Z Services, a cloud-based cyber security solutions provider to enterprises in the Middle East and North Africa, will roll out consumer tailored solutions by 2019 to tap demand for cyber-crime countermeasures.
"Cyber-crime in general - organised or not organised - generates around $1 trillion (Dh3.67tn) revenues every year and it is growing at 20 per cent annually," Nidal Taha, president of the Z Services based in the UAE, told The National. "It is the number one crime in the value of dirty money even before drugs. Not only enterprises but cyber criminals are also targeting gullible individuals."
Z Services caters to some of the biggest companies in the region such as Etisalat, Saudi Telecom Company and Maroc Telecom, but is looking to offer individual consumer solutions next year.
Mena's share in the money generated through cyber crimes is around 20 per cent, said Mr Taha, adding, “cyber criminals are hacking individuals’ email accounts and blackmailing them, leading to huge loss of personal wealth.”
Z Services, in association with McAfee in California - the device-to-cloud cyber-security company - launched the first in-country cloud security solution to organisations across Mena last week.
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“We are the first in-country [provider], because the cloud is developed in the UAE where we will be hosting traffic. It’s not like other players who host the traffic on clouds abroad or that are developed outside. It will give us an advantage of being faster while responding or detecting any malware,” said Mr Taha.
With the addition of this solution, Z Services will extend its cloud-based customer offerings, and enhance its data protection and threat prevention capabilities across different platforms. The in-country solution also enables customers to remain compliant with regulations around data storage.
Cyber-crime costs reached about $600 billion globally in 2017, or 0.8 per cent of the world’s gross domestic product, according to a report by McAfee and Center for Strategic and International Studies based in Washington.
The cloud security solution "gives businesses the ability to better protect valuable information from cyber attacks by enforcing policies with enhanced visibility of data and user behaviour across cloud services and devices to stop security threats,” said Nigel Hawthorn, director of cloud security at McAfee for Europe Middle East and Africa.
