Cyber Security
Helping Companies Stay Ahead of Cyber Threats
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:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
Here’s How Smart Devices are Eroding Privacy and Security
Privacy is generally held as a fundamental right, with citizens often having high expectations regarding the protection of their personal information. Citizens protest when they fear that governments are increasing their involvement in the citizens’ personal lives. However, they don’t consider how much personal and sensitive data they share with any application that they install on their smartphone, or with smart devices in their homes.
Big tech companies and vendors of personal devices such as wearables, smartphones, and voice assistants collect intimate details about their users—often far more than any healthcare provider or government agency. These devices capture data on physical health (like heart rate, sleep patterns, and physical activity), mental well-being (through analysis of speech, facial expressions, and online activity), and personal preferences, including what we search for, buy, or listen to. Voice assistants continuously learn from user interactions, building profiles that can include details about routines, relationships, and even moods, inferred from voice tone and language.
This data extends beyond what any individual doctor could know, compiling a digital “fingerprint” of personal health and behaviour. For instance, wearables record heart rate, stress levels, and steps taken, creating a comprehensive record of the wearer’s physical and mental state. Online Platforms use sophisticated algorithms to understand users’ interests and behaviours better than many friends or family members might, mapping out everything from buying habits to political views.
These companies achieve such depth by aggregating data across devices, apps, and digital environments. The insights generated are not just for providing services but are also used in targeted advertising and can be shared with third parties or government entities under certain conditions, sometimes without users’ explicit knowledge.
Applications must request consent and permission to ask for sensors in your device, and usually, users easily give it. While this data has immense value for improving products and personalizing services, it raises significant privacy concerns because it operates largely without oversight, allowing tech companies to wield unprecedented insight into the intimate details of billions of lives.
In 2018, we learned about the Facebook and Cambridge Analytica scandal. In short, a consulting firm harvested personal data from millions of users without their consent. The data was used to build psychological profiles of users, which were then leveraged to deliver targeted political advertisements. The major concern was data monetization, ad profiling and targeted campaigns.
The discussion has escalated since then, and it is now around homeland security, influence campaigns, and espionage by foreign governments.
Privacy and cultural differences
A current public debate surrounds data collection practices by popular social media and technology companies. Investigations revealed that such apps gather extensive user data, including location, contacts, and behavioural data, raising concerns about data security and potential access by foreign governments. While these companies deny any unlawful access, governments have imposed strict oversight measures to ensure that sensitive user information is not compromised. This has sparked action worldwide, as countries prioritize data security for their citizens.
Smartphone and IoT device manufacturers from various regions are also under scrutiny. Concerns have been raised about the risk of foreign governments accessing user data through backdoors or other surveillance mechanisms. This issue is particularly prominent in countries with different approaches to data privacy, especially in authoritarian regimes that prioritise state control over individual privacy. These practices have led to heightened concerns over the potential misuse of devices for espionage or surveillance.
How Governments are Responding
Privacy Laws in Western countries exemplify this commitment to data privacy by giving individuals control over their data and requiring transparency from companies about data collection and sharing practices. Such frameworks are influenced by cultural values that prioritise individual freedoms and a deep-seated aversion to surveillance, especially in the private domain of one’s home.
This divergence not only shapes local privacy standards but also impacts international relations and the global IoT market. Democracies are increasingly implementing policies to restrict foreign-made devices suspected of being vulnerable to government interference, reinforcing the broader geopolitical contest between open and closed data governance models.
As these cases demonstrate, the threat is not hypothetical. Governments worldwide are actively grappling with the security and privacy implications posed by IoT devices, particularly from vendors with potential ties to state surveillance. In response, several regulatory and legal actions are underway:
- Bans and Restrictions on High-Risk Vendors: Select governments have taken action by banning specific foreign-made devices from critical infrastructure, particularly in government buildings and other sensitive areas. This approach, while controversial, is perceived as a necessary step to reduce the risk of espionage.
- Data Protection and Privacy Laws: The European GDPR and similar laws around the world are designed to give consumers more control over their data. These regulations require that companies provide clear consent options, disclose data usage, and allow users to manage the data collected by their devices. However, enforcing these laws on foreign companies remains a challenge. Therefore, in Europe, the commission approved last month the new extended Cyber Resilience Act (CRA), which demands manufacturers to comply with both privacy and security requirements in any connected device, if they want to sell them in the European market.
- Device Security Standards: Several countries have introduced laws mandating minimum security standards for devices used by government agencies. These laws encourage basic security measures like banning default passwords, thereby reducing the risk of unauthorized access.
