Connect with us

Cyber Security

Helping Companies Stay Ahead of Cyber Threats

Published

on

Ahmed El Saadi, the Vice President for Middle East and Africa at Splunk, says Splunk’s observability solutions empower IT teams, to effectively manage and optimise complex environments

How has the regional security threat landscape evolved recently?
The regional security threat landscape has witnessed a significant evolution in recent years. The Middle East and Africa region has become a prime target for cyber threats due to its rapid digital transformation and strategic importance. Cybercriminals are leveraging advanced techniques and exploiting vulnerabilities to launch sophisticated attacks on organisations and critical infrastructure. Threat actors are increasingly focused on data breaches and ransomware attacks. Moreover, the rise of cloud computing, AI, and IoT has expanded the attack surface, making it essential for organizations to strengthen their cybersecurity defences.

Splunk recognises the evolving threat landscape and helps organisations stay ahead of cyber threats. Our comprehensive cybersecurity solutions provide real-time threat detection, incident response, and compliance reporting. We leverage AI and machine learning to analyze vast datasets and identify anomalies, enabling proactive threat hunting. By empowering organizations with actionable insights and the ability to detect and respond to threats swiftly, Splunk enhances the regional security posture and helps protect critical assets.

As the technology landscape shifts with the emergence of technologies such as AI, automation, cloud, and so on, how is Splunk supporting the partner ecosystem to sustain and stay relevant?
Splunk understands the importance of a strong partner ecosystem in navigating the evolving technology landscape. We actively collaborate with our partners in the Middle East and Africa region to ensure they can sustain and stay relevant in the face of technological advancements. Splunk provides comprehensive training and certification programs to enable partners to build expertise in our solutions and stay up to date with the latest industry trends.

We also offer extensive technical support, including partner enablement resources, co-marketing opportunities, and joint go-to-market initiatives. Through our Partner+ Program, we foster strong relationships with our partners, empowering them to deliver value-added services and solutions to customers. Moreover, Splunk’s open and extensible platform allows partners to develop their own applications and integrations, further expanding their offerings and differentiation in the market.

By supporting our partner ecosystem, Splunk ensures that organizations in the region have access to knowledgeable and skilled partners who can help them leverage emerging technologies effectively and drive digital transformation.

Why, according to you, should companies leverage AI, and how can Splunk help with that journey?
Companies should leverage AI to unlock the full potential of their data and gain actionable insights that drive innovation and competitive advantage. AI enables organizations to process and analyze large volumes of data at scale, identify patterns and anomalies, automate manual processes, and make data-driven decisions in real-time. By harnessing AI, companies can enhance operational efficiency, optimize customer experiences, and discover new business opportunities.

Splunk plays a pivotal role in helping organizations embark on their AI journey. Our platform integrates AI and machine learning capabilities, empowering organizations to leverage AI effectively. Splunk provides customizable ML tools to detect anomalies, predict system failures, and automate responses to threats or disruptions. We enable organizations to derive valuable insights from their data, automate critical processes, and respond promptly to issues. With Splunk, companies can unlock the power of AI to enhance operational resilience, drive innovation, and accelerate digital transformation.

What sort of market strategies do you have for the Middle East region?
Splunk has developed robust market strategies to address the unique needs and opportunities in the Middle East region. Our market strategies focus on three key pillars:

  1. Partnerships and Collaborations: We foster strong partnerships with local organizations, including technology partners, system integrators, and value-added resellers. By collaborating closely with these partners, we ensure that our solutions align with regional requirements and are tailored to local market dynamics.
  2. Customer Success and Enablement: We prioritise customer success by offering comprehensive support, training, and professional services. Our team works closely with customers to understand their specific challenges and provide tailored solutions that drive business value. We enable customers to extract maximum value from our platform and accelerate their digital transformation journey.
  3. Thought Leadership and Community Engagement: Splunk actively contributes to the regional tech ecosystem through thought leadership initiatives, industry events, and community engagement. We share best practices, insights, and success stories to foster a culture of innovation and collaboration. By participating in industry events and engaging with local communities, we aim to drive awareness, knowledge exchange, and technological advancements in the region.

Through these market strategies, Splunk aims to establish itself as a trusted partner for organisations in the Middle East, helping them navigate the complexities of digital transformation, strengthen their cybersecurity defences, and drive operational resilience.

