UAE Cyber Security Council

After the successful edition of Security Symposium in Qatar and Saudi Arabia, Security Symposium held in UAE on 25th May 2023 at Address Dubai Mall, witnessed the talented CISOs, BCM heads, Risk and Resilience officers, and technology heads who all gathered to recognise the latest trends and concerns on cybersecurity. The Security Symposium UAE proudly announces its partnership with UAE Cyber Security Council.

Attendees and keynote speakers were welcomed by Ronak Samantaray, Co-Founder & CEO, GEC Media Group. He shared the vision and aim of the GCC Security Symposium which is an ideal platform to gain exceptional knowledge on how an agile BCM plan will bring increased flexibility and agility to every organization. His Excellency Dr. Mohamed Al Kuwaiti, Head of Cyber Security, Cyber Security Council, UAE Government, kicked off the event with his opening keynote. He shared his insights and experience in the field of cybersecurity and provided valuable perspectives on the current state of cybersecurity in the UAE.

The event had a closer look into how leaders in BCM and Risk management are helping companies to build a strong business case for business continuity and crisis\risk management. The event was joined by some expert speakers like Muzammil Riyaz, Founder, BlueFinn GRC, who shared his views on ‘Pathbreaking GRC Solution for Middle

East’, Amit Roy, General Manager-Head of Cybersecurity (META), EVIDEN who shared his views on the topic ‘Future of Threat Detection and Response’, Niraj Mathur, Managing Director, Protiviti Middle East Member Firm who speaks about ‘Navigating Data Privacy in the Middle East’, and Ahmad Badawi Abou Zaher, Senior Solutions Engineer, Enterprise, Cloudflare who shared his views on ‘Everywhere Security for the New Digital Era’.

The event was made a thought-provoking one by some inspirational Panel discussions and Fireside Chats.

The Panel discussion and Fireside Chat were held on the following topics by the following expert leaders: l Fireside Chat - What is the ROI of investing in a BCM Plan?

Bilal Ahmad-Information Security & Business Continuity ManagerUnion Coop, Srihari Upadhya, CISSP, CISA, CCSK IT Security, Risk, Audit and Compliance Leader, Aster DM Healthcare, Suzan Al GhanemSection Manager, Business Continuity Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi, Evita Francis M.IOD MBCI CBCP, Business Resilience Practice Leader - MENA-Marsh

Moderated by Adnan Ahmed, Lead Specialist Business Continuity, Ma’aden l Panel Discussion: State of Cloud Security in Modern Enterprises - 2023 & Beyond

Mohammad Faheem, Cyber Security Lead - CHALHOUB GROUP, Marzouq A., IT Services, Director of Cloud Security - G42, Rejeesh Kumar, CTO, Mindfire Technologies, Hirdejit Singh, Head of Sales & Presales (APAC & EMEA) – Seclore

Moderated by Akshay Lamba, Chief Digital Officer, Kalaam Telecom l Panel Discussion: Building Emotional Resilience & Creating Effective Human Recovery Processes for Crisis Situations

Vidya V. -Head of Cyber Strategy and Cyber Risk & GovernanceCareem, Carlo Loveri - Risk and Business Continuity ManagerEmirates Steel, Rebecca Carr, Risk Advisory, Crisis and Resilience Director, Deloitte Middle East, Vikalp Shrivastava, Vice President Information Security & Technology, Kerzner International

Moderated by Ing. Adam El Adama, Sr. Manager for Digital Governance, Risk & Information Security, Abu Dhabi Ports Digital Cluster l Panel Discussion: State of BFSI Security and Risk Management in 2023

Flavio Carvalho, CISSP, CISO, Sofinco Espana, Waqas Haider, Chief Information Security Officer, HBL Microfinance Bank, Neha Yadav, CISO, RAIN, Ahmed Nabil Mahmoud, MVP, CCISO, CISSP, CISM

- Head of Cyber Defense and Security Operations, Banking Industry

Moderated by Bharat Raigangar, Group CISO & Board Advisor, Finesse l Panel Discussion: State of Security and Risk Management in Government Organizations- 2023 and Beyond

Saqar Al Ali, Director Information Security-Sharjah Finance Department, Zaheer Kazi- Enterprise Messaging & Security Specialist - Ministry of Interior, UAE, Noaman Saleem ul Hasan, HeadERM, BCM & Policies, Khalifa University

Moderated by Jacob Mathew, Head of IT | IT Governance, Architecture, Services, Cybersecurity, Infrastructure & Operations, Abu Dhabi Government Entity

The partners for the GCC Security Symposium UAE edition include BlueFinn (Platinum Partner), Amiviz, Protiviti, Cloudflare, OPX Technology, Help AG (Gold Partners), Cloud Box, Accops, Eviden, Seclore, Paessler PRTG, Mindfire Technologies, Finesse, Barracuda (Silver partners), and CAAS (Strategic Partner).

BCM & Risk Champions Awards, CISO Awards, and Future Security Leaders Awards identified the top security leaders and the hard taskmasters in the industry and recognized their excellent contributions to their major sectors.

The event was closed by Anushree Dixit, Global Head - Content & Strategic Alliance, GEC Media Group with her closing note.

GCC Security Symposium will be back in coming years with innovative ideas and overarching themes.