Connect with us

News

Snowflake Appoints Ali Al-Ismail as Country Manager for Saudi Arabia

Published

on

Snowflake has announced the appointment of Ali Al-Ismail as Country Manager for Saudi Arabia, further highlighting the company’s commitment to growing the local business, being closer to local customers to maximise their data investment and business value with Snowflake’s platform, and aligning to the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 to support industries with their digital economic growth. The appointment of Ali follows the company’s recent establishment of its regional headquarters in Riyadh, as well as the local deployment of Google Cloud Dammam (Saudi Arabia) to help customers meet data sovereignty and residency requirements within the Kingdom.

In his new role at Snowflake, Ali will be responsible for the growth of the company’s operations in Saudi Arabia, including developing relationships with customers and prospects — such as government entities and local businesses — expanding the local partner ecosystem, and growing the local Snowflake team. Ali will drive the adoption of Snowflake’s AI Data Cloud across various industries, including the public sector, financial services, oil and gas, manufacturing, and retail.

Ali Al-Ismail, Country Manager for Snowflake KSA, said, “Saudi Arabia is a dynamic growth market that is rapidly transitioning to a data-driven economy. Snowflake is really at the forefront of this technological shift and this was a key driver in my move to Snowflake. As country manager, my top priority is to empower our customers to harness the full potential of their data to drive successful and actionable business outcomes to support the Kingdom’s digital transformation through Vision 2030.”

Ali brings nearly 20 years of experience in sales leadership and business development having held senior roles at leading technology companies, including Oracle, Microsoft, Cisco, and Alcatel, with a focus on the oil and gas industries, utilities, and mid-market growth companies. Most recently, Ali served as senior sales leader for Oracle in Saudi Arabia, where he built high-performing SaaS sales and channel teams from the ground up and achieved double-digit growth for the company’s cloud solutions. Ali is a graduate with a computer engineering degree from the King Fahad University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM).

Mohamed Zouari, General Manager for the Middle East, Africa, and Turkey at Snowflake, added, “Ali’s leadership comes at a pivotal time for Snowflake as we expand our footprint in Saudi Arabia to help customers in the Kingdom with their most important data challenges with faster, cost-efficient, secure, and compliant data solutions. His deep understanding of the local market and commitment to fostering innovation will play a vital role in enabling organizations to leverage Snowflake’s AI Data Cloud to drive business innovation while adhering to the highest standards of data security and sovereignty.”

Doubling down on Snowflake’s commitment to Saudi, and equipping the global workforce with essential skills for the AI-driven future, Snowflake has launched its One Million Minds + One Platform program to certify over 100,000 users globally on the Snowflake AI Data Cloud by 2027, and upskilling one million people on data and AI by 2029. The program offers free, live introductory training courses led by Snowflake-certified instructors, providing hands-on experience to empower participants to drive their organizations’ data transformation journeys. In a high-growth market like Saudi Arabia, where 67% of respondents in PwC’s Workplace Hopes and Fears survey believe upskilling will enhance their job performance in the next five years, this initiative aligns with the Kingdom’s vision to build a data-ready workforce and develop a data-driven economy.

Speaking about the One Million Minds program, Ali added, “Vision 2030 is focused on transforming the nation to a more diversified and innovative economy, and Snowflake’s One Million Minds + One Platform program is helping drive this aim forward. Data and AI are fundamental aspects of today’s business environment, and this program aims to democratise data and AI use, enabling people in the Kingdom the opportunity to build successful careers as the technologists and founders of tomorrow.”

News

Sophos Completes Secureworks Acquisition

Published

on

Sophos and Secureworks have announced the completion of Sophos’ acquisition of Secureworks. The all-cash transaction values Secureworks at approximately $859 million. With the completion of the acquisition, Secureworks’ common stock has ceased trading on Nasdaq. Thoma Bravo, a leading software investment firm, backs Sophos.

With this acquisition, Sophos is now the leading pure-play cybersecurity provider of Managed Detection and Response (MDR) services, supporting more than 28,000 organizations of all sizes worldwide. The combination will enable Sophos to deliver an unparalleled security operations platform, featuring hundreds of built-in integrations for adaptive protection, detection and response for mitigating cyberattacks. The open and scalable platform helps organizations, especially those with diverse IT estates, safeguard current and future technology investments, providing greater operational efficiencies and return on cybersecurity spend. Sophos X-Ops is also expanding its threat intelligence and security services capabilities by adding the Secureworks Counter Threat Unit and security operations and advisory teams.

As a channel-first cybersecurity provider, Sophos remains unwavering in its commitment to delivering cutting-edge security services and technologies that empower our global community of resellers, Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and Managed Security Services Providers (MSSPs). This includes expanding their reach, enhancing operational scalability and providing stronger defences to the countless organizations that need the ability to effectively defend against today’s constant and complex cyberattacks.

