WatchGuard Technologies has brought together its Australian and New Zealand channel distributors and resellers with the aim of equipping its partner community with expertise to handle the ongoing myriad of IT security threats.

At the same time, WatchGuard is taking an industry lead in training its partner network at a time when the Australian IT sector is facing the potential of an ICT skills shortage.

Last year, the Australian Workplace and Productivity Agency issued a report on the ICT skills gap indicating that ICT industry involvement and investment in skills development remains low.

Right now, around 150 engineers are being up-skilled and certified in WatchGuard security solutions as the training rolls out across Australia and New Zealand.

As part of its current nationwide training, WatchGuard is providing partners with training on its Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) and XTM hardware suite of solutions which address the escalating threats to internet security for Australian public and private sector organisations.

Historically, APT targets were exclusively government and large enterprises whose critical infrastructures were compromised by attacks such as Stuxnet and Duqu.

Today, however, small-to-medium sized businesses have been impacted by advanced threats and often simply rely entirely on anti-virus and digital-signature solutions and are almost completely vulnerable.

WatchGuard’s WatchGuard APT Blocker solution is a cloud-based service that uses a combination of sandboxing and full system emulation to detect and block highly sophisticated APTs.

It delivers real-time threat visibility and protection in minutes, not hours and integrates with WatchGuard Dimension, providing an instant, single view of advanced threats, along with other top trends, applications and threats covered by WatchGuard's security technologies.

“It is important in this climate that the first port of call – our resellers, are completely informed about the latest trends in threats to internet security, and are knowledgeable about which WatchGuard products will provide the necessary protection to their customers," adds Scott Robertson, Vice President, Asia Pacific, WatchGuard Technologies.

"This also ensures that our channel is able to deliver the best service and appropriate tailored solution to meet an individual customer’s requirement.”

Partners are also being trained and certified in deploying WatchGuard’s best-of-breed XTM UTM hardware which integrates complete protection while slashing the time and cost associated with managing multiple single-point security products.

“Nearly 88 percent of today's malware can morph to avoid detection by signature-based anti-virus solutions," Robertson adds.

“You have to know the threats to stop them which makes it critical for partners and resellers to be informed.”