Sanctions have limited Iran’s access to high-tech equipment in the field of cyber security and its import has faced serious challenges. According to the activists of this field, old and not updated equipment and the migration of human forces have put Iran in an unfavorable situation in providing cyber security.
According to Iran digital economy annotation, in the fifth annual Bugdasht security event, the lack of expert human resources in cyber security teams and the high cost of hardware equipment due to sanctions were mentioned as serious problems in this field.
Mohammad Qayyem, Alibaba‘s security manager, says: “In the discussion of cyber security, although the weight of the scales is more towards human power, the effectiveness of equipment cannot be ignored either.” Sanctions have had an effect on the provision of equipment and the needs of the security teams are met with the minimum, currently we are also using internal equipment, but the sanctions have limited the arrival of high-tech equipment and necessities.
Being in trouble in all dimensions
Mohammad Ganji, the infrastructure and security manager of Mammut Digital, also calls Iran’s conditions unfavorable and continues: Iran is not in a good situation in terms of security conditions. Although this issue has been neglected in Iran, it has found a lot of demand in the world, and these factors have made human forces prefer to work in countries like Germany, Australia, and even the Persian Gulf and the UAE without licensing problems, filtering, and sanctions, with greater concentration and rights. To operate Ganji also says about the conditions of security equipment and its conditions in Iran: We have many problems in the field of security equipment, and maybe the human force can compensate up to 60% of this gap with their skills, but the equipment is the second and important dimension of completing the processes of the security teams.
Naser Niknam, the information security manager of Digikala, confirms the challenge of manpower regarding the conditions of cyber equipment in Iran and adds: There are two parts in providing security, equipment and manpower, and each has a fifty-fifty share in it. In the conditions of embargo, it is simply not possible to import goods, and although the equipment is localized, in fact, the security equipment is on the cutting edge of technology, and its up-to-dateness plays a significant role in improving the quality of security.
Among the remains, the second hand, the third…
Fatemeh Keshavarz, Irancell’s senior director of security architecture and planning, continues: In the conditions of embargo, we have to look for similar or even second-hand and third-hand products. But with all the challenges we have both in terms of human and equipment, we have to fill the gaps and the current approach is to focus on services and train enthusiastic forces and take advantage of the remaining knowledge that comes to us.
Fatemeh Keshavarz adds about the role of equipment: on the one hand, the most skilled human forces cannot do anything with their bare hands and without up-to-date equipment, on the other hand, organizations that have been able to procure up-to-date equipment with difficulty have not been able to improve the cyber security of companies provide themselves With a very small percentage, expert staff can compensate for a part of the lack of equipment, but this percentage is insignificant and equipment and human resources are necessary and necessary for each other.
Saeid Kazemi, the chief information security manager of Tapsi, considers human power to be the most important element and explains: human power is the priority, and after that are the tools. A skilled force that can understand and analyze cyber attacks with knowledge and experience and prevent them from happening. In fact, security is about quality, not quantity. There are many open source tools, but the quality of the commercial tools is much higher and the corporate version is different from the free tools. But in the end, there must be equipment that human power can exploit and analyze more logically.
There is equipment but at the highest price
Milad Sajjadi, Director General of Security of Tejarat Bank, continues: It is very difficult to provide security equipment for companies that operate at the edge of technology, and sanctions have limited access to the supply of the latest models, but human resources are a more important aspect of the story that can guide technology. On the other hand, although sanctions have made access difficult, it is not impossible to reach high-tech equipment, but the price of providing it has increased sharply.
Shahram Bakhsha, deputy CEO of Tose’e Ta’avon Bank in planning and information technology affairs, confirms this and adds: the role of manpower in cyber security is undeniable, but technology and technological equipment are constantly updated and the nature of cyber attacks changes every day.
As a result, the equipment must always be up to date. But the cruel sanctions have made it difficult for the Iranian market to import equipment and have had an impact. Of course, not to the extent that we cannot access the equipment, the sanctions have increased the costs and we have to use intermediary companies.
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