What are the challenges faced by IT teams in managing complex environments, and how does Splunk help them overcome those challenges?
IT teams face numerous challenges in managing complex environments, including the need to monitor and troubleshoot a wide range of systems, applications, and infrastructure components. The increasing scale and complexity of IT environments make it difficult to detect and respond to issues promptly, leading to downtime, performance degradation, and customer dissatisfaction.

Splunk helps IT teams overcome these challenges through its observability solutions. Our platform provides end-to-end visibility into IT environments, consolidating data from various sources, and offering real-time insights into system health, performance, and user experiences. Splunk’s AI-powered analytics enable proactive detection of anomalies and predictive identification of potential issues, empowering IT teams to take preemptive actions and prevent disruptions.

Furthermore, Splunk’s automation capabilities streamline IT operations, enabling teams to automate routine tasks, accelerate troubleshooting, and improve incident response times. By leveraging Splunk’s automation features, IT teams can focus on strategic initiatives and deliver better customer experiences.

Overall, Splunk’s observability solutions empower IT teams to effectively manage and optimize complex environments, proactively identify issues, and ensure the smooth functioning of critical systems and applications.

Cyber Security

Axis Communications Sheds Light on Video Surveillance Industry Perspectives on AI

Published

on

Axis Communications has published a new report that explores the state of AI in the global video surveillance industry. Titled The State of AI in Video Surveillance, the report examines the key opportunities, challenges and future trends, as well as the responsible practices that are becoming critical for organisations in their use of AI. The report draws insights from qualitative research as well as quantitative data sources, including in-depth interviews with carefully selected experts from the Axis global partner network.

A leading insight featured in the report is the unanimous view among interviewees that interest in the technology has surged over the past few years, with more and more business customers becoming curious and increasingly knowledgeable about its potential applications.

Mats Thulin, Director AI & Analytics Solutions at Axis Communications

“AI is a technology that has the potential to touch every corner and every function of the modern enterprise. That said, any implementations or integrations that aim to drive value come with serious financial and ethical considerations. These considerations should prompt organisations to scrutinise any initiative or investment. Axis’s new report not only shows how AI is transforming the video surveillance landscape, but also how that transformation should ideally be approached,” said Mats Thulin, Director AI & Analytics Solutions at Axis Communications.

According to the Axis report, the move by businesses from on-premise security server systems to hybrid cloud architectures continues at pace, driven by the need for faster processing, improved bandwidth usage and greater scalability. At the same time, cloud-based technology is being combined with edge AI solutions, which play a crucial role by enabling faster, local analytics with minimal latency, a prerequisite for real-time responsiveness in security-related situations.

By moving AI processing closer to the source using edge devices such as cameras, businesses can reduce bandwidth consumption and better support real-time applications like security monitoring. As a result, the hybrid approach is expected to continue to shape the role of AI in security and unlock new business intelligence and operational efficiencies.

A trend that is emerging among businesses is the integration of diverse data for a more comprehensive analysis, transforming safety and security. Experts predict that by integrating additional sensory data, such as audio and contextual environmental factors caught on camera, can lead to enhanced situational awareness and greater actionable insights, offering a more comprehensive understanding of events.

Combining multiple data streams can ultimately lead to improved detection and prediction of potential threats or incidents. For example, in emergency scenarios, pairing visual data with audio analysis can enable security teams to respond more quickly and precisely. This context-aware approach can potentially elevate safety, security and operational efficiency, and reflects how system operators can leverage and process multiple data inputs to make better-informed decisions.

According to the Axis report, interviewees emphasised that responsible AI and ethical considerations are critical priorities in the development and deployment of new systems, raising concerns about decisions potentially based on biased or unreliable AI. Other risks highlighted include those related to privacy violations and how facial and behavioural recognition could have ethical and legal repercussions.

As a result, a recurring theme among interviewees was the importance of embedding responsible AI practices early in the development process. Interviewees also pointed to regulatory frameworks, such as the EU AI Act, as pivotal in shaping responsible use of technology, particularly in high-risk areas. While regulation was broadly acknowledged as necessary to build trust and accountability, several interviewees also stressed the need for balance to safeguard innovation and address privacy and data security concerns.

“The findings of this report reflect how enterprises are viewing the trend of AI holistically, working to have a firm grasp of both how to use the technology effectively and understand the macro implications of its usage. Conversations surrounding privacy and responsibility will continue but so will the pace of innovation and the adoption of technologies that advance the video surveillance industry and lead to new and exciting possibilities,” Thulin added.

