Microsoft on Tuesday says it is committed to providing businesses in Africa with a trusted and secure environment within which to transform their operations digitally.
Pratik Roy, Microsoft’s Business Group Director, Security and Modern Workplace for Middle East and Africa Multi-Country Cluster (MEA MCC) covering Africa, Levant and Pakistan, gave the assurance at the 2020 Cyber Africa Summit held in Lagos.
Daily Trust reports that the event brought together over 300 IT industry leads and professionals in associated risk, compliance, cyber law and forensics fields to share ideas around trends, cybercrime and related challenges in Nigeria and prescribe solutions to them.
According to him, the availability of cloud, mobile, and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies is fueling major disruptions such that digital native startups leverage this new technology to disrupt longstanding business models while existing organizations are driving digital transformation to adopt the way they engage customers, empower employees, optimize operations, and offer products to customers.
While the challenges are significant, he said, there is also a massive opportunity to solve longstanding security problems associated with this next generation of computing.
He said: “Microsoft has always been at the center of empowering businesses to secure the environment in which they operate in.
“Our unique insights into the threat landscape create a hub where all endpoints are protected, attacks stopped, and response time accelerated.
“We’ve been able to do this through educating through such forums and facilitating our customers move to the cloud – adoption of modern platforms and embracing comprehensive identity, security and management solutions.”
It was learnt that Microsoft’s security solutions housed by the AI capabilities are trained on 8 trillion daily threat signals and the insights of 3,500 security experts.
Pratik added: “Our security specific solutions identify and respond to threats 50% faster than what was possible only 12 months ago – a stark indication of not only the pace at which technology advancements are able to evolve, but also insight into an organization’s crucial need to keep abreast.
“Today, Microsoft Security solutions can automate 97% of the routine tasks that occupied defenders’ valuable time just two years ago.”
He noted that Microsoft Threat Protection breaks down security silos so security professionals can automatically detect, investigate and stop coordinated multi-point attacks.
It weeds out the unimportant and amplifies signals that might have been missed, freeing defenders to work on the incidents that need their attention. With identity protection as a core component designed for Zero Trust, he pointed out.
“For us, participating in the Summit was an invaluable opportunity to connect with experts across the local region – ultimately bridging the gap between leading security solution providers such as Microsoft and other security professionals.
“We are highly excited for what’s to come, not only from today’s proceedings, but also in impending advancements and breakthroughs as we continue in the fight against cybercrime,” he said.
