Organizations in the Middle East and North Africa region should develop critical infrastructure that is more predictive and responsive to the changing cybersecurity landscape. This is according to Wael Jaber, Vice President of Technology, Services, and Channels at CyberKnight Technologies, a value-added distribution company for cybersecurity, based in Dubai, and the Diamond Sponsor of the upcoming MENAISC2022. He stated that organizations should utilize cyber threat intelligence to help define strategic goals to counter cyberattacks. Jaber highlighted the need for tactical actions that help increase electronic flexibility and activate technical intelligence to speed up threat detection and incident response.
“The Middle East is facing several challenges that threaten infrastructures. Firstly, current infrastructures are widely open from an access permission perspective. Organizations must invest more in managing the identity sprawl and ensure the least privilege concept is applied across the board. Secondly, organizations must build more restricted environments by implementing micro-segmentation and cross-domain technologies to control boundaries,” Jaber said. The comments come as the 10th edition of MENAISC2022 nears its launch on September 6-7 in Riyadh.
Jaber went on to explain that the “alert fatigue” caused by an abundance of implemented security tools combined with a lack of cyber skills are worsening the threat detection and incident response rates. Organizations must look into unified visibility across all security controls, leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning to enhance threat detection, and apply automation to accelerate mitigation and incident response, he said.
Jaber said the oil and gas, energy, healthcare, banking, transportation, telecommunications, and food manufacturing sectors are the most vulnerable to cyberattacks just as they are vital to all citizens. Moreover, some CNIs are also more vulnerable due to the maturity level associated with the implemented cybersecurity controls.
“I think there is still work to be done in the healthcare, food manufacturing, and transportation industries. These three vital industries will directly impact people’s lives if they suffer from a cyberattack. Such attacks could lead to food supply shortages, and disrupt and paralyze the local transportation or aviation services; they may even cause death in cases where medical devices at hospitals fail to operate,” he said.
Jaber predicted the cybersecurity market in the Middle East to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 11.7% to be valued at $13.78 billion by 2023.
“Saudi Arabia has the largest market share, with a cybersecurity market valued at $3.6 billion in 2020. The market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 17.98% to reach $9.8 billion by 2026, according to recent market research studies,” he added.
He said that Saudi Arabia has made great strides in digital transformation. The Kingdom ranked second globally among the G20 countries in the 2021 Digital Competitiveness Report and 14th in the National Cybersecurity Index for 2022.
Jaber said that the escalating cyberattacks in the country are directly related to these leaps in digital transformation. “Therefore, digital transformation must go hand in hand with the implementation of cybersecurity controls that can protect against the growing cyber threats,” he concluded.
It is worth noting that the 10th edition of MENA Information Security Conference 2022 will celebrate a history of being one of the region’s most trusted cybersecurity thought leadership platforms which continues to focus on delivering world-class speakers and content directed to the key decision makers, influencers and operators who are tasked with securing their businesses and entities.
