Enterprises are facing up to the reality of cyber threats stemming from the Middle East’s volatile climate, according to Glen Sawood Ogden, Regional Sales Director for A10 Networks.
He said the scope of the problem had now become apparent to regional businesses: “We are living in a volatile region right now. We’re fighting wars on multiple fronts. And with every war we fight, we have to understand cyber threats come hand in hand. If you look at Daesh for example, they have a cyber threat team that is looking to penetrate Saudi defences.
“I think the enterprise is facing up to this more – instead of looking inward, they’re looking outward a lot more, and realising when government ministries start seeing this, we’re next,” he added.
Ogden believes this is a change from a few years ago, when most hacking groups went after only the largest, high-profile targets such as Visa, Sony or Microsoft. And while smaller businesses were sometimes hit, there was a greater level of tolerance.
“So if Anonymous goes after Visa, that’s one thing – but if Daesh goes after one of the local banks, what happens then? What happens when all our ATMs stop working. And with BYOD the standard now, where you have all these people with all this technology being able to connect to your services, you’ve got to protect them. They’re taking it very seriously, and I think it’s a massive growth area,” said Ogden.
“From a prestige perspective, from a ministerial perspective, but more importantly from an internal security perspective, it’s vital these assets are protected. And it’s no surprise that Saudi Arabia, which has been seen as many as the guardian of security in the Middle East is facing a huge rise in attacks,” he added.
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