Industry Thought Leadership

Expanding cyber threat landscape
Digital transformation is giving rise to tremendous business and social opportunities, though digitization and interconnectivity come at a cost. Digitization creates an expanding threat surface, that is targeted by threat actors, which might result in incidents potentially impacting the operations and lives of businesses and individuals.

We continue to be reminded of the potentially devastating impact of cyber incidents, particularly as the lines between state-sponsored threat actors blur with those of cyber criminals and hacktivists. In June, the MOVEit cyber-attack exploited a vulnerability in the file transfer software used by hundreds of organizations globally, stealing data and leaving the companies susceptible to financial and reputational losses.

In another example of the widening expanse and complexity of the cyber threat landscape, the hacktivist group, Anonymous Sudan, has caused disruptions to organizations in Sweden, Denmark, France, the UAE, and Kenya, with Microsoft also having fallen victim to the hackers’ activities. “Anonymous Sudan will highly likely continue to cause disruption to entities globally to garner attention to their causes” commented Naveed Hamid, ZainTech’s VP of Security Solutions. 

Businesses are increasingly relying on cloud-based platforms and remote collaboration tools, making the risk of falling victim to threats such as phishing or ransomware attacks significantly greater. If successful, these attacks can compromise valuable business data, lead to financial losses, and tarnish an organization's reputation.

Cyber resilience
To mitigate this ever-present and growing cyber threat, organizations need to be proactive. Cyber resilience, distinct from cybersecurity, refers to the ability to detect, respond, and recover from a cyber incident promptly while causing the least disruption to operations. 

It is advisable for organizations to partner with cybersecurity specialists to bolster cyber resilience. This approach is even more effective when engaging with a company such as ZainTech, which is active across the entire cybersecurity lifecycle, and therefore has a deep knowledge and understanding of potential cyber threats and solutions. 

Partnering with ZainTech
ZainTech possesses a wealth of industry expertise and collaborates with leading cybersecurity vendors, showcasing its commitment to staying at the forefront of cybersecurity innovation and implementation. Earlier this year, we announced our operations in Kuwait and Jordan received International Organization for Standardization (ISO) certifications for their respective cloud and security operations stacks, for example. This endorsement provides peace of mind internally and externally to customers and partners, that ZainTech is implementing the highest levels of security management over its systems.

At ZainTech, we also recommend board-level representation of cybersecurity within organizations, given that digital transformation has grown to become critical to the ongoing operational success of entities.

Mitigating cyber threats
We believe mitigating cyber threats requires strategic planning and ongoing vigilance, with organizations advised to consider cultivating a security-aware culture in which employees at all levels are educated about the potential risks and their role in preventing cyber-attacks.

Artificial Intelligence and machine learning can be leveraged to play a pivotal role in detecting and mitigating cyber threats in real time, while regular updates and patching can keep systems up to date, which is a simple yet effective way to mitigate potential security threats.

The use of cyber threat intelligence boosts proactive defense by predicting potential threats, improving situational awareness, and aiding informed decision-making. It is also advised that continuous cybersecurity monitoring be implemented, offering real-time detection of threats, and reducing the potential for damage by initiating immediate responses.    

Cybersecurity as an economic enabler
In a modern world where digital transformation holds the key to further economic development, securing digital infrastructure is akin to securing business and economic success.

For us to benefit fully from digital transformation, an end-to-end approach to cybersecurity is required, with an ongoing monitoring and proactive security stance adopted, securing the foundation on which economic activity can occur successfully and sustainably.

Digital transformation is powering the most significant changes to business processes ever witnessed since the industrial era, and with this overwhelming potential comes the requirement to ensure the integrity of digital ecosystems and operations. Companies such as ZainTech are best positioned in the Middle East to support organizations across the region to leverage the gains of digitization while ensuring they are secure and enabled to progress and succeed.