Industry Partnership Forged Against Security Threats in AP

By Veronica C. Silva

November 23, 2011 — CSO — Three partners in the IT industry have agreed to collaborate to develop and distribute solutions and services focused on mobile security and cloud services.

Kaspersky Lab, and India's Tech Mahindra and Mahindra Satyam said they have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that will addresses security threats to consumers and enterprises in India and the Asia Pacific region.

Kapsersky Lab, an anti-virus and security solutions company, and Tech Mahindra, a provider of solutions and services mainly aimed at the telecommunications sector, said they will develop a range of security services offerings aimed at the small and medium businesses (SMBs).

Mahindra Satyam, a provider of IT solutions and services, and Tech Mahindra, are part of the US$12.5 billion Mahindra Group, a global conglomerate and one of the top 10 business houses based in India.

The three companies have agreed to focus their efforts on addressing security threats in the areas of mobility and endpoint security, and cloud services as the companies noted the increasing security threats in these areas.

Mobile users

The mobile security solutions are aimed at smartphone users who connect to the Internet for individual or office purpose. Security analysts have noted that mobile malware is one of the emerging security threats as more mobile devices connect to enterprise networks.

"With the rapid growth of smartphones and tablets and their use for commerce, new threats from mobile malware have already started becoming a major problem," said Lucius Lobo, vice-president, Security Services, Tech Mahindra. "Nearly six billion individuals today have a cellphone and can be the target of cyber criminals over the next two to three years. The partnership between Kaspersky Lab, Tech Mahindra and Mahindra Satyam will help address these challenges by bringing a comprehensive portfolio of mobile security solutions to consumers and enterprises on a wide scale."

Kaspersky Lab noted that about 70,000 new security threats are discovered every day, and 70 million malware has been collected in 2011 alone.

Bernie Bengler, director, cloud services / software-as-a-service, Kaspersky Lab, Asia Pacific, said: "On our mission to protect the world from malware and targeted attacks, we believe telecommunication companies play a key role. We see Tech Mahindra and Mahindra Satyam as strong partners as both companies provide services to telecommunication giants on a global scale. Only with strong partners will we be able to battle malware and targeted attacks successfully -- from endpoints all the way up to the cloud."

India market

"Information Security Services is growing at a rapid pace globally and we are doing very well in this area. Our understanding with Kaspersky Lab is to jointly address this market with solutions, platforms and models, to provide customers with new 'security-as-a-service' offerings and address mobile security threats," said C. P. Gurnani, CEO, Mahindra Satyam.

Kasperksy Lab also noted that India is one of the key markets for them which is why the partnership with the Mahindra companies is important in their strategy.

"Kaspersky Lab has reached the Number 1 position in the Indian AV market and with strong partners like Tech Mahindra and Mahindra Satyam, we can further grow our market share in India while extending the same success to other Asia Pacific markets. We are very excited about this partnership. It is the value-driven service orientation of Tech Mahindra and Mahindra Satyam to provide world-class security solutions to clients and the potential to win new business that will make this partnership a very fruitful and successful one," said Harry Cheung, managing director, Kaspersky Lab, Asia Pacific.

Read more about data protection in CSOonline's Data Protection section.

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