"The greatest change is the sophistication of criminals"

EDN Asia recently met Ed Eliff, Director, Asia- Pacific Security Services, VeriSign, and discussed security issues. Excerpts:

Qns: What do you think are the main issues in network security environment today, and how is VeriSign addressing them?
Ed Eliff: The main issues are strong authentication for consumers and moving beyond passwords. Shoring up consumer confidence is a great challenge for organizations offering online services to bring more consumers within the ambit of e-commerce and online banking.

VeriSign has adopted an open approach based on open standards. VeriSign Identity Protection is a comprehensive suite of identity protection and authentication services to increase and protect consumer digital identities. It is delivered across a shared network, and helps manage risk for financial services, ecommerce companies, and other enterprises that digitally interact with consumer personal data.
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Qns: How has network security environment changed in the last couple of years, and what more changes do you see coming?
Ed Eliff: The greatest change is the sophistication of criminals. Malicious attacks are increasing in frequency as well as advancing in technology. Phishing, Internet identity theft, and online financial frauds are now being committed by people who are far more sophisticated technologically than crime perpetrators two years ago. While methods to authenticate customer digital identity are becoming better, organizations offering Internetbased products and services have to be continuously on their toes to outwit criminals trying to catch up with technology.

Qns: Can you throw some light on the latest enterprise security initiatives of VeriSign?

Ed Eliff: Two of our latest initiatives are Fraud Detection Service and Security Risk Profiling Service.

Fraud Detection Service provides an invisible means of delivering protection to customers. Using advanced anomaly detection technology, the service detects fraudulent logins and transactions in realtime without affecting legitimate user's Web experience. The solution is equipped with a rulebased system as well as a self-learning system that enables it to adapt to customer usage habits.

The Security Risk Profiling Service is the industry's first comprehensive solution to help enterprises identify, visualize, and quantify information security risks. It takes a holistic view of threats, vulnerabilities, network access policies, and business impacts. The service includes sophisticated simulation and modeling technology to enable customers to realize the impact of emerging threats and potential network security policy changes.

Qns: How much of your design and development work is being done in Asia?

Ed Eliff: By a rough estimate, about 20 percent of the design and development work is being done in Asia. Asia is very important to us both as a development center and as a market. We are now doing some high-end designs in Asia, and the trend to shift activities to Asia is growing.

Qns: What are your plans for expanding in Asia?

Ed Eliff: VeriSign has expanded its communications network into Asia to meet customer demand for improved international roaming services. SK Telecom will be the first CDMA operator in the region using its new network services. VeriSign has built network Signaling Transport Points and Signaling Control Points in Osaka and Tokyo. The Company's Intelligent Messaging Processor services consisting of applications, platforms, and IPs developed to support international roaming, are now available in Asia.

You can reach Kirtimaya Varma at kirti.varma@rbi-asia.com