“Why haven’t we thought about hardware as a part of the cybersecurity equation?”
The main question left with our webinar attendees after our inaugural data center security webinar, titled “No Downtime, No Data Loss: Next Gen Server and Data Center Security,” on 10 July 2024.
The webinar examined the critical role that intelligent hardware-based security solutions will play in securing the future of data centers and servers. Enabling the ability to not only detect and mitigate threats, but also secure data across the life cycle of a potential attack. This critical capability to minimise downtime and deliver instant data and system restoration is a much-needed feature for today’s data-laden organisations, and one of the key features of Flexxon’s X-PHY Server Defender.
Watch this clip featuring our Product Manager, Nelson Chia, to witness how Server Defender rapidly detects, responds and restores following a simulated Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack.
Our panel of experts
The highlight of the hour-long webinar was the industry round table, which brought together speakers from across the data center and hardware ecosystem. Moderated by our Business Strategist for US markets, Jenevieve Que, our panelists were:
- Doris Li Yeh, Co-Founder and CEO of Mirapath
- Maitjian Welke, Co-Founder and CISO, CMIT Silicon Valley Solutions
- Eduardo Cabre, Security Software Architect and Principal Engineer, Intel Corporation
- Camellia Chan, Co-Founder and CEO, Flexxon
What they had to say
- Maitjian Welke, Co-Founder and CISO, CMIT Silicon Valley Solutions: Discussed the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, especially on small and medium enterprises. Highlighting the migration of data towards the Cloud within a short amount of time, consequently increasing the attack surface. At the same time, these organisations are still learning and trying to manage the layers upon layers of software solutions. This complexity is a boon for the “army of scouts” within cybercrime organisations, as they hunt for their next target.
- Doris Li Yeh, Co-Founder and CEO of Mirapath: Highlighted the rapid growth of integrating AI into data centers, and how the new breed of AI data centers are proliferating. This raises the necessary action of investigating these new areas of application and ensuring security is heightened in a holistic manner – such as through Flexxon’s Server Defender solution. When doing so, businesses must consider the cost and complexity of integration. They must also evaluate what hardware upgrades needs to occur, and then monitor closely after.
- Eduardo Cabre, Security Software Architect and Principal Engineer, Intel Corporation: Noted the shift in focus over the past few years from software-centric and network-based security solutions to hardware options. Highlighting that this evolution comes as a result not only from the developer’s perspective, but also through increasing customer demand for in-built security within the hardware. This gives rise to increased development in areas such as confidential compute, hardware roots of trust, supply chain security embedded in the hardware, and platform security. All of which focus on introducing mechanisms focused protection, detection and recovery.
- Camellia Chan, Co-Founder and CEO, Flexxon: Illustrated the modus operandi of software systems as guardians of the external environment, likening it to a nation’s military or police force. Which result in challenges such as the overwhelming number of threats and constantly changing tactics of criminals in such a vast environment. In addition, these security forces typically identify threats based on a database of criminal activity (a known danger), rather than brand new and emerging threats (a Zero Day threat, in security terms). Hardware serves as an essential complement to this external monitoring, filling in the gaps by leveraging on a closed environment to gain three unique advantages: A closed operating environment, rapid response times, and immunity from manipulation.
So what can be done?
It comes as no surprise that our panelists spoke in unison about the escalating cyberthreat environment and the need for truly groundbreaking solutions to counter this ever-present danger.
Hammering home this point, Maitjian compared the software security industry to a race – a constant race against hackers to develop solutions that they are not yet aware of, only for them to catch up again, and the cycle to repeat itself.
A situation which is far from ideal, and should not be accepted as the norm. Weighing in on this, Eduardo predicted that the security industry will see the continued integration of AI to augment existing solutions for better detection and response. Most importantly, that in time AI will have the ability to correlate data across multiple silos, especially when it has access to the source of information – aggregating and analysing across multiple individual aspects of security such as identity and access management and incident detection and response (IDS). Resulting in capabilities that reach beyond what humans can do, enabling much more accurate and rapid response times.
Beyond detection and response, rapid recovery is another essential element that businesses desperately need. Yet the conventional recommendations remain highly manual and error prone. Camellia touched on the challenges faced by such recommendations, including incident response plans, data backups and implementing redundant systems. She posited that we should instead leverage on technology to do the work for us, to simply press a button and get back up into action. Which is exactly what X-PHY Server Defender has been designed to do, through Flexxon’s patented Matrix Shield technology.
Rounding up the discussion, Doris reinforced the importance of moving away from reactive security approaches and being proactive instead. The reactive approach already sets organisations multiple steps and probably even years behind attackers. Thus, she concurred with Eduardo’s point about the integration of AI to achieve a truly proactive security posture, highlighting Flexxon’s hardware-based X-PHY solutions as a innovative solution that enables proactive security. Finally, she urged decision-makers to think about how they assess new technologies, determine the best integration approach based on individual requirements, and a continuous review of effectiveness and methodologies.
Join the Server Defender early access program
The early access program is now open for qualified partners, who will gain access to advanced features as they are released. Early access partners will also play an important role in shaping Server Defender’s development, ahead of its full launch in Q2 2025.
Sign up here: https://defender.x-phy.com/
Start your Server Defender journey
Contact our Sales Director, Irene Yeo, for further inquiries or follow-up questions at [email protected]
Explore our resources
Read more about Server Defender and the state of data center security
- Server Defender early access launch at RSA 2024: https://x-phy.com/flexxon-fortifies-data-center-security-with-x-phy-server-defender/
- Hardware cybersecurity leader, Flexxon, introduces Server Defender, published on SC Media: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJyKb05Jy1Q
- Your data centre is a castle so build a solid defence, published on Intelligent Data Centres: https://www.intelligentdatacentres.com/2024/07/03/your-data-centre-is-a-castle-so-build-a-solid-defence/
