LATEST INTELLIGENCE
MIDDLE EAST: IDENTITY AT THE CORE OF DIGITAL NATION-BUILDING
The Middle East is undergoing a rapid Digital Transformation, driven by national agendas such as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’ s Vision 2030 and the UAE’ s Digital Government Strategy. As cloud infrastructure, Smart Cities and AI-powered platforms take shape, a critical question emerges: can identity and access keep pace?
This CXO Priorities survey, developed with Okta, captures how organisations across the region are approaching cybersecurity. Based on insights from 30 senior IT and cybersecurity leaders, it explores what’ s driving investment, where identity complexity is mounting and how confident leaders feel in defending their digital environments.
The findings reveal strong ambition, but also growing fragmentation. Managing user access, securing credentials and preparing for AI-driven threats are proving to be key pressure points. The survey focuses on:
• AI’ s role in reshaping cybersecurity
• The rising complexity of access and credential management
• The region’ s readiness to defend against modern threats
How confident are you in your organisation’ s ability to defend against emerging cyberthreats?
• 36 % Very confident
• 16 % Satisfied
• 16 % Not confident
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Confidence is rising, but it’ s not universal. A third of organisations believe they’ re ready – a notable proportion admit they aren’ t. That split suggests that while digital ambition is high, readiness is uneven.
In this region, where national transformation plans are underway, uneven readiness can result in significant exposure.
What’ s creating the gap? Rapid cloud adoption without equivalent identity controls. Investments in digital infrastructure without corresponding IAM strategy.
How Okta adds value: Okta provides the digital trust layer that underpins smart cities, e-government portals, and hyperconnected economies.
It unifies identity, reduces risk, and scales across ministries, sectors and citizens. • 22 www. intelligenttechchannels. com