| AEC customers benefit from the company’s unique collaboration with the Tenable platform | | https://aec.cz/en/news/Pages/aec-customers-benefit-from-the-companys-unique-collaboration-with-the-tenable-platform.aspx | AEC customers benefit from the company’s unique collaboration with the Tenable platform | <p>
<strong>Tenable, a global leader in vulnerability management, has awarded AEC the Platinum Partner status. Thanks to this exclusive partnership, customers of the foremost Czech cybersecurity provider can benefit from the industry-leading tools and expert services on this US platform, tools that cover the entire vulnerability management process.</strong></p><p>The highest possible level of cooperation. That is what the platinum partnership between AEC and Tenable entails. So just who are Tenable? A US-based provider of vulnerability management security solutions. Through its platform the company’s products are used by tens of thousands of organizations worldwide, primarily because of their sophisticated technologies and original solutions to vulnerability management.</p><p>“We chose Tenable because this company has been focused purely on vulnerability management right from the very start, therefore the products it offers are of exceptional quality,” explains Maroš Barabas, Head of Product Management at AEC. He goes on to say that it is this successful cooperation with Tenable that has made vulnerability management a strategic product for AEC.</p><p style="text-align:center;">
<img class="maxWidthImage" src="/cz/PublishingImages/news/2021/tenable-forrester-leader.png" data-themekey="#" alt="" style="margin:5px;width:658px;" /> </p><p>Vulnerability management is a process that involves detecting, analysing and evaluating system vulnerabilities, including their removal. The basic detection tool is equipment used to scan for vulnerabilities. The most critical ones should then be analysed by an expert who can thus understand how an attacker can exploit them and who also has intimate knowledge of the network and the systems on it. This approach is the most effective both in terms of prioritising vulnerabilities and the subsequent patching.</p><p>AEC currently has an experienced team of experts who can fully comprehend the entire vulnerability management process as used in companies and institutions. “AEC focuses on delivering security as a service provided in close partnership with customers and the area of vulnerability management is the best example of this,” notes Maroš Barabas, specifying that it is not only about the technical solution itself, but also about ensuring that the entire vulnerability management process is always in full agreement with the customer’s needs and capabilities.</p><p>The AEC team offers its clients a wide range of technologies and services. The cornerstone is choosing and implementing a suitable tool, setting up the vulnerability management processes and its technological integration. Whilst doing so, it also offers hardening, compliance checks and a whole host of other solutions, such as manual identification and verifying the vulnerabilities in systems and applications.</p><p style="text-align:center;">
<img class="maxWidthImage" src="/cz/PublishingImages/news/2021/tenable-platinum-partner.jpg" data-themekey="#" alt="" style="margin:5px;width:658px;" /> </p><p>The collaboration between AEC and Tenable has been ongoing since 2010. At the time, the Czech cyber security provider was the first in the Czech Republic and Slovakia to be partnered with the US platform. Eight years later, Tenable gave this partnership Gold status, and in 2021 it was upgraded to the highest possible level – Platinum.<br></p> | | | | |
| ARICOMA Group acquires the IT company KOMIX | | https://aec.cz/en/news/Pages/aricoma-group-acquires-the-it-company-komix.aspx | ARICOMA Group acquires the IT company KOMIX | <p>
<strong style="color:#6773b6;">?Another major player in the domestic information technology market will become part of the ARICOMA Group, which belongs to entrepreneur Karel Komárek’s investment group KKCG. Today, the owners of KOMIX and representatives of the ARICOMA Group signed an agreement on the sale of a 100% share in the company. The transaction is still subject to approval by the Office for the Protection of Competition (ÚHOS).</strong></p><p>For almost thirty years, KOMIX has been developing bespoke software for e-government, health insurance companies and major companies such as Škoda Auto, Nestlé or Porsche Czech Republic. In the past, KOMIX has taken part in projects such as electronic sick notes, biometric travel documents and an information system for the population register. KOMIX’s revenues rank it among the top 10 suppliers on the Czech market as concerns developing customised software. This year’s sales are predicted to reach more than half a billion crowns. KOMIX employs just under 300 people, above all developers.