‘We need better resources, processes, and technology to be cyber-resilient’: UAE & KSA security leaders

‘We need better resources, processes, and technology to be cyber-resilient’: UAE & KSA security leaders

Dubai, United Arab Emirates – Despite a continued increase in cybersecurity spending in the region, organizations in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia remain ill-equipped to face down the cyber-menace. This was the key finding in a global report released by Trellix, the cybersecurity company delivering the future of extended detection and response (XDR).

End-of-decade CAGRs for the GCC cybersecurity market have been revised upwards, from 5.9% in 2017 to as high as 7.6% last year. While this is a clear illustration of heightened interest in security matters at the board level, Trellix’s “Mind of the CISO” report shows that two thirds (66%) of CISOs in the UAE and KSA still believe their organizations lack the right people and processes to be cyber resilient and almost three quarters (74%) believe their current technology setup is insufficient.

The research — which was conducted by Vanson Bourne across nine countries and surveyed 500 CISOs at companies with more than 1,000 employees — found that when it came to challenges around people, more than one in four CISOs in the UAE and KSA (26%) decried the lack of skilled talent, as well as their inability to recruit and retain this talent. More than