Jordanian telco Umniah taps Secucloud to secure internet usage

As the Middle East's equivalent of Silicon Valley, Jordan has been working hard for a long time to become a hub for information and communication technologies in the Arab region – and secure internet usage plays a key role in supporting this development.

Umniah, a subsidiary of the Bahrain-based Batelco group that has 9.4 million customers in 14 countries and is one of the biggest telcos in the Middle East and North Africa, plans to become a pioneer in this respect.

Umniah is working with the German security specialist Secucloud to provide its business and private customers with mobile internet security. Starting in early 2018, the two companies plan to offer a cloud-based, centralised security service that gives users simple and efficient protection against smartphone malware. Once that is in place, Umniah plans to extend the service to corporate customers.

“With the Secucloud solution, we’ve found just the right technology to extend our service with a key component,” comments Umniah’s CEO, Ziad Shatara. “We’re now able to offer our customers a subscription to flexible and powerful protection that is practically invisible in everyday use. They won’t need to install anything on their devices or keep the system up to date. As a result, our customers can focus on their use of the net while working productively and securely with their mobile devices.”

The service will be based on Secucloud’s Advanced Security Suite, which protects mobile internet users from online threats like viruses, Trojans and other malware by detecting and removing them before they reach the user’s smartphone. It automatically routes all internet traffic from apps, browsers and background processes through Secucloud’s Elastic Cloud Security System (ECS²), where it is checked for damaging content using a combination of powerful security mechanisms, including anti-phishing, anti-malware, anti-bot, anti-hacking and anti-anonymiser tools. If the solution detects any threats, it blocks the harmful data packets automatically.

Dennis Monner, CEO of Secucloud, notes: “As part of Jordan’s plans to become an information and communication technology hub in the Middle East, the human factor plays an important role. Although the country has scarce reserves of raw materials, it has a very high level of education and one of the best-qualified workforces in the region. That’s why there is such a requirement for reliable internet security. Telcos like Umniah need a simple yet powerful way to protect their customers from damaging content. And that’s exactly what we’re going to help them provide.”