Massive data and security breaches have become quite common in the past year. As the rate of technology advancement is increasing with time, people and their personal data are becoming more and more vulnerable and easily accessible. Facebook's massive security breach last year said that the attackers could see everything in a victim's profile, although it was never made clear if that included private messages or if any of that data was misused. Facebook had said that the bugs that enabled the attack have since been patched. This year in February, the Aadhaar data of nearly 6.7 million dealers and distributors of Indane, an LPG brand owned by the Indian Oil Corporation, was leaked.
Aruba recently announced a new innovation which can help guard against data breach now and also in the future. On April 25, Aruba's Director, Santanu Ghose while speaking at an event at the International Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore, said that one of their innovations can help in bringing about positive change in the field of data security. "From a data security perspective, we have to do two things — we have to know how to secure the device, who that device belongs to and it has to be admitted to the network with due authentication. Once you are connected to the network and you are performing some activity on it, there has to be a continuous process of posture checking that needs to be done — what the health of your data or network is at given points of time. The checking may show that the network might have been affected so either your data has to be stopped or you have to be taken out of the entire network so that you don't crash it or infect others," he said.
To this end, they have two offerings, "Aruba ClearPass is very central to this scenario — we call it network access control, through which you can control the network, can control the websites you go to and block the others that might bring in malware. It can be connected to multiple devices, such as IoT devices, cameras, and any other IP device. ClearPass uses deep packet inspection (DPI) to create behavioral profiles that enable precision fingerprinting. If any device exhibits abnormal behavior, ClearPass can automatically quarantine or remove it from the network," he explained. Aruba has also come up with a device called Aruba Introspect — a behavioural analytics device — that will be capable of understanding a user's pattern of behaviour thus enabling it to identify a behavioural anomaly in order to stop a breach attack. Aruba Introspect will help in times when somebody tries to mimic you on the network or steal your password.
Aruba's innovations now play a key role in educational institutes as well because education is gradually becoming technology-driven and students are finding it more effective to study or obtain information online.
Santanu went on to explain that learning courses online is becoming very important, "as people are not physically bound to attend classes anymore, for example, if a class is given a project they can collaborate and do the work and they need not be present on the same campus, they could do it online together. Wi-Fi is very important as the young generation is clued in on to the world of connectivity."
Santanu added how ethical hacking is gradually becoming a mainstream profession as universities and companies are sponsoring it in order to protect their own networks from any kind attack. "Universities are coming up with courses on ethical hacking, students are keen on learning how it works. Soon it will turn into a potential profession for students interested in networks and technology. I personally believe that ethical hacking is a healthy practice, you need a 'chor' (a thief) to find out different methods of stealing and use it against them to protect yourself," he explained laughing.
Another important aspect he mentioned during the event is that he feels there are enough job opportunities, however, Indian students do not have the required skill sets to pursue them. "This is what explains the concept of urban poor that is being discussed around the world. I think network and Wi-Fi will play a key role in shaping and honing the skills of youngsters. Aruba has been doing a lot of work in collaboration with the government to set up Wi-Fi enabled teaching centres in various villages across the country where rural children can benefit by learning through interactive classrooms. Anyone willing to teach can be connected to the network and the children in the villages can learn from a television showcasing a video of the tutor and interact with them," he concluded.
