FEATURE
PLUGGING THE GAPS MANY ORGANISATIONS ARE LEVERAGING MANAGED SECURITY SERVICES TO BRIDGE SKILL GAPS AND IMPROVE SECURITY POSTURE. HERE IS HOW IT WORKS.
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rganisations in the Middle East need to get security right when embracing rapid digital transformation. As the number and variety of cyber-attacks rise, companies undergoing digital transformation are more prone to security risks than ever before. Faced with the pressure of rapidly increasing cybercrimes, skill shortages, and the need to safeguard critical data, many security chiefs are prompted to turn to managed security services providers to help with proactive steps to contain threats. According to a recent report from MarketsandMarkets, the global managed security services market is projected to grow from $31.6 billion in 2020 to $46.4 billion by 2025, driven by the rising instances of security breaches and an increasing number of attacks that pose a threat to large and small organisations. 30
CXO INSIGHT ME
AUGUST 2021
“There is a significant shift in the security spend across the Middle East, Turkey and Africa (META) region as most of the organisations started operating on digital and online platforms which also exposes them to security vulnerabilities. There is a drastic increase in end-user based targeted attacks such as phishing, email compromise, spamming etc. Ransomware, advanced persistent threats (APTs) and cloud related attacks are also on the rise post pandemic time, and these factors have influenced the security professionals to fortify their organisation,” says Manish Ranjan, Senior Program Manager for Software & Cloud at IDC Middle East, Turkey and Africa. In a recent IDC Security survey, almost 67% of the respondents mostly CIOs/ CISOs/IT heads across the META region stated that they expect their organisation’s spending on IT security to increase in 2021
over 2020, while another 20% said it would remain unchanged. Dr. Ahmed AlKetbi, CISO, Moro Hub, says the pandemic has obliged businesses to reconsider and reprioritise their security strategies given the increase in consumption of digital services. The change in the consumption pattern using cloud services and personal devices has raised new security concerns, especially in the monitoring and response area. Safeguarding digital assets became a higher priority and therefore we noticed clients’ budgets have shifted more towards securing their cloud environments and leveraging cloud-based security services. “Security strategies shall be aligned and focused on covering this new risk as a part of new digital workplace and workforce. Accordingly, we encourage governments and enterprise clients to adopt a more balanced approach towards spending. Managed security services are a cost-
