SECURITY NEWS
Trellix research identifies what would make life easier for CISOs in Saudi Arabia , UAE
Despite a continued increase in cybersecurity spending in the region , organisations in the United Arab Emirates 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 . 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 Saudi Arabia still believe their organisations 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 Saudi Arabia , 26 % decried the lack of skilled talent , as well as their inability to recruit and retain this talent . More than one in five , 22 % were concerned about a lack of buy-in from their board , and 30 % cited lack of buy-in from other parts of their organisation .
From a process standpoint , some 38 % of CISOs in the UAE & Saudi Arabia said they lacked the freedom to communicate
Khaled Alateeq , Head of Middle East , Trellix outside of their organisation for learning purposes . A further 38 % expressed frustration with their inability to respond quickly to changing regulatory frameworks and 18 % said their processes were poorly designed or they were presented with too many sources of information to be adequately in control of their environment .
“ The United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia rank consistently high on global maturity indexes for cybersecurity ,” said Khaled Alateeq , Head of Middle East , Trellix . “ This is because government entities have done a great job in laying out cybersecurity guidelines and regulations and introducing a wide array of skilling initiatives and incentives to attract top talent to the region . Now it is incumbent upon organisations to answer the call and support their CISOs . Our recent Mind of the CISO research is quite clear on what would make life easier for CISOs in the UAE and Saudi Arabia .”
Asked for suggestions on how their enterprise ’ s senior leadership could help them overcome their challenges , half of CISOs in the UAE and Saudi Arabia said better engagement from such stakeholders would be a good start . And 38 % said better understanding from the rest of the organisation on issues of cybersecurity would help , with 32 % calling for a strong support team to assist in their defence efforts . •
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