“The market is embracing MDR as a clear means to deliver positive cybersecurity outcomes, and this has meant rapid growth in the category,” said Joe Levy, CEO, Sophos. “Sophos is differentiated by our very mature competencies in ransomware detection, malware analysis and threat actor tradecraft. These defences are further augmented by Sophos’ native artificial intelligence (AI), first innovated by our globally peer-recogniwed AI team nearly a decade ago, and embedded in our MDR, endpoint, network, email, and cloud security to more effectively neutralize and stop threats. With the integration of Secureworks, our expanded services and product portfolio will provide even stronger end-to-end security solutions that will include identity threat detection and response (ITDR), next-gen SIEM and managed risk, all in a single open platform. We will also be able to further advance our AI, threat intelligence and attack research through more diverse and deeper global telemetry that is analyst-tuned for the real world. At every level, we are very excited about this next accelerated chapter for Sophos.”

In the near term, Sophos and Secureworks are operating business as usual, working with our respective channel partners, MSPs and MSSPs worldwide to distribute our existing security services and technology. Both companies’ sales and customer experience groups will operate to support existing customers, assist with renewals and develop current and new business opportunities. Sophos protects more than 600,000 customers worldwide with its portfolio of MDR, endpoint, network, email, and cloud security solutions that integrate and adapt to provide real-time defence through the Sophos Central platform.

Under the terms of the agreement, Sophos acquired Secureworks in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $859 million. Secureworks shareholders, including Dell Technologies, will receive $8.50 per share in cash. This represents a 28% premium to the unaffected 90-day volume-weighted average price (VWAP). Kirkland & Ellis LLP acted as legal counsel to Sophos, Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC., Barclays, BofA Securities, HSBC Securities (USA) Inc., and UBS Investment Bank acted as financial advisors and provided debt financing for the transaction. Piper Sandler & Company and Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC acted as financial advisors to Secureworks, and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP acted as legal counsel.

Continue Reading

Artificial Intelligence

DeepSeek Popularity Exploited in Latest PyPI Attack

Published

on

The Supply Chain Security team at Positive Technologies’ Expert Security Center (PT ESC) discovered and neutralised a malicious campaign in the Python Package Index (PyPI) repository. This attack was aimed at developers, ML engineers, and anyone seeking to integrate DeepSeek into their projects.

The attacker’s account, created in June 2023, remained dormant until January 29, when the malicious packages deepseeek and deepseekai were registered. Once installed, these packages would register console commands. When these commands were executed, the packages began stealing sensitive user data, including information about their computers and environment variables often containing database credentials and access keys to various infrastructure resources. The attackers used Pipedream, a popular developer integration platform, as their command-and-control server to receive the stolen information.

Stanislav Rakovsky, Head of Supply Chain Security at PT ESC, explained, “Cybercriminals are always looking for the next big thing to exploit, and DeepSeek’s popularity made it a prime target. What’s particularly interesting is that the malicious code appears to have been generated with the help of an AI assistant, based on comments within the code itself. The malicious packages were uploaded to the popular repository on the evening of January 29.”

Given the heightened interest in DeepSeek, this attack could have resulted in numerous victims if the malicious activity had gone unnoticed for longer. Experts at Positive Technologies strongly recommend being more attentive to new and unknown packages.

Continue Reading

Artificial Intelligence

SentinelOne to Spotlight AI-Driven Cybersecurity at LEAP 2025

Published

on

SentinelOne has announced its participation at LEAP 2025, alongside its distributor, AlJammaz Technologies. The company will showcase its AI-powered cybersecurity solutions including advanced EDR, XDR, and ITDR solutions designed to deliver autonomous protection against evolving cyber threats.

SentinelOne’s solutions align with the Kingdom’s strategic priorities by offering proactive AI-driven protection for critical infrastructure, enterprises, and government entities. The company’s Singularity platform, known for its real-time, AI-driven threat detection, response, and prevention, will be at the centre of its presence at the exhibition. The platform enables enterprises to protect their endpoints, cloud environments, and identity layers, allowing them to innovate confidently amidst evolving cyber threats.

Speaking on their participation, Meriam ElOuazzani, Senior Regional Director, META at SentinelOne, said, “Cybersecurity remains central to progress with Saudi Vision 2030’s digital leadership and economic goals, and our solutions empower businesses to outpace evolving threats and fuel growth. By participating at LEAP, we aim to engage with key stakeholders in the tech ecosystem, explore new partnerships, and demonstrate how our solutions are reshaping workforce capabilities and the future of digital resilience.”

SentinelOne’s AI strategy focuses on delivering autonomous, real-time protection by leveraging machine learning and behavioural AI. This ensures businesses can detect, mitigate, and remediate cyberattacks faster and more effectively than traditional solutions. Senior executives from SentinelOne will be onsite at the AlJammaz Executive Lounge in Hall 1 to share insights on AI-driven security strategies and the future of autonomous cybersecurity. Visitors can also experience live demonstrations of the Singularity platform.

Continue Reading
Advertisement

Follow Us

Trending

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