MEA Q4 2018

MEAMARKETS / Q4 2018 5 NEWS , The Moroccan Air- ports Authority (ONDA) partnered with National Avia- tion Services (NAS) (www.NAS.aero ), the fastest growing aviation services pro- vider in the emerging markets to launch the first electronic gates (E-gates) at the Pearl Lounge in the Marrakech Menara Airport de- partures area. This is the first of its kind solution across Africa. With this new state-of-the-art, self-service check in, guests vis- iting the Pearl Lounge can access the lounge faster without check- ing in at the reception desk or waiting in a queue. The passen- gers simply scans their printed or online boarding pass at the gate and enter the lounge. The E-gate effectively captures all the boarding pass data, checks eligibility, enters the transaction into a database for billing and re- porting, and opens the gate for el- igible passengers - all in less than two seconds. The E-gate also supports lounge membership cards and vouchers. The same technology will soon be adopted at other Pearl Lounges in Morocco as well as across other lounges in the NAS network. NAS has been exclusively man- aging the refurbishment and oper- ations of 16 lounges across nine E-Gates Offer Quicker Lounge Access to Passengers airports in Morocco, following a ten-year concession awarded by the Moroccan Airports Authority (ONDA). Hassan El-Houry, Group CEO of NAS said “As the exclusive lounge operator for the Moroc- can Airports Authority (ONDA) in Morocco, NAS is responsible for bringing world class facilities and services to the local airports. Since kicking off operations in the country, we have invested in infra- structure, resources and training; provided operational expertise, state of the art technology solu- tions and industry benchmarked services, to launch and manage refurbished lounges across the country. The newly introduced E-gates will help enhance our offerings in the country and am- plify our efforts to ensure that Moroccan airports supersede recognised international airports around the world.” NAS is currently present in 17 countries across the Middle East, Asia and Africa; providing ground handling services to seven out of the world’s top ten airlines and managing 31 airport lounges. With an expanded portfolio of aviation services and certified by IATA Safety Audit for Ground Op- erations (ISAGO), NAS also has demonstrated expertise in sup- porting local hub carriers in the Middle East and Africa. The Enemy Within - Insider Threats on Campus a Major Cause for Concern In addition to the high number of devices making managing high- er education networks difficult, internal threats are a factor with 48 percent of IT administrators believing the greatest security risks come from within the cam- pus. For example, 54 percent of IT administrators say at least 25 percent of student’s devices come onto campus already in- fected with malware. Also, one in three students have reported knowing of fellow classmates that have attempted malicious acts on the school’s network. Poor Network Practices and Outdated Security Measures to Blame However, students are not the only ones at fault for poor network practices. In the last two years, 60 percent of faculty and staff have not made any network security changes, and 57 percent use out- of-date security measures, such as updating passwords as a se- curity precaution. Lack of education on security best-practices is one of the major contributions to student and fac- ulty poor security hygiene. Thirty nine percent of IT administrators reveal that their users not being educated on security risks is one of their biggest challenges to keeping the network secure. Beyond user error though, out- dated network technology poses another challenge. Seventy one percent of students and faculty revealed that the school networks suffer performance issues at least once a month. Additionally, only 52 percent of current network management solutions have DNS provisioning capabilities and can provide remote network access control. “As higher education institutions embrace digital transformation and users become more device reliant, their networks have be- come more complex and diffi- cult to manage,” said Infoblox CTO of Field Engineering, Victor Danevich. “With this complexity, networks become more volatile and vulnerable to cyberattack if Moroccan Airports Authority (ONDA) Partners with National Aviation Services (NAS) to bring Innovation to Airports in Marrakech with E-gates at Pearl Lounge proper network security meas- ures are not in place.” Higher Education Security Var- ies Across the Globe In looking at the data globally, Germany was least confident in campus networks with 75 per- cent noting they did not feel their personal devices were secure on campus networks, compared to 92 percent in the UK. The UK has the most trust in their students taking precautions to secure their sensitive data with 75 percent trusting students, while only 47 percent of the US felt the students were taking necessary steps. Help is on the Way Higher education institutions need to gain full visibility into all connected devices to prevent unwanted network threats. In- telligent DNS security solutions can help detect vulnerabilities by identifying unusual and poten- tially malicious network activity and provide deeper control at the infrastructure level. Antivirus solutions are not enough, colleg- es and universities need network monitoring solutions that leverage machine learning and artificial in- telligence to identify common ma- licious actors and prevent future attacks. Additionally, implement- ing Single Sign On with two-factor authentication for all systems ac- cessed by students can address the password challenges by en- forcing password changes, vali- dating identity, and providing the ability to quickly disable accounts when issues arise. “In the Middle East, higher learn- ing institution IT professionals are facing challenges that their peers in business enterprise rarely face and use inadequate tools in an attempt to protect their users and their schools. In an era where all entities must protect personal user data and intellectual prop- erty, learning institutions appear underprepared and to be taking unnecessary risks. They have some of the most challenging net- work scenarios in the world and need world-class tools to help them meet the mounting threats,” concludes Ashraf Sheet, Region- al Director, Middle East & Africa at Infoblox.