CNBC: 8th Global Family Office Investment Summit – Interview with Babak Pasdar

 

Watch Acreto CEO/CTO Babak Pasdar interview with CNBC at the 8th Global Family Office Investment Summit in Dubai.  

Interviewer: 8th  global family office Investment Summit, we are here with another distinguished guest of this event with Mr. Pasdar from a Acreto IoT Security. It’s good to have you here sir.  

Babak Pasdar: Thank you very much for having me.  

Interviewer: First of all before delving into what you are doing with your business; what is at the core of your business why are you here in Dubai why it is so important to take part in this event hosted by the Rito’s family office?  

Babak Pasdar: Well we are a global platform so it’s very important for us to have partners and presence in every region of the world and this is a very critical region that we feel we want to service fairly immediately upon the availability of our platform.  

Interviewer: So this event gives you a sort of gateway to the GCC region, right?  

Babak Pasdar: It gives us a gateway to partners that we think are going to be the right kind of partners to help us enable this region with our service.  

Interviewer: Which kind of service do you provide your customers with? It is related to Internet of Things but in which sense?  

Babak Pasdar: Sure! Internet of Things technologies have a very very different operating model from traditional security tools, so Internet of Things technologies are non-standard, they are purpose-built, they are highly distributed throughout the world and ultimately there are very very limited resources prevent them from really being able to take advantage of any of the current cybersecurity models available today; so this poses a problem because Internet of Things technologies have seeped their way into everybody’s life and this creates a new attack surface, this creates a new exposure and vulnerability that could have a dramatic impact as they continue to grow in numbers. There are eight billion mobile phones in the world today and the mobile phone markets are completely saturated, even in its infancy the Internet of Things technologies right now number three times that of mobile phones and it’s only just the beginning so this is created a new exposure this created a new vulnerability that needs to be addressed with a different type of solution than what currently exists.  

Interviewer: So even if it sounds strange in the future cyberattack could target my fridge or my dishwasher or any other electric appliances to disrupt the way I’m living, right?  

Babak Pasdar: Well not just could, it already has. Three of the largest cyberattacks known to date have been based on leveraging the exposures and the vulnerabilities of Internet of Things technologies and that number is slated to grow. Especially when you’re talking about the Internet of Things technologies being involved in surveillance, being involved in automated door locks, being involved in medical applications; so it is not a potential, it is happening today.  

Interviewer: How much everyday people is aware of such a problem? Because everyone is rushing to buy new smart appliances but then they do not know how to protect them.  

Babak Pasdar: So this is a repeat of something that’s happened as we run across pivotal technologies. They focus on functionality then they focus on performance and once they’ve got it in and implemented and are using it they realize the type of threat and exposure and vulnerabilities they’re running across, so based on that right now we are right at the cusp of organizations and people realizing the level of exposure that exists and realizing that no meaningful solution exists with any of the current options to address this problem.  

Interviewer: Lastly, we have talked about extensively the dangers of Internet of Things but given that you have already mentioned 24 billion suppliances that are all wired up throughout the world. What are also the opportunities that such a revolution is bringing about?  

Babak Pasdar: Certainly, well the opportunities are very clear and these are the things that people are taking advantage of; the smart home, smart building, smart cities, self-driving cars, medical, both implants and wearable platforms, or technologies that really help to either make delivery of health care much more efficient or introduce completely new ways of curing things that historically have been either difficult or impossible to cure. So the benefits are there but we’re in this new opportunity there’s a little bit of chaos that has emerged and that’s one of the problems we set out to address.  

Interviewer: Well sir thank you very much for this chat. It has been a pleasure to have you.  

Babak Pasdar: My pleasure. Thank you for having me.  

 

About Acreto

Acreto is the first cloud-delivered, end-to-end connectivity and security platform that can connect and protect any technology, on any network, anywhere. Acreto SASE +Plus delivers Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) functionalities for access technologies such as devices, networks, IoT / OT and third-parties; while Acreto Secure Application and Data Interconnect (SADI) connects and protects application delivery infrastructure such as clouds, SaaS, data centers and co-locations. Acreto SASE +Plus is SASE plus SADI — one platform with one interface from one provider for all of your technologies around the world. Learn more at https://acreto.io or @acretoio.