it kept pace with the threats? Does it include employee awareness training? If you would like advice from our cyber security experts who can assess your security posture and make recommendations, including access to the best training in the market, get in touch now on +97144553100 or email: sales.uae@cobweb.com. Call us now and stay safe!
Publish Date
15/03/2023
Categories
Blogs Hot Topic
Discover how you can cut through the information clutter.
With increasing recommendations and alerts for a growing catalog of security vulnerabilities, it’s harder than ever to triage and prioritize your cloud security response. Users are bombarded with information, and often don’t have the time or resources to cut through the clutter. We suggest you look at Microsoft Defender for the cloud to get to grips with the issue, prioritize and track your security response.
Microsoft Defender for the Cloud will simplify the process by giving you:
Microsoft Defender for the Cloud continually assesses your security resources regardless of where they are hosted. It then aggregates all the findings into a single score so that you can see immediately your current security situation: the higher the score, the lower the identified risk level.
To improve your security posture, review the Defender for Cloud’s recommendations page and implement the remediation instructions for each issue. Recommendations are grouped into security controls. Each control is a logical group of related security recommendations and reflects your vulnerable attack surfaces. Your score only improves when you remediate all the recommendations for a single resource within a control. To see how well your organization is securing each individual attack surface, review the scores for each security control.
To learn more about Secure score and other Microsoft Defender for Cloud capabilities, visit Microsoft documentation.
If you wish to know more how to assess and improve your security posture, reach out to us on +97144553100 or email: sales.uae@cobweb.com. Call us now and stay safe!
Publish Date
15/02/2023
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Let’s Go Phishing With KnowBe4 & Identify Your Weakest Links
Inhouse cybersecurity training might have once been a nice to have – that was then, this is now. Today most business operations are increasingly dependent on technology, and on their employees’ ability to use it safely. While the new age of remote and mobile working has huge advantages, it also has opened up huge gateways for cybercriminals to reap the benefits of poor organizational security postures which are aggravated by employees’ ignorance of the pitfalls.
Yet more than ever businesses need to be cybersecure if they are to comply with data protection regulations, keep their own sensitive data secure, ensure business continuity, and avoid the risk of breach-induced production downtime and the cost of repairing reputational damage and rebuilding customer confidence.
Email and poor passwords continue to be the main vectors of cybersecurity hacks. The increasing prevalence of phishing attempts and identity fraud further complicate the landscape, and all too often staff just aren’t aware of the dangers. And remember 82% of data breaches involve a human element be it exposure to ransomware, phishing, domain identity theft, email spoofing or weak passwords.
But who are your weakest links? You need to know to plug the gaps and to ensure that all your staff are on constant alert to the dangers. Employees who know how to identify, detect, and mitigate threats such as phishing, ransomware and spoofing will be able to prevent attacks on the company and its customers.
Training though can be complex, time consuming and costly – but not any more.
We’ve teamed up with KnowBe4 – the world’s largest integrated platform for security awareness training combined with simulated phishing attacks to offer a MENA exclusive, best-in-class managed service offering available on an annual licence subscription. This means we can manage your entire cybersecurity training program and create your own human firewall.
Through our managed service, we can create a foundational training program, identify your weakest cybersecurity links through tailored phishing campaigns, assess your pain points and security awareness posture, monitor effectiveness and more. License pricing is dependent on which services you opt for and the number of users you want covered.
You’ll get:
All this combined with Cobweb’s superior 24/7 managed service capability is a match made in corporate heaven!
Remember a strong security culture and an educated workforce is your best defence against cyberattacks. You can check out our Knowbe4 offering by requesting a demo here or click here for more details.
Publish Date
07/12/2022
Categories
Blogs Hot Topic
Discover What You Need To Be Ransomware Ready
Mimecast’s newly released ‘State of Ransomware Readiness 2022’ report here makes for bad news, good news reading.
Based on interviews with 1,100 cybersecurity experts across more than 10 countries, including the UAE, the report points to an ever-increasing incidence of ransomware which now makes it one of the primary threats to organizations. Indeed, it has apparently become so widespread and costly, that many insurers are reconsidering pay outs and excluding some forms of ransomware attacks from their coverage – making the need to prevent more pressing.
“On a positive note, although the threat is growing, there are opportunities for businesses to evolve their cybersecurity strategies, and address the challenges of complex enterprise networks, limited resources, stretched teams, and complex threats,” says the report. “This means businesses must focus not only on mitigation, but proactive prevention, to improve their threat detection capabilities and attack responses – and ultimately, lower the personal and business cost of ransomware.”
The downside, the report found that 77% of cybersecurity professionals are facing mounting pressure from ransomware attacks compared to 2021. Two-fifths of respondents say they had experienced significant downtime due to a cyberattack and 44% of businesses in the UAE reported revenue loss due to a ransomware attack over the past year.
A third of respondents said their cybersecurity teams were suffering from increased staff absences due to post-attack burnout with 46% of decision-makers in the UAE thinking of leaving their role in the next two years due to stress. The answer, they believe, is bigger cybersecurity budgets which they say need to rise by around 28%.
The professionals said they believe ransomware attacks are now virtually inevitable, with 49% citing file backup and recovery as the most critical technology for reducing the risk and damage of ransomware attacks.
