In an interview with TimesTech, Sharat Sinha, Director & CEO of Airtel Business, sheds light on the evolving cyber threat landscape in the hybrid work era. He discusses how Airtel Secure is empowering enterprises with Zero Trust Architecture, AI-driven firewalls, and backbone-level DDoS protection. With over 400 million users secured daily, Airtel is future-proofing Indian businesses with comprehensive, compliance-ready cybersecurity solutions.
Read the full interview here:
TimesTech: With hybrid and remote work becoming the new norm, how have you seen the nature of cyber threats evolve in recent times?
Sharat: The digital workplace has fundamentally transformed the threat landscape. With over 75% of Indian enterprises now embracing hybrid work, cyber attackers are exploiting remote users, vulnerable networks, and cloud applications at an unprecedented scale.
Phishing and credential-based attacks for example have surged by more than 200% globally in just the past two years. What was once the backbone of productivity—the internet—has rapidly become the primary attack vector. As a player championing cyber security since years, we understood these needs of the ever-evolving technology landscape and developed a state-of-the-art solution – Airtel Secure Access. An all-encompassing security suite, it safeguards every user, device, and connection, regardless of location. With a single SLA, unified dashboard, and 24x7x365 real-time monitoring, we deliver uncompromising protection for the modern digital enterprise.
TimesTech: What are some of the key technologies integrated into Airtel’s Secure Access/Internet solution that help protect enterprises at multiple levels?
Sharat: At Airtel, we secure every link in the digital chain. Irrespective of whether users connect via broadband, mobile, or private WAN, our Secure Internet stack delivers multi-layered defense, including firewall-as-a-service, DNS and URL filtering, inline DDoS protection, and advanced cloud-based security through Security Service Edge (SSE), all anchored in a Zero Trust Network Access framework.
True security, however, goes beyond just deploying tools; it is about complete visibility and control. That is why our 24×7 managed network and security services empower enterprises to detect, manage, and neutralize threats from a unified dashboard. With Airtel, every connectivity solution is delivered as a secure, compliance-ready service—ensuring your business stays resilient, protected, and always ahead of evolving cyber threats.
TimesTech: Could you explain how Airtel’s Zero Trust Architecture addresses the security challenges enterprises face in a distributed work environment?
Sharat: As hybrid work becomes the standard, securing access across every user, device, and location, is absolutely mission-critical. At Airtel Secure, we have joined forces with top-tier OEMs to deliver a robust, cloud-native Zero Trust architecture that relentlessly ensures that users can only connect to applications they are authorized. No matter where their teams are, users can connect only to the applications they are explicitly authorized.
Every connection is rigorously authenticated based on identity, device posture, and real-time context, with deep inspection and policy enforcement embedded directly into the network. This approach eradicates lateral movement, slashes the attack surface, and fortifies your organization against modern threats. Best of all, it is seamlessly integrated into our connectivity stack, making secure access effortless, scalable, and uncompromisingly strong for enterprises of any size.
TimesTech: In a world where geopolitical situation is ever changing leading to volumertic cyberattacks causing disruption in availability of services , how do you help businesses mitigate the chaos?
Sharat: Our DDoS protection is embedded deep within the network core—a level of defense that few providers can match. We do not just monitor; we proactively analyze traffic patterns and automatically scrub malicious traffic at the backbone, blocking large-scale attacks in real time before they ever reach customer endpoints. Our carrier-grade, clean-pipe architecture blocks large-scale attacks in real time, ensuring services remain available and resilient at all times.
What truly sets us apart is our commitment to ensure active mitigation, not just detection. With SLAs that guarantee uptime and business continuity, we deliver uninterrupted protection, ensuring guaranteed uptime and business continuity which is mission-critical for sectors like finance and e-commerce. In today’s threat landscape, this level of always-on, backbone-level defense is not an option but an absolute necessity for safeguarding business and reputation.
TimesTech: Given perimeter is the first line of cyberdefense, how can enterprises enhance this layer to protect against AI-led cyberattacks?
Sharat: Early detection is key —and it starts with uncompromising visibility. Airtel Secure delivers AI-powered next-generation firewalls featuring advanced features like deep packet inspection, intrusion prevention, and granular application-level traffic control to detect and block even the most sophisticated threats. With integrated threat intelligence, real-time prevention, and application awareness, we provide enterprises with complete visibility and control across every layer of their network.
Our platform does not just react—it predicts. Backed by Airtel’s intelligent Security Operations Centre (iSOC), we combine automated threat mitigation, continuous monitoring, and actionable insights to keep your defenses ahead of attackers. Whether you choose a fully managed or co-managed model, Airtel Secure empowers your business to move from reactive security to a truly predictive, future-proof posture—ensuring your digital assets remain protected, always.
TimesTech: Looking ahead, how do you see Airtel Business evolving its cybersecurity offerings to continue empowering enterprises in an increasingly digital and remote world?
Sharat: We have an unwavering mission to secure the digital future of Indian enterprises. Our comprehensive approach, therefore, spans the entire security lifecycle—Diagnose, Detect, Prevent, Remediate, and Recover—delivering robust protection for endpoints, cloud applications, and data flows across geographies.
By collaborating with over 60 leading OEMs, we bring best-in-class, regulatory-compliant solutions tailored specifically for the Indian business landscape. Our differentiating capability, however, is our unmatched in-house expertise wherein we safeguard over 400 million users on our own network every day. We have now extended this proven expertise beyond to customers, through our security-as-a-service offerings, empowering Indian enterprises to protect access, users, and workloads with confidence and agility in an evolving threat landscape.
