The perception of security amongst Indian SMBs needs to change

The perception of security amongst Indian SMBs needs to change

Alexander Gnatusin, Director of Channels, SA, Kaspersky Labs Asia talks of security challenges faced by Indian SMBs and how to surmount them

Sunday, August 15, 2010

What are the major challenges faced by SMBs in terms of security? Can you suggest steps to surmount those?

Kaspersky Labs is creating strong brand awareness of SMB solutions and educating customers on solutions that are good for their networks. One of the challenges is to provide information on the criticality of having secure networks to people. Right now we are observing the emergence of a strong SMB segment in India, but the perception on information security needs to be changed. For example, a small office could have a network of about 50 desktops/laptops and and it could have a couple of servers (file, mail, etc). All these need security. However, lack of knowledge comes in the way buying security for equipment. Generally, server protection is part of standard business solutions and you have some small amount of workstation protection, but still most workstations remain ‘protected’ with a home edition of an anti-virus or even without any protection at all.
In general, distributors should provide some sort of education to potential and existing customers on what sort of network problems could appear without proper network protection.

What's your analysis of the SMBs segment in India?
India has huge potential from amongst the APAC region. If China has achieved some wonderful results, India has space to grow and develop more. SMBs are the flesh of a strong corporate skeleton for any country. If SMB sector can show growth this is good for a country in general. India right now stands on the threshold of SMB growth. We at Kaspersky Labs hope that this trend of SMB growth will remain the same or even become faster in future. From our side we will provide soft price policy for companies who need to invest in a growing business.

Vendors offer total security solutions but many enterprises still opt for managed services. What is better?
This is a myth that multi-vendor security protection is like a multi-filter for threats. Even from a single vendor you get complete range of protection for workstations, servers, gateways, plus utilities that allow you to control network from one place. Kaspersky has a utility, Administrative Control (AdminKit) that allows system administrators to install and uninstall solutions remotely and accumulate reports at one place, provide different type of polices to different type of users / group of users, push updates centralize, work with AD and other useful features for system admins.
But for a multi-vendor protected network, a system admin can’t provide flexible policies and maintain network in proper condition as everything has to be controlled from different places. You can keep a few system administrators but would you be willing to pay through roof for their salaries? Having seen the pros and cons, it is upto the owner to decide what is better for him.

What are the current trends in security solutions?
Currently, vendors are adding some new security features such as device control, AD control, etc. into anti-virus products. This would make customers feel more secure about the anti-virus solution they have deployed. Development and deployment of new features has become a regular trend owing to the vicious cycle of threats and malware that keep emerging endlessly.

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