With the cost of global cybercrime expected to pass the $2 trillion mark by 2019, MTN Business has moved to protect its business clients from the growing risk of cyber-based fraud and theft.

“MTN Business has expanded its portfolio of business ICT services to become an end-to-end ICT partner for business. And because cybercrime and fraud pose a fast-growing risk to the financial wellbeing and even survival of South African businesses, we have stepped up our security focus to allow us to offer a complete suite of cyber security solutions to the local business market,” says Mandisa Ntloko, Head of Marketing at MTN Business.

MTN Business has incorporated the most important IT security technologies into its end-to-end security services offering for small and mid-sized business through to enterprise clients. At a competitive price point and hosted on MTN Business’s advanced backbone, the security portfolio is designed to deliver a compelling value proposition.

MTN Business’s security portfolio includes:

MTN Email Security suite helps protect against malicious emails spam, phishing attempts and provides a means of recovering emails in the event of mail accounts or a computer being compromised by malware. Optional content filtering, up to 10 years’ archiving and branding are also available. Cheaper than competing products and powered by the Symantec threat analysis engine, MTN Email Security gives clients full control over rule sets, quarantine and full visibility into mail flow.

Symantec Endpoint Protection provides intrusion protection, proactive threat protection and anti-virus protection against viruses, worms, Trojans, spyware, bots and adware. This managed offering hosted by MTN in a highly secure data centre combines best-of-breed end point protection technologies with MTN-developed security solutions, around-the-clock monitoring and extensive expertise.

MTN’s advanced Next Generation Firewall includes URL filtering, managed/unmanaged intrusion prevention and logging. Using the leading globally recognised solutions from Fortinet, the dedicated firewall can be hosted either in the customer’s premises or MTN data centre, and MTN Business is fully responsible for implementation, configuration, administration, maintenance and infrastructure support.

The Virtual Firewall. This cost effective alternative for low bandwidth network links or hosting environments offers the full functionality of a dedicated firewall including firewall configuration, administration, monitoring and support to protect corporate data and systems in a 24/7/365 managed solution hosted in South Africa by MTN Business.

MTN Business Vulnerability Assessment is an advanced web-based vulnerability and security scanning service using the Symantec Control Compliance Suite Vulnerability Management solution (Symantec CCS VM), that scans web applications, databases, networks, operating systems and other elements to accurately locate threats, assess their risk to the environment, and devise remediation plans.

Mimecast is an application, computing and storage infrastructure solution designed and developed to deliver a comprehensive email security service. Mimecast security features remove spam and viruses from emails before they reach the mail exchange. Mimecast also includes email continuity and archiving.

MTN’s MobileIron Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) solution provides end-to-end security on mobile devices and gives IT Managers a peace of mind that IT corporate policies are pushed beyond desktop, enabling effective mobile fleet and application management and security.

MTN’s IBM MaaS360 is MTN’s cloud EMM (Enterprise Mobility Management) service, suitable for the high, mid-range and small customer base. IBM MaaS360 Mobile Device Management provides visibility, security and control of smartphones and tablets in the enterprise. IBM MaaS360 Mobile Application Management provides an enterprise app catalogue with built-in security and operational lifecycle management capabilities, and IBM MaaS360 Mobile Expense Management helps organisations set corporate-wide expense policies and proactively monitor and track mobile data and application usage.

Effective IT security must include strong IT governance and the right partner or technology selections. “This will help to either mitigate an attack or allow for swift action when a breach occurs. The points of entry into a business network have increased due to Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) business decisions, migration to cloud based systems and moving to wireless access as primary means of connectivity.  While there is no silver bullet to end these threats, there are risk mitigating steps business should be taking,” concludes Ntloko.