AI helps in staying ahead of ever-evolving threats

In a chat with VARINDIA, J Kesavardhanan, Founder and CEO, K7 Computing discusses about Cryptocurrency and the theft/fraud which takes place in the digital money space, AI to play an important role in cyber security domain, measures to curb cyber attacks and much more  

India is still struggling with Cryptocurrency in terms of theft and fraud. So how can K7 Computing come to rescue in that?
Cryptocurrencies have been praised and accepted to represent the future of digital money as they leave behind the need for middle men, making it easier to transfer funds anywhere in the world instantly and with irreversible transaction footprints.

Bitcoin, Blockchain and Smart Contracts are all terms which have been commonly used in conjunction with the technology behind cryptocurrency, using the principles of cryptography to secure transactions. However transactions can also be completely anonymous so the widespread adoption of cryptocurrencies has led to an increase in security concerns around it. Bitcoin has been the cryptocurrency platform abused most by cyber criminals to demand permanent, untraceable ransom payments, and many bitcoin trading platforms have been hacked so far.

The latest trend involves cyber criminals resorting to illegal mining for cryptocurrency directly on several types of devices whether laptops, desktops, servers or smartphones. This problem is serious and is not going to go away since the profits are huge and the risk of getting caught is currently pretty slim.

K7 products detect and block not only crypto mining malware and malicious websites that do crypto mining via the user's browser, but also ransomware which attempt to demand ransom payments in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin.

How can Artificial Intelligence be a supporting pillar to cyber security firms in the upcoming time?
Artificial Intelligence (AI) plays a key role in staying ahead of the ever-evolving threats because it allows accurate processing of large volumes of data to spot patterns, thus making linkages to understand the modus operandi of cyber criminals. This can be used to design and implement better security features with proactive protection capabilities quickly and accurately.

This is why Artificial Intelligence has helped in proactively detecting and defending against attacks where other techniques have fallen behind. The collaboration between Artificial Intelligence and security provides cutting-edge approaches to solving cyber security problems at scale when compared to the more traditional rule-based approaches.

How can one control cyber attacks especially in bigger organizations?
Cyber crime is a trillion dollar industry. The increase in cyber threats every year is making it more and more difficult for organizations including SMEs, small and large enterprises to monitor and prevent these attacks.

All organizations, especially the large ones, are now going completely digital. Robustly protecting their assets requires a holistic, security layer based approach. It is important for enterprises of all sizes to invest in high-quality Anti-Virus and endpoint protection solutions to secure their infrastructure, data, transactions and communication.

In many cases the human is the weakest link. Therefore it is also important for organizations to constantly educate its employees on the latest cyber threats, how their devices are susceptible to these, and guide them on the need for installing robust security solutions on all their devices.

Constant awareness on cyber threats, adoption of safe practices for internet-surfing, constantly patching operating system and other common vulnerable software, and updating the security solution on the devices is the simple key to stay protected from cyber threats.

What are your plans in regard to expansion?
K7 Computing has a strong presence in the Consumer segment in India, and we are working towards further strengthening our proposition for the Enterprise segment. We are adding new and advanced solutions for Enterprise security, and we are also expanding our sales and marketing teams to cater better to the Enterprise segment. 

Our efforts to upskill within the cyber security industry is in tandem with the order by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to promote domestically-manufactured Cyber security Products. K7 Computing can proudly say that it is the only Cyber security player in India wherein all of its technology, products and product components are indigenously built in India.

What are the current focus areas of the company?
K7 Computing believes in evolution through innovation and has constantly proved this by creating cutting-edge solutions at every step along the way. The company aims at providing solutions that ensure business continuity and compliance by protecting sensitive systems and data from malware and security threats, securing network traffic and meeting regulatory and compliance requirements.

Currently, we are focusing on reaching out to various verticals with our offerings for SMEs and large enterprises. In addition, K7 Academy, which is my passion project is also successfully reaching out to various colleges across Tamil Nadu and in Bangalore, and we are hopeful that we will begin reaching out to universities across the country very soon.