July 25 (SeeNews) - Swiss-Singaporean software company Acronis has been growing in the Balkans region at a rate above the average for the company, with its R&D centre in the Bulgarian capital, the company's largest, now employing 550 people and set to grow further, Philipp Roesler told SeeNews.
"Acronis has over 2,000 people worldwide but the Sofia office continues to be mission-critical because this is where our real assets are created, in software protection across all the different verticals. It's important to build this office up because Bulgaria has the right critical mass in terms of skilled workers and future opportunities as the economy becomes more modernised," Roesler told SeeNews in a recent interview.
Active in Bulgaria for the past five years, Acronis has been providing B2B cybersecurity services through distributors and resellers elsewhere in Southeast Europe (SEE) - in Romania, Turkey and, since the start of this year, it has a new office in Serbia. In other parts of the region, the company works through established local partnerships.
"Of course, we are always looking for new opportunities to grow and if needed, we will expand our presence," Roesler said.
BUILDING AWARENESS IS THE FIRST STEP IN CYBERSECURITY PROTECTION
A significant part of Acronis' R&D activities is focused on cybersecurity services for SMEs, which are the backbone of the global economy, while also the most important segment of the economies of SEE. Governments and public sector bodies are important end-users of Acronis' products as well.
"We need to pay more attention to educating, and helping governments as well as people in businesses in the region to be much better prepared for emerging cybersecurity threats in the era of generative AI systems like ChatGPT. At the same time, businesses need to be aware of potential entry points such as phishing attacks, because insufficient awareness and outdated software are making such cybercrime threats more efficient in the SEE region compared to others," Roesler noted.
According to the recently published Mid-Year Cyberthreats Report by Acronis, which was based on data from over one million
global endpoints, there has been a 464% annual surge in email attacks. Phishing remains the most popular form of stealing credentials, making up 73% of all attacks. Ransomware continues to be a major threat to large and medium-sized businesses, including government, healthcare, and other critical organisations.
According to Roesler, the risk is real across the whole SEE region, due to similar cultural approaches and economic issues, but so are the opportunities to establish best practices early on in the process of digitalisation of the economies.
"This is a message for the region: modernise the economy. But if you do, do it right from the beginning, and right from the beginning means with self-protection," Roesler pointed out, adding that recent figures show that around 30% of businesses still rely on outdated IT technology.
Sectors where cyberprotection will remain crucial, not just in SEE, but in Europe and worldwide, are e-government, transport and mobility infrastructure, healthcare, and renewable energy generation and storage.
AI TECHNOLOGY CUTS BOTH WAYS
Cybercriminals are using to their advantage the burgeoning large language model (LLM)-based AI market. Even as the number of new ransomware variants continues to decline, the attacks become more sophisticated. Cybercriminals are using AI and existing ransomware code to drill deeper into systems and extract sensitive information.
According to Acronis' report, there were 809 publicly mentioned ransomware cases in the first three months of 2023, with a 62% yearly spike in March alone from the monthly average of 270 cases.
Identifying source code vulnerabilities, cybercrime operations create, automate, scale and improve new attacks, including fraud prevention-thwarting attacks like deep fakes, through active learning, according to Acronis' cyberthreats report. In the first quarter of 2023, just over 30% of all received emails were spam and 1.3% contained malware or phishing links.
However, according to Roesler, AI technologies can also be harnessed for the benefit of cyberprotection, as Acronis has demonstrated for a number of years now in the development of strong tools for the detection of different threats, in particular ransomware.
Acronis is building a cyberprotection platform, and integrations with partners mean that the company is able to deliver solutions to customers even in areas where it traditionally does not have specific skills or software products.
INDUSTRY 4.0
In the new age of digital transformation, "Industry 4.0" - defined by the integration of cutting-edge technologies and data-driven processes - promises to unlock higher levels of efficiency, productivity and connectivity across various sectors. Implying the fusion of digital technologies, automation and data analytics within traditional industries, Industry 4.0 is a paradigm shift in industrial production, paving the way for smart factories, interconnected supply chains and intelligent decision-making systems.
Manufacturing, logistics, healthcare, energy and agriculture are just some of the sectors which stand to benefit from this leap forward into intelligent, agile and interconnected industrial ecosystems.
"In the world of Industry 4.0, where everything comes together and everything, which can be digitised, will be digitised, this also means that everything will become vulnerable," Roesler said.
When looking at innovative ways to ensure defence from cybercrime, it is important to distinguish between the different needs and risks for IT and OT, or operational technology, he stressed.
While confidential and sensitive data must be protected during the use of software, networks and data management systems in IT, no less attention should be paid to security in OT, or the controlling and monitoring of hardware devices, sensors, processes and systems used in industrial operations. These are tools that operate in real time or near-real time environments, such as energy grid balancing, surgical interventions or self-driving vehicles, where precise timing and synchronisation are critical, according to Roesler. OT failures can lead to physical damage, safety hazards, environmental disasters, operational disruptions, and pose potential danger to human lives. The consequences of a malfunction or cyberattack in an OT system can be severe and have long-lasting impacts.
"The priorities in cyberprotection overlap across different regions, be it the DACH or the SEE region. The SEE region, though, has the chance to establish best practices just as you are revving up your economies as governments and businesses become more and more open to technology. Everything which will be digitised should also be connected and accessible. The good news again is, it will be well protected, at least if you use our capabilities developed from Bulgaria," Roesler concluded.