The report concludes that in the face of the growing ransomware threat, security must go beyond checking compliance and mitigation boxes.
“Proactive prevention will reduce the likelihood of attacks and lower their impact when they do succeed,” it says. “Given the complexity of most enterprise networks, organizations will often benefit from an integrated approach – adopting a cybersecurity mesh architecture that adapts security protections to each asset in the network. This increases visibility, minimizes dwell time, and helps busy teams identify and address attacks more readily.”
The report recommends cybersecurity leaders focus on proactively reducing the chances of a ransomware attack causing disruption by:
If you want to ensure you are ransomware ready, ask Cobweb for a security posture consultation. We’ll identify any gaps and help you plug them. Call us now and stay safe! +97144553100 or email: sales.uae@cobweb.com.
Publish Date
27/09/2022
Categories
Blogs Hot Topic
Your brand is a key business asset. It’s your trust bank which says who you are and what you offer but increasingly brands are at risk from cybercriminals who are impersonating them to entrap unsuspecting victims.
In the UAE, Sharjah Police has now launched an awareness campaign about the dangers of cyber brand impersonation (spoofing) after witnessing a sharp increase in the number of people falling foul of fraudulent schemes involving fake emails and WhatsApp messages.
At the launch of its ‘Be Aware: Stop, Think, Protect’ campaign, Sharjah Police revealed a 70% rise in cybercrime reports in the emirate in the past two years and it’s looking to help people identify when they’re being targeted by cyber criminals.
The most common forms of cybercrime are phishing and online brand impersonation attacks that trick people, including customers and employees, into opening attachments from unofficial sources, clicking on unknown links, and sharing sensitive personal information, including passwords and banking logins.
Cloud cybersecurity services provider Mimecast says cybercriminals are increasingly hijacking trusted brands and launching cyberattacks from lookalike web and email domains to increase their chances of successfully duping victims and that many companies remain vulnerable due to a lack of technology and robust security policies.
In its 2021 survey Mimecast discovered that consumers in the Middle East are more risk averse than others. In Saudi Arabia 75% of consumers and 78% in the UAE said they would stop spending with even their favourite brands if they fell victim to a phishing attack involving them. Compare that to a global average of 57% and you can understand the level or risk adversity in the region. Furthermore, over 80% of consumers in the Middle East also believe brands have a responsibility to protect them and themselves from email and website impersonation.
Mimecast’s latest State of Email Security 2022 report found that while things are getting better, they are still not great. It revealed that only 42% of organizations in Saudi Arabia and 38% in the UAE, are somewhat prepared – or not prepared at all – to deal with attacks that spoof their email domains.
Deploying online brand protection tools can help companies identify and take down malicious websites which impersonate their web and email domains before customers fall victim and these, according to Mimecast, should be supported by a sturdy regime of regular cyber awareness training so that all employees can detect and avert the risks.
Employees who receive suspicious email communications on their work email address should immediately report it to their security teams who can contain the threat, protect the organization, and keep threats from spreading to customers and partners.
Mimecast says some tell-tale signs that you’re being targeted by a scammer, include:
If staff receive any of the above, they should:
If the worst does happen and an employee does fall for the scam and share personal information, they should:
Authorities in the region are increasing penalties for cybercrime. In the UAE, Article (11) of the Federal Decree-Law No. 34 of 2021 stipulates that any person who creates a fake website, online account or e-mail impersonating a natural or legal person, will face imprisonment and/or a fine of not less than Dh50,000 and not more than Dh200,000, or one of the two penalties. Offenders can be jailed for a minimum of two years, if they use or allow anyone to use the fake website, online account, or e-mail to cause harm to an impersonated victim. In Saudi Arabia, the Public Prosecution has reaffirmed that a jail term of three years and fines of up to SR2 million can be imposed on those who create or send fake links, texts or electronic messages that impersonate government agencies, bodies, or financial or service institutions to fraudulently obtain money or financial data.
Mimecast reports signs that businesses are taking the online phishing and brand spoofing threats more seriously by turning to resources to detect instances of brand mimicry and counterfeit websites. In its 2022 survey, Mimecast found that more than three-fourths of respondents (76%, up from 72% the previous year) were using monitoring services.
Mimecast says companies are making use of Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance (DMARC) to protect their brands. This email authentication protocol helps safeguard companies against domain spoofing by determining whether an email originated from within the domain with which it is associated. The Mimecast 2022 survey revealed 89% of respondents are already using DMARC or are in the process of implementing or considering implementing it within the next year.
If you would like to know more about DMARC and how you can safeguard your brand online, get in touch with our experts now on +97144553100 or email: sales.uae@cobweb.com.
This is the managed, collaborative package for any company big or small, from start-ups to midgrade SMBs with around 25 staff who value and prioritize collaboration, particularly the remote collaboration which is hallmarking next normal business operations.
If you have staff working from home, or to a hybrid or fully remote schedule, or you have off-site offices and locations or want to collaborate and liaise online with clients/suppliers, this is the secure solution that lets you operate safely and collaborate effectively all over the world with all the necessary tools and settings in place.
Review our bundled offerings, and earmark what you think suits you.