Dimension Data Australia welcomes new director of cybersecurity

Dimension Data Australia has named its new director of cybersecurity as the company gets set to define its security go-to-market and potential business acquisitions.

Dimension Data's Australian arm is part of an $8 billion global technology and managed service provider, which is owned by NTT Group.

The company has appointed former Ernst - Young cybersecurity partner John Karabin, who will take over as Dimension Data's director of cybersecurity. In addition to crafting the company's go-to-market, he will also be on the lookout for talent sourcing for the business and for potential acquisitions.

"Our clients are changing the way they look at security and we are seeing a shift from the more traditional preventive security solutions towards predictive systems," comments Dimension Data Australia's chief executive officer Steve Nola.

"As we execute a growth strategy based on client value, contemporary services and business models, John will play a key leadership role in this transformation.

Karabin's has spent more than 25 years in the information technology and telecommunications sectors for both government and commercial markets across Asia Pacific.

As part of his cybersecurity partner position at Ernst - Young, he was responsible for leading its government risk information security practice across Oceania.

Karabin has also worked for Verizon as managing director of its security solutions division.

"The cyber-security landscape, from the threats themselves to the solutions being conjured up to combat them, is changing on a daily basis," Karabin comments.

"Clients feel they are constantly on the back foot and most don't know the nature of the threat, the motives behind attacks or how to best defend themselves. That's where Dimension Data's expertise across a broad scope of industries comes in, as it is uniquely placed to understand that not all industries or organisations face the same challenges.

Karabin says he is looking forward to working with Dimension data to increase its cybersecurity expertise for clients.

Earlier this month Dimension Data announced that it would offer cloud security solution Cisco Umbrella to customers. The company trialled the solution on its 28,000 global employees before releasing it to the market.

"As more enterprises look to harness the benefits of a mobile workforce that leverages cloud platforms, there's a greater need to implement appropriate measures to secure data, infrastructures, applications and users, regardless of where they connect to the internet, and even if they're off the VPN," commented Dimension Data Group chief security officer Darren O'Loughlin at the time.

"That's why we adopted Cisco Umbrella into our own cybersecurity strategy," O'Loughlin concluded.