From cyberbullying, online dating and virtual reality games now being a growing part of people’s everyday lives, to network security breaches and viruses being the stuff of bad dreams for cybersecurity managers, we’re all aware of ways in which the cyberworld is part of the real world. So it’s not surprising that we have cyber first responders also.

So says Risna Steenkamp, ESM Business Unit Manager at value-added distributor Networks Unlimited Africa. She explains, “First responders are people whose jobs involve them being the first at the scene of an emergency, such as a firefighter or a police officer. They’re trained in emergency first aid and other accident and disaster procedures. In the cyber universe, network first responders would be the first at the scene of a Day Zero attack in order to help an organisation with its response and recovery from the network attack.”

One such network first responder, says Steenkamp, is Uplogix, which provides out-of-band integrated remote management solutions that allow IT staff to manage remote networks as if they were onsite. Uplogix allows a remote admin to use the connections to the network infrastructure by monitoring the infrastructure assets of a production network gear over the console port – not the network.

In an recent report entitled ‘Network First Responder: Achieving Cyber Resiliency for your Network Infrastructure’, Uplogix states: “In an emergency, you call first responders because they are stationed in your neighbourhood for rapid response and have the tools and skills needed for the situation. Uplogix is your day zero first responder when it comes to response and recovery from a network hack.

“Uplogix deploys in the rack with your network infrastructure and utilises advanced out-of-band capabilities and automation for rapid remediation at the edge. When your network has been compromised, it’s all about speed to respond and recover... Uplogix has the secure out-of-band access and automation that you can rely on both as a ‘panic button’ to initiate a lockdown as well as the tools needed for a quick and deliberate recovery.”
Steenkamp adds, “We are used to thinking about network hacks in terms of enterprises versus threat actors, much like a situation in the physical world in which law enforcement officers or security guards respond to burglars and hostage takers.

“Adding in the element of a first responder-style functionality to network emergencies broadens our thinking and our holistic understanding of the need, not only to protect the network from threat actors, but also to keep it healthy and to recover from the breach as soon as possible. An innovative out-of-band management solution offers reliability, security features like monitoring and alerting, and quick reactions in the event of a network breach.”
The Uplogix document notes: “The time for action is now. Network security is like a tug?of?war. Every time the good guys make incremental progress, the bad guys come up with something new and powerful to secure the advantage. Deploying Uplogix as a network first responder is like adding people to your side, pulling the rope back in your direction and making your network more resilient.”

Uplogix is securely connected to managed physical or virtual devices and the cloud, continuously monitoring, taking automated actions and providing remote access. You can read the full Uplogix report here, and for more information on Uplogix solutions, please contact Janco Taljaard at janco.taljaard@nu.co.za.

About Networks Unlimited Africa
Networks Unlimited is a value-added distributor, committed to empowering African businesses through innovative technology solutions. Our focus includes the world's leading security, networking, storage, enterprise system management (ESM) and cloud technologies. As a company, we are dedicated to taking our partner ecosystem to new heights. We support our partners through operational excellence, a competitive pricing strategy and strong focus on education, with the view of investing in long-term relationships. We work with competitive, resilient businesses, who are leaders in their field of excellence.

Our offerings include a portfolio of products highly regarded by Gartner, such as Altaro, Attivo Networks, Carbon Black, Cofense, Fortinet, F5, Hitachi Vantara, NETSCOUT, NVIDIA, ProLabs, RSA, Rubrik, SentinelOne, SevOne, Silver Peak, Tenable, Tintri and Uplogix.