New Regional Director to expand Bit9 footprint in the region

Sunday, March 16th, 2014 - Dubai, UAE: Bit9, the leader in advanced threat protection for endpoints and servers , today announced the appointment of Mohammad Aquib Aftab as Regional Director for the Middle East, Turkey and Africa. Aftab will be tasked with further establishing the Bit9 brand in the region as the right choice for enterprise endpoint and server security, along with developing the company's Channel by building long-term, sustainable business relationships with the region's top Partners.

Aftab has more than 12 years of experience in IT sales, including the last five years in Value Added Distribution, where he was responsible for establishing and promoting new security products in the Middle East, as well as, developing strong relationships with Channel Partners. Aftab has also previously won deals in a large number of enterprise customer accounts in the telecommunications and government sectors, which will enable rapid build-out for Bit9's client portfolio.

"I am very excited to be working with the Bit9 team and am eagerly looking forward to connecting with business partners and enterprise customers in the region", said Aquib Aftab, Regional Director, Bit9 Inc. "Companies in the Middle East and Turkey like those around the world find themselves under ongoing relentless cyber threats. Ever evolving security threats within the two regions necessitate a new way of approaching security. Enterprises know that they can no longer rely on old-world security technologies such as antivirus in today's new, disruptive security landscape. With a next-generation approach to endpoint and server security, and robust partnerships with network security leaders, including Fire Eye and Palo Alto Networks, Bit9 is uniquely positioned to help companies enhance their security posture", added Aftab.

"Having worked in security distribution and being skilled in managing tier one partners, Mohammad brings with him the right mix of skills and experience we need to build our business in the Middle East and Turkey. The region faces a complex and interlinking set of security challenges and as such there is a real market opportunity for some fresh thinking when it comes to tackling the very real and present security threats that companies have to deal with on a daily basis. We believe that Bit9 is uniquely placed to help companies in the region protect their most prized corporate assets and ensure that they aren't stolen from under their nose. Mohammad is a very welcome addition to the team and we're looking forward to continuing to grow our business in these strategically important territories", said Tony Shadrake, Regional Director, EMEA, Bit9 Inc.

Nidal Othman, Managing Director, StarLink, "Aftab's enthusiasm and dedication will enable him to effectively execute Bit9's strategy in the region, and his extensive regional experience will contribute immensely to the growth and profitability of Bit9 in the region. As a "true" Value-Added-Distributor for Bit9, and a Trusted Security Advisor with on-the-ground presence across the region that Aquib covers, we look forward to working closely with him to rapidly increase Bit9's market coverage and Channel Partner breadth."

About Bit9 + Carbon Black
Bit9 and Carbon Black have joined together to offer the industry's most complete solution for advanced threat protection for endpoints and servers. The merged company helps organizations protect themselves from advanced threats in two critical ways: by reducing their attack surface through new signature-less forms of prevention, and rapidly detecting and responding to threats. We do this by leveraging the powerful combination of Carbon Black's lightweight endpoint sensor, which can be rapidly deployed with no configuration to deliver "incident response in seconds," and Bit9's industry-leading prevention technologies to continuously monitor and record all activity on endpoints and servers and stop cyber threats that evade traditional security defenses. Our lightweight real-time sensor and recorder, cloud-based services, and real-time enforcement engine give organizations immediate visibility into everything running on their endpoints and servers; real-time signature-less detection of and protection against advanced threats; a recorded history of all endpoint and server activity to rapidly respond to alerts and incidents; and real-time integration with network security devices such as Palo Alto Networks.1,000 organizations worldwide--from 25 Fortune 100 companies to small businesses--use Bit9 and Carbon Black to increase security, reduce operational costs and improve compliance. 

About StarLink:
StarLink, headquartered in Dubai, is the leading IT compliance driven solutions provider and was founded in 2005. StarLink is recognized as a "Trusted Security Advisor" and market leader in automating the entire IT compliance auditing process to help customers in the Middle East region reduce IT Risk, with a focus on enterprises in the Financial, Telco and Government sectors. StarLink works with organizations to achieve and sustain compliance and optimally manage risks through full policy, procedure and controls lifecycle management. StarLink's solution offerings are now installed in more than 200 data centers in the Middle East, including 100 of the top regional banks and 15 of the regional's top Telcos. The company's customers trust StarLink to secure their critical enterprise data and safeguard access to sensitive data in the most demanding datacenter environments in the region by monitoring, security and auditing privileged user access to provide 100% visibility on all activities.

For more information about StarLink, please visit www.starlinkme.net

Press Contact:
Rohan Daniel Nair |PR & Communications Manager
StarLink
T: +971 4 4473552
F: +971 4 4473551
M: +971 50 7843856
E: rohan@starlinkme.net              
www.starlinkme.net

© Press Release 2014