Interview • Portraits T.I.C. - Informatique
Interview with Nicolas Arpagian, Orange: Cyber Security in a Digital Ecosystem
FOCUS #69 - Nicolas Arpagian, VP Strategy and Public Affairs, Orange Cyberdefense, shares about the cybersecurity and the digital economy.
The Digital economy requires permanent access to your data and information systems. This digitisation certainly achieves value creation but is also likely to find itself weakened by insufficient consideration to cybersecurity criteria. This is particularly the case when equipment falls victim to hacking and especially when the attack is executed in succession in order to maximise the effect on production lines, financial exchanges or the availability of public services.
“Our Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) based in Singapore analyzes cyberthreats in the Asia- Pacific region”
Thanks to monitoring tools managed in conjunction with ten Security Operations Centers (SOCs) which are spread across the globe, we can ensure the constant monitoring of companies’ computer equipment. This allows us to react quickly when unusual behaviour is detected: machine learning tools are continuously fed with a mass of technical information extracted from companies’ infrastructure. This artificial intelligence assists analysts in developing response scenarios. Its algorithmic capacity enables the exploitation of billions of security events. This analysis is further enhanced with technical signals captured by the Orange group telecom network. Our global scale and presence provides observation capabilities unparalleled among security service providers. The sharing of information via the international alliance of Computer Emergency Response Team (CERTs), of which Orange Cyberdefense is a member, completes the grid for malware in circulation. Our Singapore based CERT team analyzes cyberthreats in the Asia-Pacific region. It is crucial to have a worldwide presence in order to be in a position to acquire and assess information on a global scale. Our experts located in Kuala Lumpur contribute to the collection and exploitation of data pertaining to virus and malwares. This regional cooperation is key to developing the most effective responses to facing down the opportunistic tactics adopted by today’s hackers.
“Like in a hospital, we monitor viruses in a highly secured epidemiology laboratory”
Via its epidemiology lab and Signal Intelligence Orange Cyberdefense brings together rare expertise to analyse malicious software. Like medical teams specializing in viruses, the Orange Cyberdefense teams study these aggressive programmes in different technical environments. This is done in order to understand their characteristics and the intentions of their developers: this empirical approach is useful in identifying attack strategies used by hackers. Their classification, informed by the analysis of the laboratory’s experts, enhances their ability to anticipate digital aggressions.
This expertise is brought together in order to help prevent a potential cyber-attack or to identify and limit the impact of an actual breach. In the circumstance where an attack could not be prevented incident response specialists (CSIRT, Computer Security Incident Response Team) are available to rapidly intervene and contain an incident regardless of the geographic location. This ability to mobilize experienced practitioners to intervene quickly and take appropriate actions to protect the client’s interests, preserve evidence and promote a return to normality is a major differentiating factor in choosing one’s cybersecurity partner. Orange Cyberdefense is dedicated to providing services to support decision-makers and companies at a time when cyber-attacks are at their most destabilizing. Being the trusted partner in the protection of a company’s essential data goes to the core of Orange Cyberdefense’s mission.
In terms of the digital economy, one must be in the position of guaranteeing availability, integration and interoperability of the data which is collected and exchanged. We ensure that we are present at each stage of the production cycle and exploitation cycles in order to verify that its use corresponds to the interests of its owners.
Orange Cyberdefense in brief
• Turnover : 353 M€ in 2018
• Over 1500 people
• + 1600 multinational and thousands of S ME customers worldwide
• https://cyberdefense.orange.com/en/
