With cyber threats rising rapidly, security service providers see an increase in demand for their products, prompting them to invest in latest technologies such as machine learning to predict and prevent attacks.
Paladion Networks, a B2B cyber security service provider for the banking sector, saw a 30 per cent increase in business in the last two years.
Spending on security
Shree Parthasarathy, Partner, Deloitte, said large enterprises are now investing almost 10-15 per cent of their IT spend in cyber security. The user base of Chennai-based K7 Computing Pvt Ltd, anti-virus software and internet security solution, increased rapidly over years. For instance, the company had 800 active users in 2010, but it now has 5,000 daily users. The company is now focusing on expanding its B2B segment.
According to a recent report, the cyber security market is projected to grow at the rate of 19 per cent between 2018-2023. Kesavardhanan Jayaraman, founder and CEO of K7 Computing Pvt Ltd, said the market size is estimated to be ₹1,000 crore with huge potential to grow.
Challenges
There are also huge challenges, say industry players. Evolving technologies give rise to new business models that increase the complexity of the threat potential, Parthasarathy said.
“Players like us have to constantly innovate products to gain customer trust,” Jayaraman said.
According to the ‘State Of Endpoint Security Survey’ conducted by Sophos, an endpoint security service provider, 90 per cent of the businesses in India have been either hit or are expected to be hit by ransomware. The survey found that traditional endpoint security is no longer enough to protect against the evolving ransomware threats.
New solutions
The companies, enterprises and the security firms have taken this seriously and are beginning to increase their investment in solutions. K7 Computing is investing more in infrastructure to increase the computing power to trap more malwares using advanced technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML).
These technologies that use the past data to learn the different patterns of cyber attacks and also incorporate the global attack pattern to make the detection more precise and intelligent.
“We are also working to see how fast we can detect and prevent the attack using these technologies,” Jayaraman said. This includes major upgrades periodically to keep up with the changing technology landscape.
Mobile threat
There is also more focus on mobile security solutions as the penetration of smart phones increases. Pete Turner, Senior Vice President of Consumer Sales & Marketing, Avast, said, “We are continuously working on updating our mobile security solutions to address these threats, leveraging AI and ML technologies.”
Jayaraman said the company is working on mobile security products as well but it is difficult to crack due pricing issues. “People do not want to pay a lot for the product in the apps. We are working to address the issue,” he added.