The Middle East and Africa (MEA) region stands at the forefront of digital transformation, presenting both challenges and opportunities for industry leaders. Ashraf Koheil, Regional Sales Director META at Group-IB, shares insights into the significance of Black Hat MEA 2023 for the global cybersecurity company and sheds light on the company’s strategic focus in Saudi Arabia.
What is the importance of Black Hat MEA 2023 for Group-IB, and how is your company looking to maximise the available opportunities?
Black Hat is extremely exciting for us for two core reasons. Firstly, it is a showpiece event not just for the Middle East region, but for the global cybersecurity company. It’s a landmark occasion that allows us to deepen our relationships with our existing customers and partners in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and is an opportunity to make new connections, working together to shape the future of the cybersecurity industry.
Secondly, we are delighted that events of the scale of Black Hat are being held in Saudi Arabia amid the Kingdom’s ongoing digital transformation. Demand for cybersecurity is being driven up by the Saudi government’s high-end investments in developing the country’s IT infrastructure and implementation of stringent regulations safeguarding user data, in accordance with the National Cybersecurity Strategy and Vision 2030.
What products and services is Group-IB’s focus in Saudi Arabia?
At Group-IB, we believe that our product and services ecosystem should be connected and seamlessly integrated. Amid the continued evolution of advanced cyber threats, endpoint detection and response (EDR) and extended detection and response (XDR) solutions are gaining ever more importance. Group-IB’s Managed XDR combines technology and human expertise to carry out proactive threat detection, monitoring, and response, providing an intuitive user experience that enables security teams to respond to threats 20 per cent faster.
In addition to Managed XDR, Group-IB is highlighting Attack Surface Management, a pioneering cybersecurity solution that allows security teams to assess all external assets across their enterprise, as well as our Security Operations Centre consulting capabilities. This is alongside the full stack of Group-IB’s advanced cybersecurity solutions and services.
What are the key cybersecurity trends in the MEA region in 2023?
One recent trend we have noticed in the Middle East is increasingly organisations are moving away from buying multiple-point solutions, and instead looking to simplify their security stack by procuring services and solutions from a reduced number of vendors. This also gives companies and organisations more input to present their specific requirements to vendors, who can tailor their solutions to match.
In Saudi Arabia, it is clear that companies and organisations are taking the matter of cybersecurity very seriously. It is no surprise that Saudi Arabia secured second place in the Global Cybersecurity Index in the World Competitiveness Yearbook for 2023 by the Swiss-based International Institute for Management Development. Key sectors, such as government, banking, financial services, insurance, telecommunications, and oil and gas were some of the first industries to develop cybersecurity frameworks and compliance standards, and now crucially, other verticals are coming on board and making similar investments in their digital security. This is all the more important as more services are digitalised and moving onto the cloud, in line with the Saudi government’s strategic priorities.
How can Saudi businesses protect themselves from emerging threats?
There are a number of ways Saudi businesses can protect themselves from emerging threats, starting with multi-level education. Targeting end users is crucial to ensure that cybersecurity benchmarks are increased and implemented.
Companies can also implement “fire drills” or “cyber drills” that involve a simulated attack to then gather the teams and brief them on the lessons learned. This coaching approach ensures employees are empowered against cyberattacks and is a vital step to ensuring overall cybersecurity levels. You can have a multi-million dollar security infrastructure, but all it takes is for one person to click on the wrong email or plug in a USB device containing a piece of malware for cybercriminals to enter a network. As a result, we advise companies in Saudi Arabia, as in all our other markets, to make cybersecurity a common goal.
How is Group-IB working to address the cybersecurity skills gap in the Middle East region?
In September 2023, Group-IB announced the opening of a new education hub at its Dubai-based Digital Crime Resistance Centre. At this facility, Group-IB delivers a world-class, practitioner-led training and simulation experience designed to upskill current professionals. We believe in the importance of hands-on training. In our 20 years of history, we have participated in hundreds of national and international law enforcement operations, and bring in anonymised cases. As a result, our students work on real-life case studies and are trained by educators who have experience working with law enforcement agencies, making them more confident and capable of entering information security teams, regardless of vertical.
The opening of our Education Centre in Dubai is a start, but we will not stop there. In the near future, we hope to work closely with institutions of higher education across the region, including in Saudi Arabia, to empower the next generation of cybersecurity professionals and cultivate expertise that will allow young people to enter the workforce and safeguard the digital landscape.