</p><p>“It is a great honour for me that we are to be part of the ARICOMA group and that we will play an active role in accomplishing its vision to build an ICT leader of European importance,” said Tomáš Rutrle, KOMIX’s director and current co-owner. “Thanks to this merger, we will be able to offer our current customers a much wider portfolio of services, whilst at the same time we will work with other companies in the group to reach out to new customers in the Czech Republic and abroad. We bring decades of experience to the ARICOMA Group, this includes large-scale projects, a passion for IT technologies and a proven ability to finish the job to a satisfactory conclusion for all. We firmly believe that we are at the start of an amazing story of digital transformation, one that is growing from its roots in the Czech Republic, and we want to be a fully-fledged part of it,” added Rutrle.</p><p>After acquiring the international company Seavus at the end of last year, ARICOMA Group is continuing in its acquisition campaign. Its goal is to build a strong European player in the field of ICT and SW solutions. According to Michal Tománek, KKCG’s Investment Director, who is responsible for all IT acquisitions, KOMIX’s entry is another hugely important step in this direction. “We have managed to acquire a company that is a perfect fit for ARICOMA’s current portfolio of businesses. Their expertise, products and customer base will ideally complement what we already have at this moment in time. What’s more,
in the future, we will be able to offer this mix of services not only to the domestic market, but increasingly to foreign markets too,” said Michal Tománek.</p><p>According to Milan Sameš, the ARICOMA Group’s CEO, this further expansion of the group is a continuation of the strategy it set out four years ago. “The current developments in the company, which have been fundamentally affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, show us that we have set off in the right direction and that our assumptions about developments in the market were correct. Customers are trying to accelerate the digital transformation as much as possible, and this brings new opportunities for the entire field of information technology,” said Sameš.</p><p>ARICOMA Group buys a 100% stake in KOMIX for a non-disclosed price. The entire transaction is financed from a bank loan and from the buyer’s own resources.</p><p>The company’s management, including its director Tomáš Rutrle, will continue to play a role in managing KOMIX. KOMIX will act independently until the transaction is approved by the ÚHOS. Once the deal goes through, the ARICOMA Group will comprise of 8 companies with a consolidated turnover exceeding CZK 8.5 billion, and an EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) of almost CZK 900 million. It employs over 3,000 people.<br><br></p><p>
<img src="/cz/PublishingImages/news/loga/komix-logo-25px.jpg" data-themekey="#" alt="" style="margin:5px;" />
<br>The company was established in 1992 and since its inception it has been offering software services to clients in the public and private spheres. This primarily concerns solutions for eGovernment and eHealth, where it helps the Czech state administration accelerate development so that these solutions are as user-friendly as possible for citizens. KOMIX is also a major supplier for car makers, namely Škoda Auto. In this segment, KOMIX is basing its steps on the current situation where the car industry is going through a fundamental transformation and mutually reinforcing trends, which include autonomous driving, shared mobility, online connectivity and electrification. Software solutions have thus become the main source of the customer’s perception of the car’s value, innovation and appeal. KOMIX also offers products focused on digital transformation, such as automated decision-making, business intelligence or robotic process automation. The company manages the comprehensive development of all layers in sophisticated information systems – front end, back end, database, mobile applications, integration buses. The most common technologies it uses for development are JAVA and Microsoft.NET. In February 2021, KOMIX opened a branch in Switzerland, where it acquired a new client, Nestlé, one of the largest food concerns in the world.</p><p> </p><p>
