CISO 360 Middle East Weathering the Cyber Attack Storm in the Middle East
This interactive LIVE BROADCAST with local CISOs and Attack Specialists you will have a session to learn a lot form. Don’t miss it out!
Learn how leading CISOs in the Middle East are responding to the exponentially growing and increasingly sophisticated cyber-attacks from malicious hacker groups and hostile foreign entities.
Hear about their challenges and successes in securing their organizations and actions they have taken to reduce their vulnerability and breach risk. This is the perfect opportunity to join in real world application, and engaging, interactive discussions within your own trusted peer group!
When: Monday 19 October 2020
10:30-12:30 – Gulf Standard Time (GST)
Registration : REGISTER HERE
CISO 360 Middle East
Interact via
- Live polls
- Spotlighting onto the virtual stage
- Chat and real time Q&A
Topics include but are not limited to
- What is the cyber threat environment like in the Middle East today? How does the environment differ from other regions of the world?
- What types of threat actors and tactics, techniques, and procedures are most common and how can we best prepare ourselves against them?
- Data leakage prevention – sharing successes and new challenges
- What does the modern pen tester look like? Crowdsourcing, credit scoring methods, traditional pen-tests…
First speakers announced!
- Dr. Erdal Ozkaya, CISO, Managing Director, Standard Chartered (UAE)
- Nathan Swain, CISO and Senior Security Advisor for the UK Government (UAE)
- Irene Corpuz, Manager, Strategy and Future Department, HCT – Abu Dhabi Government Entity (UAE)
- Majed Alshodari, CISO, Allied Cooperative Insurance Group (Saudi Arabia)
For more evets :
CISO Insight
Cybersecurity is not a product you buy or a project you complete — it is a continuous operational discipline. The organisations that achieve genuine security maturity are those that embed security thinking into every business decision, invest in people and processes alongside technology, and build resilience for the inevitable day when preventive controls fail.
The Evolving Cybersecurity Landscape
The cybersecurity threat landscape continues to evolve at a pace that challenges even the most well-resourced security teams. AI-powered attacks, supply chain compromises, ransomware-as-a-service operations, and state-sponsored campaigns create a multi-dimensional threat environment that no single technology can address. The organisations that defend most effectively are those that take a risk-based approach — understanding which assets are most critical, which threats are most likely, and where their defensive investments will have the greatest impact.
For CISOs, the challenge is translating this complex threat landscape into actionable strategy that the board can understand and fund. This requires the ability to quantify cyber risk in business terms, prioritise investments based on risk reduction rather than vendor marketing, and communicate security posture in a language that resonates with non-technical stakeholders. The CISO who can articulate “a ransomware attack on our supply chain system would cost us $15 million in downtime” is far more effective than one who reports “we have 47 critical vulnerabilities.”
Building a Defence-in-Depth Strategy
Effective cybersecurity requires layered defences that address the full attack lifecycle — from initial reconnaissance through to data exfiltration and impact. No single control is sufficient, because every control has limitations and can be bypassed by a sufficiently motivated and capable adversary. The goal is to create enough layers that an attacker must overcome multiple independent defences to achieve their objective, while ensuring that detection and response capabilities can identify and contain breaches before they cause catastrophic damage.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the biggest cybersecurity mistake organisations make?
Treating cybersecurity as a technology problem rather than a business risk management discipline. Organisations that buy security tools without a coherent strategy, skip basic hygiene in favour of advanced solutions, or fail to invest in people and processes alongside technology consistently underperform. The fundamentals — patch management, access control, security awareness, incident response planning — prevent more breaches than any advanced technology.
How should CISOs prioritise their security investments?
Start with a risk assessment that identifies your most critical assets and most likely threats. Prioritise controls that address the highest-risk scenarios first. Ensure basic hygiene is solid before investing in advanced capabilities. Use frameworks like NIST CSF or CIS Controls to structure your programme, and measure progress with metrics that the board can understand and act upon.
Related reading: Visit our Cyber Resilience Hub for enterprise security frameworks, or download the CISO Toolkit for governance templates and playbooks.