ECD: The Sheer Genius in Securing 'All Things Cyber'





ECD: The Sheer Genius in Securing 'All Things Cyber' Date: Thursday , December 04, 2014 The first cybercrime was noted around two centuries back in 1820 by a textile manufacturer in France who produced loom. Since then, it has travelled a long way to engulf the entire globe under its dark shadow. Today, cybercrime costs the global economy around $575 billion annually with U.S. taking a $100 billion hit, the largest of any country, reports McAfee. In this past two centuries, technology has also made advancement from loom manufacturing to probably every aspect of our life. The explosive growth in social media and data connectivity has permanently altered, and in several cases brought together the business and consumer landscapes. Unfortunately, this connectivity and access has a cynicism. It has empowered motivated, sophisticated criminals who operate below the silver lining making them untraceable. Thus, several organizations never realize they are being targeted until long after the damage is done. This electronic menace is becoming one of the most threatening ways of economic crime globally. In a world where the word \'100 percent security\' has no existence, putting a number on the cost of cybercrime and cyber espionage becomes the headlines every other day. Several entities never have clear insight into whether their network and the data contained therein have been breached or even to the extent, lost. Though criminals still have difficulty turning stolen data into financial gain, the constant flashing of such organizations should establish a capability that deals with incidents to help minimize threat and loss. Such organizations need partners who are trustworthy and reliable to the extent that they can provide them access to their valuable data to secure them and ECD is one of them. Ensuring High Quality Security This Cyber Security Risk and Assurance services company was incepted in 2008 by charismatic Kiran and is headquartered in London with their Testing Center of Excellence located in the Silicon Valley of Asia, Bangalore. With strong corporate governance practices and an effective delivery model, ECD has set the right standards and invigorated the industry through their innovative security solutions and uncompromised value & ethics. \"The cybercrime has progressed and nobody is spared in this. Right from simple email account to organizations, e-Commerce websites, to financial portals, almost anything can be accessed and misused. The modus operandi for these attacks has reached highly sophisticated levels and the crosshair is on some of the world\'s largest corporations and government entities,\" explains Kiran, CEO, ECD. ECD is engaged in high quality information security assignments with leading MNCs and governments across North America, South America, South Africa, Europe and Asia-Pacific. The proud owner of high credentials, ECD have high security testing center with robust governance, 24/7 Testing Center of Excellence (TCoE), well defined security testing strategy with in-house security research team, rigorous training on latest technologies with multilingual support, testing methodology and security reports in sync with industry\'s compliances and standards, and maintenance of highest quality industry standards with cost-effective solutions. Under the leadership of Kiran and with his highly experienced team comprising of over 100 ERS professionals across India and abroad, more than 10 certified Information Security Auditors and more, ECD is on the path to create a clean and no-nonsense cyber environment. ECD\'s security team has conducted over 1500 vulnerability assessments & penetration tests on web and e-Commerce applications, 400+ security assessments on mobile native apps and social media applications and more than 120 non-recursive network penetration tests. Their extended services including vulnerability assessment, penetration testing, functional testing, performance testing, managed security services, security audits, risk management services and digital forensics are par ahead compared to other services and security services companies within the industry. Moving above the value chain with their single goal to help clients address their organization\'s enterprise risk services, ECD has become the first line of defense for their clients. In this competitive world, corporate espionage is becoming one of the most basic practices to infiltrate a competitor\'s workforce and data. To be more precise, there are special interest groups thriving to perform corporate espionage with nation wise or state wise interest including the devil-eyed employees too. But corporates are mostly unaware of this below the line hactivism. Organizations miss to educate their employees and provide training to avoid such circumstances. ECD comes as a rescuer here as well. The company is raising awareness through training the employees of the customers and even to the extent temporary contractors to alter behavior and minimize the data breaches while accelerating the formula of \'at door of controls\'. ECD continues to become client\'s champion on their digital culture that leads to enhanced ownership and considerable accountability. \"There are threats like hacking, poor practices and corporate espionage. We have done a project in a corporate security initiative, since within organization, it is technical corporate measures against data theft, electronic surveillance especially for customer executive\'s strategy teams. We conduct formal training with assessment based approach and developed and delivered regular tailored arbitrated training suits which has different rules and requirements,\" adds Kiran. On the other hand, cloud is one of the fastest growing technology trends today. But the hackers have already cast the black magic on it as well. The recent incidents of hack involving celebrities are much more than a headline. It is probably the wake-up call for all of us who depend on the cloud to share sensitive information. Now we know that whether it is sensitive pictures or critical business data, it is all potentially vulnerable. But ECD continuously access the impact of larger internet connectivity and check the cloud providers for appropriate protection to secure infrastructure and data from being attacked. The company has created security policies for the third parties offering cloud services, and extended their security growth and control framework into market to give a clearer line of site in market compliance management activities. They have appropriate contacts and provisions along with several level agreements included for data stored in the cloud. As a security measure, ECD has restricted access to sensitive information only to authorized personnel. The company evaluates privileges, provisions for movers and timely removal of users accounts for the leavers. \"It is all about access security identification management. We also have password security where we meet appropriate standard complexity requirements,\" explains Kiran. ECD also follows a reporting pattern where they report to top executive level of customers. Kiran understands the pulse of the industry so well that his products and solutions prevent companies in any vertical from getting paralyzed. His over one and a half decade of hands-on experience in the IT security domain helped in building solid solutions for the industry and enhance client\'s brand and improved reputation indices along with the ROIs. He is one of the most reputed and respected technocrat in this volatile domain. Kiran very well understands that it is essential to create a pleasant and non-volatile work environment for the employees to thrive with success. Thus, the work culture and environment at ECD guarantees no downturn whatsoever for them and their clients alike. En route to Future With a vision to become one of the front runners in the domain of security services, ECD looks forward to acquire a company out of U.S. While plans to go public in the coming months are also on their cards, they don\'t negate the possibility of raising fund from a couple of investors who are interested to invest and be a part of their growth story. While the company serves clients in various countries, their current eye catching geographies for expansion are Europe and India with focus on SMEs, startups and the industries that are yet unaddressed.