The privacy breach incidents highlight the urgent need for stronger regulations and better consumer awareness of potential security threats. This story is not just about one family or a single breach; it’s a broader narrative of how the “smart” devices in our homes could, in the wrong hands, compromise our privacy and security. As governments, regulatory bodies, and consumers begin to navigate this new reality, collaboration and vigilance will be key to preserving the sanctity of our private spaces.
Cyber Security
OPSWAT and TCC Partner to Secure Saudi Arabia’s Critical Infrastructure
OPSWAT has formed a strategic partnership with Technology Control Company (TCC), a prominent Saudi firm specialising in security services, digital solutions, and big data. Through this partnership, TCC will implement and market OPSWAT’s unified MetaDefender platform, addressing critical challenges in malware detection, secure access, and data sanitisation. Together, OPSWAT and TCC will provide scalable, comprehensive solutions to protect Saudi Arabia’s essential IT and OT environments, addressing the growing demand for secure digital infrastructure across energy, finance, and government sectors.
Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, which emphasises the importance of cybersecurity to drive digital transformation and economic diversification, has pushed the growth of the Saudi cybersecurity market which is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.5%, reaching SAR 15 billion by 2025. The industry still faces a significant shortage of cybersecurity professionals, with an estimated gap of 500,000 experts across the Middle East. OPSWAT’s solutions, combined with its educational initiatives through OPSWAT Academy, aim to address this skills gap by upskilling local professionals and reducing dependency on highly specialised in-house expertise through the solutions provided in collaboration with TCC.
“The demand for advanced cybersecurity solutions in Saudi Arabia has surged throughout 2023 and 2024, driven by the Kingdom’s ambitious digital transformation initiatives,” said Amjad Quteifan, Regional Sales Director at OPSWAT. “Through our partnership with TCC, we are uniquely positioned to deliver comprehensive security solutions that protect the critical infrastructure, empowering Saudi organisations to innovate and scale securely in support of Saudi Vision 2030.”
TCC has been a trusted provider of cutting-edge security solutions across Saudi Arabia since 2008. Commenting on the partnership, Mohammed AlMarri, TCC’s General Manager of Cybersecurity Services, stated, “With the growing convergence of IT and OT environments, the demand for advanced cybersecurity solutions is at an all-time high. At TCC, we leverage decades of expertise to deliver tailored cybersecurity services that protect critical infrastructure and sensitive data. Through our partnership with OPSWAT, we enhance our ability to provide comprehensive, scalable solutions that empower organisations to navigate the evolving threat landscape and safeguard their most valuable assets with confidence.”
Cyber Security
Positive Technologies and MCS Join Forces as MEA Cyber Threats Surge
Positive Technologies has signed a distribution agreement with Mideast Communication Systems (MCS), a leading provider of information technology and cybersecurity solutions headquartered in Cairo for the Middle East and Africa markets. The partnership will focus on sharing cybersecurity expertise and jointly promoting products and services in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Africa for result-driven cybersecurity.
Cyberattacks are still on the rise around the world: in the Middle East, their number tripled in Q1 compared to the same period in 2023. In Africa, over 70% of all cyberattacks in the last year targeted the public, finance, industry, and telecommunication sectors. Dark web marketplace research for the same period shows that information to access the networks of large domestic companies is available for an average of $2,970.
According to the 2023–2024 report by the International Telecommunication Union, Egypt is one of 12 nations awarded the highest rating in the Global Cybersecurity Index. However, Positive Technologies ranks the country second in Africa in terms of the number of cyberattacks (13%) after South Africa (22%).
Tarek Shabaka, MCS CEO, stated, “MCS has been in cybersecurity for 18 years, and today our strategic plan is centred on implementing cutting-edge solutions, supporting Egypt’s digital transformation, and expanding in the region. Our company has been growing its presence in Africa for the last several years. I’m confident that our partnership with Positive Technologies, a leading developer of advanced cybersecurity solutions and services, will help us significantly contribute to building a high level of cyber resilience among companies and organizations in the region.”
Ilya Leonov, Regional Director for MENA, Positive Technologies, stated that Positive Technologies has been working in the Middle East for several years and is excited to expand its partner network in Africa. “MCS has a wealth of experience with public sector and financial institutions, which we see targeted in more than half of all cyberattacks in Africa. We’re ready to share our extensive expertise, experience, and practical knowledge with our partners. Our collaboration with MCS will stretch beyond Egypt and include other countries in the Middle East and Africa. Priority will be given to industrial safety, DevSecOps, red team services, and ATM security assessment,” noted Ilya Leonov.
Mideast Communication Systems was founded in 2006 in Egypt, and today also has an office in Nairobi and operates in 10 countries in East and Central Africa. MCS annually hosts the FDC Summit, one of the largest IT exhibitions in Egypt held under the patronage of the Egyptian government and the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology.
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