Continue Reading

Artificial Intelligence

CyberKnight Partners with Ridge Security for AI-Powered Security Validation

Published

on

The automated penetration testing market was valued at roughly $3.1 billion in 2023 and is projected to grow rapidly, with forecasts estimating a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) between 21% and 25%. By 2030, the sector is expected to reach approximately $9 to $10 billion. The broader penetration testing industry is also expanding, with projections indicating it will surpass $5.3 billion by 2027, according to MarketandMarket.

To support enterprises and government entities across the Middle East, Turkey and Africa (META) with identifying and validating vulnerabilities and reducing security gaps in real-time, CyberKnight has partnered with Ridge Security, the World’s First Al-powered Offensive Security Validation Platform. Ridge Security’s products incorporate advanced artificial intelligence to deliver security validation through automated penetration testing and breach and attack simulations.

RidgeBot uses advanced AI to autonomously perform multi-vector iterative attacks, conduct continuous penetration testing, and validate vulnerabilities with zero false positives. RidgeBot has been deployed by customers worldwide as a key element of their journey to evolve from traditional vulnerability management to Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM).

“Ridge Security’s core strength lies in delivering holistic, AI-driven security validation that enables organizations to proactively manage risk and improve operational performance,” said Hom Bahmanyar, Chief Enablement Officer at Ridge Security. “We are delighted to partner with CyberKnight to leverage their network of strategic partners, deep-rooted customer relations, and security expertise to accelerate our expansion plans in the region.”

“Our partnership with Ridge Security is a timely and strategic step, as 69% of organizations are now adopting AI-driven security for threat detection and prevention,” added Wael Jaber, Chief Strategy Officer at CyberKnight. “By joining forces, we enhance our ability to deliver automated, intelligent security validation solutions, reaffirming our commitment to empowering customers with resilient, future-ready cybersecurity across the region.”

Continue Reading

Cyber Security

GISEC 2025 Launches OT Security Conference Amid 49% Infrastructure Attack Surge

Published

on

As operational technology (OT) cyberattacks skyrocketed 49% in 2024 – targeting power grids, oil & gas facilities, factories and transport systems – GISEC Global 2025 is responding with the launch of its pivotal new OT Security track at the Middle East and Africa’s largest cybersecurity event, currently taking place until 8th May at the Dubai World Trade Centre.

The OT-focused conference at GISEC Global tackled evolving risks, system vulnerabilities and strategies for securing critical infrastructure. Other important considerations included AI in ICS/OT Security, Quantum Computing Threat, Protecting ICS and SCADA Systems & Digital Supply Chains in the presence of top CISOs, CIOs, OT security heads and policy-makers to fortify SCADA, ICS and digital supply chains.

The global OT security market is projected to double to $44.9 billion by 2029 (as per Markets and Markets). According to research by IBM, the average cost of cyberattacks on organisations in the Middle East is $8.75 million, nearly double the global average. OT security encompasses advanced cybersecurity protocols designed to ensure the integrity, availability and safety of industrial control systems. As critical infrastructure faces escalating cyber threats, robust OT security is essential for maintaining continuity across the oil & gas, manufacturing, energy, transport and utility sectors.

In late 2024, ransomware groups accelerated attacks on industrial sectors, with manufacturing, transportation and ICS operations prime targets. Only aggressive defence, intelligence sharing and cross-sector collaboration will safeguard critical infrastructure into 2025 and beyond. The audience heard from experts on the need for modern OT protection which delved into precision AI, leveraging machine learning, deep learning and large language models.

Discussing cybersecurity threats in the maritime industry, where ships can hold up to 10,000 passengers, are driven autonomously and each country has their own set of AI regulations, Simone Fortin, Global CISO Cruise Division at MSC Cruise Division, called for streamlined regulations that can be applied to all countries around the world.

He said, “For an industry like maritime, which is regulated by the UN, it is hard to interpret how to prevent AI threats for something critical like managing a ship. The UN gives the policy a broader scale, but then everything is regulated by bilateral agreements between the states and the regulators, and implemented by companies; but then, everything is defined by the fact that you could be in international waters. And ships can be owned by one entity, managed by another while sailing under a separate flag.”

Bridging the gap between AI-powered cyber defence and critical infrastructure resilience, the OT Security Track also put the spotlight the escalating IoT/IIoT threats in the oil & gas sector, featuring frontline insights from global CISOs defending the world’s most targeted industries.

