DRS: Services and Technology to Protect Prized Assets

The Covid-19 pandemic was almost universally negative in its sweeping, crushing impact on businesses, but it was those in the tech sector that were among the only ones left booming. Information and Communications Technology (ICT), financial services and FinTech companies all sought to scale up operations, while lockdowns and work-from-home instructions catapulted digital systems to the fore and forced brick and mortar businesses to urgently revaluate.

This transition to digital, unplanned in its sudden implementation, created a surge in demand in cloud computing, artificial intelligence, machine learning, data analysis and, arguably above all else, cyber security. In recent years South Africa has fallen victim to a number of high-profile, high-cost ransomware attacks; immediately springing to mind are attacks on Transnet, which caused the company’s operations to be badly affected, or the ViewFines data breach which led to almost a million records containing sensitive personal data being exposed and the massive distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on a prominent Internet Service Provider.

When the Ponemon Institute puts the average cost of a data breach in South Africa at R36.5 million, cybersecurity can no longer be anywhere but firmly at the top of the agenda for companies in this new era of working. Even while employees do begin to slowly head back into offices, hybrid work models are likely to become part of the new normal which is coinciding with a severe spike in cyber criminals upping the ante. Perimeters have shifted and identity management is becoming increasingly important.

BOUQUET OF CYBER SERVICES

“With more and more people working from home, cloud networks are becoming security targets,” explains leading recruitment company Michael Page in its latest Market Overview and Hiring Insights Guide. “Cybersecurity is an issue of critical importance and companies are prioritising hiring talent with the expertise of putting safeguarding measures in place.”

Most cognisant of cybersecurity’s pivotal contemporary role is the industry expert in its implementation, with DRS applying the wisdom 25 years of insight to propose tailor-made, innovative and smart solutions to protect systems and data from theft, hardware and software damage, identify fraudulent activity and preserve and analyse digital evidence as well as managing overall security, governance and enterprise risk at a strategic level. “Our core business is undoubtedly cybersecurity,” affirms MD Mike Brown, “which we offer primarily to enterprise as well as to some large public sector organisations.

“We have a full bouquet of products that cover most aspects of the cyber stack in which we have some mastery – these days, with the frequency and severity of attacks it has become so much more important for companies to be able to deal with a greater range of threat and risk areas, and to have proper authentication, for example, in place.

“The sheer aggression of the attacks in the cyber space and their severity is increasing constantly, and threatening different areas – of course there are the expected areas like email security, but then we have to consider the IoT, and securing medical devices, for instance – talking through each vertical sector could take a lifetime and this is why we set out to provide services tailored to offer the pinnacle in information security.”

In addition to this traditional suite of wares are various services, which Brown describes as potentially the strongest aspect of the business, which can see companies fully outsource their firewall systems for DRS to manage entirely on their behalf.

While the bulk of DRS’s dealings take place in South Africa, this footprint is branching out steadily into SADC territories and, through the enterprises with which DRS deals directly, into offices across the wider continent which it also services. “Belonging to the global CYBER1 group, we also have sister companies based in Africa and the Middle East,” Brown adds, while September heralded a partnership with a national lottery and business partner in Peru, seeing DRS expand into the South American market via a fully operational managed service. 

“This initial partnership enables CYBER1 to demonstrate value across the organisation’s security infrastructure, providing an opportunity for other solutions and services that further remediate against a number of vulnerable endpoints. In addition, we are now also delivering these services in existing markets, through our trusted and established delivery units in these regions.

“For DRS, a measured expansion with our managed services solutions provides a scalability that meets market demands, and that ensures investments in resources are related to a rise in growth.”

EVER-CHANGING CHALLENGES

Even in his relatively short tenure with DRS to date, having joined 18 months prior, Brown has witnessed remarkable change and growth, both in the scope of its offering and physical size. “Our biggest recent investment, in terms of both time, effort and money, has been into developing our security operations centre (SOC),” Brown reveals, “and we have invested heavily into twinning this with exceptional staff.

“We are currently offering services across a couple of continents through our SOC, and now the most important for us is to build and capitalise on this provision. It isn’t something we have focussed on before, but it is progressing very positively at this stage.”

With such strong uptake and presence in the industry, the next natural step is having the space to accommodate the burgeoning business. “One of the main things on our roadmap to come later this year is that we are having to build and gain more premises, such has been the extent of our growth and expansion in this industry,” Brown states. “This is with the intention of housing our SOC in a truly purpose-built, standalone building, which is under construction at this moment, and to fulfil the necessary compliance as this becomes an increasingly central part of the business.”

DRS’s ability to make such moves, and continually progress the business, is all the more impressive considering the ‘rollercoaster ride’ conditions that Brown depicts of the sector and its continually evolving technologies. “The trick is to try to stay ahead of the game on as many of the attacks as possible, and the different vectors from which people will try to gain access,” he states. “This means that it is impossible to say exactly what our next product or development area will be, as it simply evolves too quickly. In six months, our current intentions may have changed completely as new technologies emerge.

“It is very hard for us to predict in which direction we will be heading in three, or five years; what is more important is that we drive and grow multiple avenues of the business and target an ever-broadening range of customers.” Even in an industry where the challenges evolve and multiply in such a rapid and diverse way as in cybersecurity, and scammers discover more and more nefarious and convincing ways to mislead, DRS is keeping apace and showing the dexterity required to detect, protect and resolve.

“We have just posted a record year for the company, and this has continued into the first quarter of this year,” says Brown, “which speaks to the success of what we are doing. The importance of cybersecurity in today’s business environment is paramount in order to stay ahead of cybercriminals, and although the vast majority of businesses today are aware of the dangers of cybercrime, too many are not effective at preventing breaches and other security events.

“It is only through a combination of products and services that cyber resilience is built, and here at DRS we are constantly refining the services and technology to scan and protect assets and provide the tools and knowledge required for a secure environment.”