Pre-empt the Perfect Digital Storm: Building Cyber-Resilience through Diverse Technology Platforms

In our world of AI, technology, and cybersecurity, I often find myself reminiscing about the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Just as that crisis caught us off guard, exposing our unpreparedness for a global health emergency, the recent high-profile cyber incidents like the CrowdStrike event and Microsoft Azure outages have revealed alarming vulnerabilities in our global digital infrastructure and a quite scary lack of preparedness by industry leaders. These events have sent shockwaves through the businesses, leaving organizations scrambling to reassess their security measures and digital dependencies. They affected the lives not only of IT users – whether complacent or diligent ones – but of millions stranded in airports, lacking basic health care, unable to access their funds or use their digital payment systems.

Digital Pandemic: The Reality of Cyber Threats

The past few days have been a stark reminder of the Y2K bug scare, but with a crucial difference: this time, the threat is real and actively unfolding. Unlike Y2K, where extensive preparations ultimately proved unnecessary, today's cyber threats are causing genuine, widespread disruption. We are witnessing a digital pandemic of sorts, where the contagion spreads at the speed of light, crossing borders and industries with impunity. Like COVID, it also reaches many organizations widely unprepared and open, relying on luck rather than a consciously resilient architecture and platform design.

Staying with CrowdStrike, the company recently highlighted in their Global Threat Report how adversaries are evolving to use more sophisticated and stealthy methods. For example, 75% of attacks in 2023 were malware-free, focusing instead on stolen credentials and social engineering tactics. The average time for an adversary to move from initial compromise to lateral movement within a network dropped to just 62 minutes, with the fastest breakout time recorded at a mere 2 minutes and 7 seconds.[1] [2]

Reflecting on my long journey in technological innovation and business transformation, from network digitalization in Europe and Asia, launching commercialized TETRA services, to revolutionizing telecom services in Azerbaijan and spearheading DETASAD's digital transformation journey in Saudi Arabia, one truth stands out: in the realm of technology and cyber resilience, diversity is not just an asset — it is our strongest and maybe only defense.

Embracing Technological Diversity: Multi-Platform and Hybrid (Public/Private) Multi-Cloud Architectures

This diversity is not just about technology stacks or cloud platforms. It's about a holistic approach that combines technological solutions and processes with human insight and adaptability. Throughout my career, I've seen firsthand how the most resilient organisations are those that leverage a variety of tools, vendor platforms, and approaches, each complementing the other to create a sum greater than its parts.

The Human-AI Collaboration

Moreover, over the last couple of months I've come to realize that true resilience comes not just from technological diversity but from the synergy between human ingenuity and AI capabilities. This blog itself is a product of that collaboration, supported by AI but with my personal thoughts, insights and experiences shaping its content. At DETASAD, we follow the same principle in our operations. For example, we use AI to design efficient architectures and optimize processes, but always with a human in the loop, ensuring that AI enhances rather than replaces our work. This approach ensures that we harness the full power of AI while maintaining the critical human touch necessary for nuanced decision-making.

This human-AI collaboration extends to how we approach problem-solving for our clients. We believe that those who can harness AI's power while maintaining a human-centric approach—understanding and addressing specific organizational needs rather than offering one-size-fits-all solutions—will be best positioned to navigate the challenges ahead. In line with our values of Collaboration, Integrity, Respect, and Innovation -CIRI, not only by coincidence sharing an acronym with the DETASAD Cognitive Intelligent, Reactive Infrastructure (CIRI) blueprint. It is not about pushing the latest DETASAD solution and technology for technology's sake, but about truly understanding each partners’ unique challenges and tailoring solutions that address your specific pain points as efficiently as possible.

Client-Centric Focus: Tailoring Solutions to Meet Specific Needs

At DETASAD, our commitment to a client-centric approach sets us apart. We take the time to understand our clients' challenges and fears, rather than pushing a pre-packaged solution. By listening to our clients and understanding their unique situations, we can build truly tailored solutions that address their specific needs. Our multi-platform and cloud strategy gives us the flexibility to propose the optimal solution, avoiding a one-size-fits-all approach. This ensures that our clients receive the most effective and efficient support, rather than a cookie-cutter solution.

