Cyber Security
Outlook 2022: Cybereason Reveals 2022 Industry Predictions for GCC Stakeholders

Cybereason has made available its industry predictions for 2022 and urged the GCC region’s businesses, employees, and consumers to be ever-watchful in making the new hybrid ecosystem a safe environment in which to work, shop, and live. “For our 2022 predictions, we wanted to go beyond the usual hot topics and buzzwords lists that normally pass for insights,” said Lior Div, co-founder and CEO, Cybereason. “While it’s important for our customers to prepare for more of the same when it comes to things like skills gaps and the use of cloud and AI in cybersecurity, we believe they do not need domain experts to inform them of the obvious. We prefer to focus on the future shape of the threat landscape and what current threat research tells us about risks that may be just over the horizon.”
RansomOps replaces ransomware
Ransomware has swept the region anew since the pandemic created more complexity in infrastructure and a disconnect between remote-working employees and the IT function. According to recent Cybereason research, 63% of UAE businesses paid bad actors between US$350,000 and US$1.4 million following ransomware incursions in the two years prior to June 2021.
Relatively simple repurposed malware strains have been replaced by RansomOps. Cartels like REvil, Conti, and DarkSide are conducting comprehensive campaigns in which the payload is just the final link in an attack chain. Against this backdrop, 2022 will demand a refocusing of anti-ransomware tactics away from the encrypting malware itself and onto the Indicators of Behavior (IOBs) associated with RansomOps, allowing the defending organization to circumvent encryption entirely.
Supply-chain attacks will reach further
Regional CISOs may be familiar with the SolarWinds incident, in which the compromise of one resource led to the compromise of many of its owner’s customers. But Cybereason research into espionage campaigns such as DeadRinger and GhostShell reveals different approaches with similar outcomes. By gaining access to telecommunications providers, state actors were able to monitor communications for customers of those operators.
In 2022, criminal gangs will adopt the successful strategies of the state actors seen in DeadRinger and GhostShell. This will likely lead to a reassessment of risk profiles by companies that are suppliers of digital services, as well as similar reassessments by their customers of how to establish trust in their suppliers.
The Microsoft risk
Microsoft’s dominant role in the OS, cloud, and applications market means much of the cybersecurity threat domain is focused on the company’s offerings. As more and more organizations migrate to Microsoft environments, understanding the risks will be essential.
Lines blurring between cybersecurity and national security
This year, we have seen everything from oil to food supply chains affected by ransomware attacks. In 2022, criminal and state actors will likely collaborate and align objectives for optimal impact. In response, regional governments are likely to escalate their preparedness strategies through entities such as the Computer Emergency Response Team for the United Arab Emirates (aeCERT) and Saudi Arabia’s National Cybersecurity Authority (NCA).
Standardization of XDR
Hybrid work models, 5G rollouts, and the increased experimentation with the Internet of Things will lead to a connected world that will be difficult to protect. However, the productivity and convenience benefits of the technologies it provides will ensure its prevalence and therefore demand measures such as Extended Detection and Response (XDR).
While the cybersecurity industry is in broad agreement on its importance, there is not a uniform definition on what XDR does or should do. In 2022, when clear leaders in the XDR field have been established, the role AI should play in cybersecurity will become more defined.
“Everybody today needs to be thinking about cybersecurity,” continued Div. “While the CISO and their team will undoubtedly bear the brunt of responsibility and accountability, we all have a part to play. We can educate ourselves. We can be suspicious. We can change our relationships with devices and ecosystems to ones of ‘verification first’ rather than ‘trust by default’. As the new year rolls in, we should remember that we live digitally more than we ever have, so we should all pull together to make ourselves safer.”
Cloud
SentinelOne Simplifies Secure Cloud Migrations on AWS

SentinelOne today announced its participation in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Independent Software Vendor (ISV) Workload Migration Program. This initiative supports AWS Partner Network (APN) members with SaaS offerings on AWS to accelerate and streamline workload migrations.
Through the program, SentinelOne will provide AWS customers with accelerated, secure cloud migration support, leveraging modern AI-powered CNAPP capabilities to ensure rapid and protected transitions. With access to AWS funding, technical resources, and go-to-market support, SentinelOne will help organizations reduce migration timelines and costs while maintaining robust security.
SentinelOne’s Singularity Cloud Security delivers real-time visibility and protection throughout the migration journey—whether from on-premises or another cloud—enabling a secure, seamless transition to AWS.
“Through our participation in the AWS ISV Workload Migration Program, SentinelOne is helping customers accelerate secure cloud migrations with end-to-end protection and visibility,” said Ric Smith, President of Product, Technology, and Operations at SentinelOne. “Whether moving from on-prem or another cloud to AWS, organizations can count on us to deliver the security they need throughout their journey—realizing the performance, speed, agility, and cost benefits of the cloud.”
Singularity Cloud Security combines agentless and agent-based protection for deep visibility, continuous posture management, and real-time threat detection across hybrid and multi-cloud environments. By collaborating with AWS and ecosystem partners, SentinelOne ensures seamless integration into migration projects, helping customers move faster, reduce risk, and scale confidently in the cloud.
Availability: SentinelOne’s solutions are available globally.
Cyber Security
Beyond Blocklists: How Behavioural Intent Analysis Can Safeguard Middle East Businesses from Rising AI-Driven Bot Threats