Amal Krishna, Executive Director & CISO, ONGC, said, “To combat the surge in OT cyberattacks, businesses must prioritise asset visibility, network segmentation and secure remote access – but equally critical is breaking down silos between IT, OT and engineering teams. Cyber resilience in critical infrastructure isn’t just about technology, it’s about collaboration, continuous monitoring and a security-first culture.”

Albert Vartic, Upstream OT Cybersecurity Officer, OMV Petrom, added, “Over the next five years, OT cybersecurity in the Middle East’s critical infrastructure will see significant evolution. The region’s rapid digitalisation has expanded the attack surface, making industrial systems more vulnerable – proactive measures like IEC 62443 adoption and cross-team collaboration will be essential to safeguard operational resilience.”

Exhibitors Ayman Al Issa (CPX) and Mohammed Mousa (CyberKnight) dissected the 49% surge in OT attacks, offering actionable defences for the energy, healthcare and manufacturing sectors. Mousa, OT/xIoT Consultant at CyberKnight, warns that legacy OT systems weren’t built for today’s threats.

He explained, “The escalation in intrusions is a consequence of accelerated digital transformation in industrial sectors. As organisations integrate IT and OT environments to improve efficiency and support the business, they inadvertently expand the threat surface. Furthermore, legacy systems remain in operation far beyond their intended lifespan and often lack native security controls. Meanwhile, increased reliance on remote access, third-party integrations, and limited OT-specific cybersecurity governance heightens exposure. Simply put, organisations are moving faster than their security strategies are evolving.”

For businesses and governments to stay ahead of cyber criminals, Al Issa, Director – OT Cybersecurity at CPX, emphasised the importance of undertaking risk and threat assessments to understand what assets are at risk and how potential attackers might target them, sooner rather than later. He said, “In today’s fast-shifting business landscape, organisations need to focus on identifying their most critical assets – those that are at the highest risk and that they care about the most, rather than trying to protect everything or plan for recovery across the entire business. As such, organisations should conduct in-depth threat and risk assessments specifically considering the unique characteristics of industrial control systems (ICS), including their physical consequences. This involves mapping out interdependence, potential attack vectors and consequences of downtime. Using threat intelligence and aligning with frameworks like CIS ICS Controls can help organisations monitor suspicious activity, manage vulnerabilities and create tailored incident response plans. Once this is clear, more targeted and practical defence measures can be put in place and continuously tested, using threat intelligence to stay ahead of evolving threats. Risk assessments should be continuous, evolving with technological changes and emerging threats and should be validated through regular penetration testing.”

Amr Elsayed, Regional OT/ICS Cybersecurity Specialist at CyberKnight, agrees, saying technology, collaboration and workforce training should be key priorities for businesses. He said, “To enhance OT security resilience against rising cyber threats, businesses should adopt a Zero Trust approach, enforcing least-privilege access and micro-segmentation to limit breach impact. Advanced real-time monitoring and threat intelligence sharing (ISACs, public-private partnerships) are critical for proactive defences. Additionally, maintaining accurate OT asset inventories, conducting OT-specific incident response drills and implementing risk-based vulnerability management (compensating controls, tailored patching) will strengthen security postures. Finally, OT-focused employee training ensures a security-aware workforce. By prioritising these measures – spanning technology, collaboration and workforce readiness – organisations can safeguard critical infrastructure, mitigate disruptions and build long-term cyber resilience in OT environments.”

With Middle East nations rapidly adopting digitisation into their day-to-day practices, the region is becoming a target for cyberattacks. However, the experts expect a number of measures to be put in place to protect cybersecurity infrastructure, and GISEC 2025 could be where policymakers and tech giants will draft the playbook. Al Issa added, “Over the next five years, we can expect a major shift toward structured, regulation-driven cybersecurity approaches. AI-driven OT threat detection, the widespread adoption of Zero Trust principles and deeper integration of compliance frameworks will define the regional OT cybersecurity landscape. Stricter regulatory frameworks and compliance mandates region-wide will push for better security practices.”

Organised by Dubai World Trade Centre, GISEC Global 2025 is hosted by the UAE Cybersecurity Council under the theme of ‘Securing an AI-Powered Future’, and supported by Dubai Electronic Security Center (DESC), UAE Ministry of Interior and Dubai Police.

Continue Reading
Advertisement

Follow Us

Trending

Copyright © 2021 Security Review Magazine. Rysha Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.