Building Resilient Systems

As we stand on the edge of this new era in cybersecurity and digital threats, I'm more convinced than ever that our path forward lies in embracing complexity rather than shying away from it. We must build systems that are as diverse and adaptable as the threats they face, leveraging the best of both human creativity and artificial intelligence. Only then can we hope to stay one step ahead in this ever-evolving digital landscape, ready for the next storm without the fear of being swept away by the next wave.

The challenges we face are significant, but so too are the opportunities. By embracing technological diversity, fostering human-AI collaboration, and maintaining a clear focus on addressing real organizational needs and challenges, we can build a digital future that is not just secure but resilient in the face of whatever challenges may come. This vision drives me and my team at DETASAD every day, as we work to create a safer, more robust digital world for all.

Our Commitment at DETASAD? to our partners

DETASAD serves as a prime example of how a technology partner can support an organisation in protecting its business while benefiting from cloud and cybersecurity services through a single trusted partner. We have effectively implemented a multi-technology and multi-cloud strategy, leveraging our own in-house developed Openstack/ Openshift ? and VMware? cloud architecture, along in partnerships with industry leaders like AWS, Huawei, and Nutanix. This strategy allows us to offer comprehensive cloud solutions tailored to the unique needs of various sectors, including Fintech, Government, Health, Education, Hospitality, and more which are fully data sovereign.

The lessons we are all learning painfully are equally relevant for your connectivity providers, internet services and satellite constellations. This philosophy is engrained in our platform design. By combining the strengths of different technologies and providers we are not only providing the building blocks of a Lego? box allowing to build individual solutions in line with our partner ambitions and specific challenges but equally important making them less susceptible to a single point of failure.

Our managed services operate around the clock, ensuring continuous monitoring and support from the SaaS to the application layer. Our Security Operations Center (SOC) is at the forefront of threat detection and response, providing advanced vulnerability assessments, penetration testing, and proactive threat monitoring. This comprehensive approach ensures that our partners are not only protected against current threats but are also prepared for future challenges.

Why DETASAD?

We are proud of our 100% compliance with Essential Cybersecurity Controls (ECC) and over 93% in Cloud Cybersecurity Controls (CCC) from the Saudi Arabian National Cybersecurity Authority (NCA). All our operations and technology platforms are fully data sovereign, managed entirely by in-house teams without referring to external resources, ensuring the highest levels of security.

Call to Action

I would love to hear from you and start a discussion on how we can jointly as tech community protect our organizations and society. While I am convinced that platform diversity is one important component there are many other aspects to be considered. I feel that as leader of DETASAD I and the company have the duty to protect national interests in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the wider communities we thrive in.

You want to discuss specific challenges you are facing ?

If you want to understand how to protect your systems, you need a partner who listens, understands your needs, and builds an architecture best suited for your specific requirements. At DETASAD, we are committed to transparency and honesty. We look forward to working with you to develop the best individual solutions and continuously optimize and improve the value from your technology platforms. We want to understand your challenges and concerns and work with you to let you concentrate on your core business – providing outstanding value and service to your clients and generate value for all stakeholders.

For more information on how to enhance your technology architecture and cybersecurity resilience with a multi-technology strategy, visit [DETASAD](https://www.detasad.com) or reach out directly to me at [email protected], Contact us today to discuss and assess your situation to propose the optimal solution tailored to your needs .

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Abbreviations:

AI - Artificial Intelligence

AWS - Amazon Web Services

CCC - Cloud Cybersecurity Controls

CIRI - Cognitive Intelligent Reactive Infrastructure (=DETASAD blueprint for AI based infrastructure solutions)

CIRI – Collaboration/ Integrity/ Respect/ Innovation (=DETASAD consolidated value statement)

COVID - Coronavirus Disease 2019

ECC - Essential Cybersecurity Controls

IT - Information Technology

NCA - National Cybersecurity Authority

SOC - Security Operations Center

Y2K - Year 2000 (Millennium Bug)

[1] Source:CrowdStrike 2024 Global Threat Report: Adversaries Gain Speed and Stealth, February 21st, 2024, https://www.crowdstrike.com/blog/crowdstrike-2024-global-threat-report/

[2] Source: TechRepublic: CrowdStrike 2024 Global Threat Report: 6 Key Takeaways , February 26th, 2024, https://www.techrepublic.com/article/crowdstrike-2024-global-threat-report/

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