Computerworld Hong Kong Awards 2017

Relentless strife for excellence

CITIC Telecom CPC is lauded for its solid set of services and ongoing product innovation

Hong Kong-based carrier-neutral ICT solutions provider CITIC Telecom CPC was chosen by the esteemed panel of judges as this year’s Technology Company of the Year in the Mature category.

The judges prized CITIC Telecom CPC for its “very solid set of services, growing business and ongoing innovation within the CITIC solutions/platforms,” demonstrated “good international efforts and steady business growth.” It was also recognized for its pursuit of high quality service and international standards. 

Continuous product innovation

Targeting enterprises of all scales, CITIC Telecom CPC’s flagship product families cover global connectivity (TrueCONNECT), enterprise-class information security (TrustCSI), high performance cloud computing (SmartCLOUD) and big data and other data storage (DataHOUSE).

“The product families are continually enhanced, and are not static offerings,” said Kenneth Wong, general manager, business solutions, CITIC Telecom CPC. “With the completion of the acquisition of Linx Telecom in February this year, we have significantly extended TrueCONNECT’s worldwide business IP networking coverage from over 120 countries with more than 100 Points of Presence (POPs), to 14 additional countries with 24 more POPs across Western Europe, Central and Eastern Europe, as well as Central Asia.”

Over the last 18 months, the company made three innovative developments: enhanced the features in replication and disaster recovery service (SmartCLOUD BRR); launched SmartCLOUD Professional Service; and launched advanced threat protection offering (TrustCSI ATP).

“With its global network and points of presence, CITIC Telecom CPC can cater to multinationals and large companies worldwide with a wide spectrum of managed networking services, information security, cloud computing and data center services,” Wong said.

Embedding machine learning

In 2H 2017, the company plans to launch a new solution that takes advantage of machine learning to tackle sophisticated insider and external threats. 

“By embedding the latest machine learning mechanism into the advanced SIEM technology, the new solution can provide more accurate and deeper insights into security threats,” Wong explained.

Machine Learning is also expected to help improve the dynamic classification of anomalies.  

“The machine learning algorithms can efficiently educate itself about what is ‘normal’ on a network, using AI heuristics to decide what to further investigate, and even what actions to take,” he added.

Seal of quality

“We are very thankful for the industry recognition, and are proud to win the award. It has taken a lot of hard work, and we have always been focused on delivering excellence,” said Wong.

The company is committed to pursue continuous excellence. He said CITIC Telecom CPC is one of the first IaaS providers in Hong Kong to obtain ISO 27017, which covers information security aspects of cloud computing.

“ISO 27017 is a ‘seal of quality.’ It is one more proof-point that we are truly serious about investing in cloud-specific measures to safeguard our customers’ digital assets,” Wong concluded.

CITIC Telecom CPC out to make services smarter

It plans to integrate machine learning and user behavior analysis solution into its TrustCSI MSS offering later this year

CITIC Telecom CPC is putting more teeth into its TrustCSI Managed Security Services (MSS) offering in order to keep pace with the growing number of sophisticated cyberattacks against enterprise networks.

To provide an innovative way to analyze end user data flow, the company plans to roll out a new machine learning and user behavior analysis solution as part of its TrustCSI product family by year-end.

“The new solution can detect abnormal behaviors and defend against emerging threats before they create any adverse effects to your organization,” said Daniel Kwong, senior vice president of information technology and security services, CITIC Telecom CPC.

He explained traditional software deployed in corporate IT environments cannot effectively identify emerging attacks. 

“Such software heavily relies on signature to identify malware. Thus, targeted threats, including tailor-made malware and zero-day malware, can easily bypass the traditional security defense to invade the IT network and take control of the system. To tackle this, enterprises should leverage on more advanced and intelligent machine learning technology,” Kwong said.

Besides leveraging the benefits of machine learning, CITIC Telecom CPC will further enhance the TrustCSI MSS platform by upgrading its SIEM (security incident and event management) capability.

Enabling SIEM

“Currently, the MSS platform is able to support more than 200 devices which means over 95% of network devices at the customer side are being supported. By continuously putting some effort to upgrade our SIEM capability we are able to provide faster events analysis,” Kwong said.

The company has always been proactive in upgrading its TrustCSI MSS offering to meet the changing security requirements of enterprise networks. 

Initially designed to provide monitoring and security threat detection, as well as to provide advisory services, TrustCSI MSS introduced two years ago remediation services in order to help companies implement mitigation action against security threats.

Continuous development

Last year, TrustCSI ATP solution was added to the mix to deliver comprehensive protection against advanced persistent threats across endpoints, networks and servers.

“Back by CITIC Telecom CPC’s 24x7 Security Operations Centers which are staffed by certified security experts, TrustCSI ATP delivers a security fabric to protect enterprises with pervasive and adaptive cybersecurity that spans IoT and remote devices, through the infrastructure core, and into the cloud,” Kwong said.

By continuously upgrading its MSS offering, CITIC Telecoms CPC hopes to keep its value proposition to its wide customer base in Hong Kong spanning various sectors such as banking, logistics, manufacturing, retail and transportation, among others.

“We have ample experience in handling different security challenges and have gained a wide variety of security know-how. As a result, our customers can leverage on our expertise in dealing with security challenges in an effective and efficient way,” Kwong said.