The Middle East is facing an unprecedented surge in AI-driven bot attacks, with malicious automation now outpacing traditional defenses. Mohammad Ismail, Vice President for EMEA at Cequence Security, warns that legacy tools like IP blocklists and rate limiting are no match for today’s sophisticated threats (more…)
Cyber Security
Sophos Boosts Firewall with New Protection and Incident Response Features

Sophos has announced a significant update to its Sophos Firewall software, introducing enhanced protection and incident response capabilities. This update notably includes Sophos NDR Essential, a new feature now available free of charge to all customers holding an XStream Protection license for Sophos Firewall.
This integration empowers Sophos Firewall with two dedicated artificial intelligence (AI) engines specifically designed to detect both malware communications and those utilizing algorithmically generated domain names. This advanced functionality, derived from the Sophos Network Detection and Response (NDR) probe, aims to identify sophisticated malware communications even if they are previously unknown or not yet indexed. It serves as a powerful complement to the Active Threat Response capabilities already embedded within Sophos firewalls.

Chris McCormack, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Sophos
Addressing the technical demands of such advanced detection, Chris McCormack, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Sophos, explained the strategic approach, “NDR traffic analysis requires substantial processing power. That’s why we’ve adopted a new approach by deploying an NDR solution in Sophos Cloud to offload the heaviest tasks from the firewall.” This cloud-centric design ensures optimal performance without burdening the firewall’s on-device resources.
Beyond network detection, the update also brings significant improvements to connectivity and user authentication. Sophos Connect now integrates EntraID for Single Sign-On (SSO). This new feature for the VPN client, bundled with Sophos Firewall, is set to enhance both the security and user experience for SSL and IPsec VPN connections. The integration with EntraID (Azure AD) enables users to authenticate and leverage multi-factor authentication for both Sophos Connect and access to the user portal hosted by the firewall, streamlining secure access.
Further VPN-related enhancements include:
- Improved user interface and usability: Connection types have been renamed for greater clarity, with “site-to-site” now referred to as “policy-based” and tunnel interfaces as “route-based,” making configurations more intuitive.
- Dynamic validation of the IP address pool: For VPN connections (SSL VPN, IPsec, L2TP, and PPTP), the system now dynamically validates the allocated IP address pool, helping to better resolve potential IP address conflicts.
- Strict profile enforcement: IPsec profiles now exclude default values to ensure algorithm synchronization, effectively eliminating potential fragmentation of session negotiation packets that could otherwise prevent site-to-site VPN tunnels from being established.
- Route-based VPN and SD-RED scalability: The system has been optimized to support up to 3,000 simultaneously established tunnels. Specifically, Sophos Firewall solutions can now manage up to 1,000 SD-RED site-to-site tunnels and connect up to 650 concurrent SD-RED devices.
Additional management improvements enhance administrative flexibility and search capabilities:
- More flexible DHCP Prefix Delegation (IPv6 DHCP-PD): The system now supports a broader range of prefixes, from /48 to /64, improving compatibility with various internet service providers.
- Router Advertisement (RA) and DHCPv6 server: These features are now enabled by default, simplifying IPv6 network setup.
- Resizable table columns: The web admin interface continues its adaptation for ultra-wide screens, with many configuration pages now allowing users to resize columns as needed for improved usability.
- Enhanced object search functionality: The search field within the SD-WAN routing configuration screen now supports more granular criteria, including route name, ID, objects, and object values like IP addresses and domains. Similarly, local ACL rules now also support object name and value searches, extending to content-based searches for more precise results.
- Default configuration changes: To streamline initial setups, default firewall rules and rule groups previously created during new firewall deployments have been removed. The initial configuration now only includes the default network rule and MTA rules. Furthermore, the default firewall rule group and the default gateway probe for custom gateways are now set to “None” by default.
Sophos continues its commitment to cybersecurity through a “Secure by Design” approach, enhancing the intrinsic security of its firewalls. This methodology involves the containerization of specific features and rigorous integrity checks on critical operating system files using mathematical checksums. Any detected checksum mismatch triggers a potential compromise alert, enabling monitoring teams to proactively identify possible security incidents affecting the firewall OS integrity. This proactive detection allows incident response and development teams to react swiftly to critical security events.
This update is now available for manual download and deployment by customers with any Sophos Firewall equipped with a valid license.
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