<img src="/cz/PublishingImages/news/loga/aricoma-group-purple-50px.jpg" data-themekey="#" alt="" style="margin:5px;" />
<br>The largest Czech ICT holding company, its members are AUTOCONT, Cleverlance, DataSpring, AEC, Cloud4com, Internet Projekt and Seavus. The companies from the ARICOMA Group cover its entire portfolio of business services, starting with the design of ICT architecture and going on to infrastructure and cloud services, implementing business applications up to developing their own large-scale software solutions and outsourcing. Its total revenues for 2020 exceeded CZK 8bn.</p><p> </p><p>
<img src="/cz/PublishingImages/news/loga/KKCG-logo-35px.jpg" data-themekey="#" alt="" style="margin:5px;" /> <br>The KKCG Group, managed by Karel Komárek, one of the most successful Czech entrepreneurs, is an international investment company with a total book value of more than €6bn. The KKCG Group develops its business activities in twenty-two countries around the world and its key fields include the gaming industry, the energy industry, IT technologies and real estate. It holds shares in many domestic and international companies, including SAZKA Group, ARICOMA Group, MND Group, KKCG Real Estate, US Methanol, the capital fund Springtide Ventures and others. KKCG also invests in the American fund Jazz Venture Partners, based in Silicon Valley, which focuses, for instance, on investments in technologies for improving human performance (neuroscience).</p> | | | | |
| A pentad of our colleagues succeeded in the international CtF competition organized by partners from Tenable | | https://aec.cz/en/news/Pages/a-pentad-of-our-colleagues-succeeded-in-the-international-ctf-competition-organized-by-partners-from-tenable.aspx | A pentad of our colleagues succeeded in the international CtF competition organized by partners from Tenable | <p>
<strong style="color:#6773b6;"><span style="color:#6773b6;">The team of our colleagues, consisting of David Pecl, Lukáš Bendík, Erik Šabík, Vojtěch Šindler and Tomáš Hliboký, did well in the worldwide Capture the Flag competition. This year was the first time it was organized by one of our leading partners, the American company Tenable.</span></strong></p><p>The international Capture the Flag competition had a total of 1,762 participants and it was all under the direction of Tenable, a provider of top solutions for vulnerability monitoring. With such strong competition, the AEC representatives did amazingly well and finished in
<a href="https://tenable.ctfd.io/scoreboard" target="_blank">21st place</a>.</p><p>Any one from all over the world could take part in the tournament, which was held from 18 to 22 February 2021. Participants could form teams of up to five people and solved their tasks either individually or together. AEC’s colours were defended by five representatives taken from the divisions for Technology, Penetration Tests and the Cyber Defence Centre.</p><p>The five-day competition itself consisted of ongoing task solving in
<a href="https://ctftime.org/event/1266/tasks/" target="_blank">traditional categories</a>, such as web applications, reverse engineering, cryptology, coding, working with information (OSINT), forensic analysis, regular expressions and a whole host of others.</p><p>“We did best in cryptography, web applications and coding. Mainly because it is the bread and butter for pentesters,” said Erik Šabík, adding, “But we certainly didn’t fall behind in other tasks either, the problem was more to do with time. We solved it by agreeing that whoever had the time would open the page with the tasks and try and solve what they could. Sometimes we called each other, and we also brainstormed...”</p><p>Here it’s necessary to point out that, unlike many other teams, our busy colleagues could only get down to the competition tasks after they’d finished their professional duties, so they had significantly less time to solve them than the others.</p><p>However, this makes their success all the more valuable and our congratulations all the greater. Thanks to their position, they have now joined the elite ranks who can wow those around them with their exclusive T-shirts that the competition organizer reserved for the best of the best. 😊</p><p>CTF-related activities are nothing new to AEC. Apart from the fact that we often take part in such competitions, quite successfully it must be said, we regularly organize a similar event ourselves. One of the most popular things at our annual
<a href="https://konferencesecurity.cz/">Security conference</a>, the largest independent event of its kind in the Czech Republic, is the hacker competition.<br></p> | | | | |
