Etisalat’s Help AG launches zero trust security service for remote workforce

Businesses continue to struggle to find secure solutions to manage remote workforce as they cope with the operational challenges of Covid-19. Now, Help AG, the cybersecurity arm of Etisalat Digital, has launched a Zero Trust Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) solution to secure remote workers.

The Help AG Secure Private Access Service (HPA) is a managed cloud security service, delivered in a per-user per-month subscription model, targeting both large enterprises and small businesses. The service enables Zero Trust (trust no user, no device) network access for users to connect with applications both in their private data centres and in the public cloud.

The overnight shift of millions of workers from on-site to remote work has drastically increased the cyber attack surface making critical assets more vulnerable to unauthorised access and existing security infrastructure incapable of handling threats of the “new normal”.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has driven breakneck transformation in IT environments as companies have been forced to shift employees out of controlled network environments and ask them to connect virtually instead,” said Stephan Berner, chief executive officer at Help AG.

“However, many businesses across our region, where working from offices has been the norm for decades, have been caught unprepared during this time and found that their systems are neither scalable nor ready for the security challenges of a large remote workforce,” he added.

Read: Saudi Arabia led GCC in number of phishing attacks in Q2: Kaspersky report

For firms in the Middle East, HPA holds the advantage of an in-country cloud platform to reduce latency and comply with data residency.

A pre-Covid-19 study by research and advisory firm Gartner estimated that 60 per cent of enterprises will phase out their legacy VPNs with Zero Trust SASE solutions by 2023, with the number quickly rising after the outbreak.

SASE solutions are important because they enable IT teams to converge disparate point solutions into a more cost-effective and scalable cloud-delivered solution.