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Daud Butt is the IT System Administrator at Topsec Cloud Solutions. He’s made Ireland his home since 2016 and lives his value of putting the client first in his role. We recently chatted with him to get his take on email security.
Daud: Yeah, absolutely. I moved to Ireland in 2016 from Pakistan to pursue my IT honours degree, which I completed in 2020. During that time, I grew up with large-scale MSPs, which has really helped me get a deep understanding of industry norms and operational dynamics. Then I was introduced to Topsec. I started my journey with Topsec as a support engineer in 2021. After approximately a year, I was promoted to the position of system admin, which is the role that I’m currently in, handling the main core business maintenance and all system admin roles.
Daud: I was always intrigued with cybersecurity in general, and obviously, email security is an integral part of cybersecurity. It’s the front line of the attacks. Many of the cyber attacks or the ransomware attacks are essentially a one-click action, which is your email-based phishing and ransomware attacks.
Daud: Topsec provides great value product and services. We always put the customer first. Our clients describe their experience with us as a journey, where we assist them at every step, addressing their issues and ensuring their success. We help throughout the process.
It shouldn’t stop them from doing what they do; it should make their jobs easier. Essentially, that’s exactly what our business does. Helping people throughout their journey is key for me as well. As an individual, I like to dig into whatever task I’m doing and ensure it’s done properly.
Daud: With the latest trends, AI is certainly a big thing at the moment. We as a business have been using machine learning and specific intelligence feeds that are updated constantly. It is something integrated within the business. With the rise of AI, there are many new features that can help businesses and enhance ease of use for the end user, which, as I said, is the key part. We aim to enhance user experience instead of having them restricted by security measures. With AI, I believe it can be quite beneficial, but we need to be very careful.
Daud: You always need the human touch. With AI, you want to utilise it to ease up and enhance the process. I believe, It’s nowhere near replacing humans. You really need that human touch, especially with the business that we’re in. Our customer support is an integral part of our process. You get a response within minutes, and it’s an actual human helping you out, not an AI or an auto-generated response. Our long-term customers will vouch for that. The human-centric approach to the business is what makes us unique.
Daud: Internally, I’ve made significant contributions to enhancing the local security of the systems. Regarding customers, our products help them massively on a day-to-day basis, increasing their productivity. They don’t need to worry about spam or unwanted emails. Our emergency system (EMA) allows customers to access their mail as normal, even if their primary system is down. This adds massive value by providing resiliency and redundancy. Additionally, our phishing training service is quite important. Along with robust security measures in place, it’s essential to educate your users to stay vigilant as well. Our customers are really impressed with the services we provide in that regard.
Daud: Absolutely. There’s been a rise in cyber attacks and ransomware attacks, especially during COVID. With the rise of remote work, some companies have not prioritised security adequately, leading to an increase in cyberattack attempts. We’ve seen drastic changes, from macro files being the core of malicious attacks to new ways of attack when those were stopped. During COVID, certain file types were used for malicious attacks that normal firewalls wouldn’t detect but were picked up by our system. We’ve also seen a significant increase in URL attacks, with clean source URLs being redirected multiple times to phishing sites. We cope with this by having a URL scanning system that checks for all redirects, blocking malicious sites. This is a huge improvement and key for stopping new malicious attacks.
Daud: A mix of things, really. When I was younger, I liked cricket a lot and still play from time to time. On weekends, I enjoy playing PlayStation. It’s a nice way to relax. I put on headphones and unwind.
Daud: Customer feedback is integral to our system. Our development team gets continuous feedback from customers. Selling a product without gathering customer feedback is not effective, as it misses valuable insights for improvement and customer satisfaction. Our sales team regularly meets with customers to understand their challenges and improvements needed. Any feedback is always welcome to improve our team and products.
Deep dive into some of the online risks and how you can protect yourself from these risks.