SECURITY SPOTLIGHT
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“
TODAY’S
CISOS MUST
MANAGE THEIR
ORGANISATIONS’
RISK IN THE
FACE OF RISING
CHALLENGES.
Microsoft has hosted a cybersecurity event
in Kuwait City specifically tailored for
professionals working in the banking sector
MICROSOFT
HOLDS ‘BANKING
EDITION’ OF CISO
EXECUTIVE SERIES
FOR KUWAITI FSI
PROFESSIONALS
A cybersecurity event specifically tailored for
professionals working in the banking sector has been
hosted by Microsoft in Kuwait City.
M
icrosoft has held the ‘Banking
Edition’ of its CISO Executive
Series, a series for an elite set of
top Chief Information Security Officers for
Kuwait’s finance sector professionals. The
event, held at the JW Marriot, Kuwait City,
was specifically tailored for the country’s
banking industry to enable its professionals
to overcome the rising challenges in the
cybersecurity landscape and meet the
security objectives of their business.
The summit comes amid the continuous rise
of cyberattacks targeting public and private
sector organisations and aims to empower
42
INTELLIGENTCIO
professionals to better protect their company
perimeters. Microsoft experts including
Ramon Bosch, Principal, Risk and Compliance,
Microsoft EMEA; Volkan Verim, Technical
Sales Professional, Security Microsoft Gulf;
and Mohammed Zayed, Microsoft 365 and
Cybersecurity Solutions Lead for Microsoft
Kuwait, delivered presentations and
demonstrations around cybersecurity.
The sessions covered a holistic approach
and introduction to Microsoft trust principles
such as security, privacy, compliance and
transparency. The attendees also learned
about protecting organisational identities
and ensuring data privacy and encryption
of information including data classification,
compliance policies and practices to meet
financial requirements. Moreover, the
Kuwaiti CISOs were engaged in discussions
to shed light on the importance of how the
migration of core data and applications can
help increase security and bring agility to
their operations.
Microsoft Digital Transformation research
on cybersecurity found a troubling threat
landscape in the region. Some 63% of
respondents said their company lost either
productivity or data to a cyber incident in
2018; 46% of these victims were affected
more than once; and almost one in 10 victims
reported incidents ‘once a week or more’.
“Today’s CISOs must manage their
organisations’ risk in the face of rising
challenges and the ever-expanding scale
and sophistication of today’s cyberthreats,”
said Mohammed Arif, Regional Director,
Modern Workplace and Security, Microsoft
Gulf. “Balancing these challenges with
business needs to collaborate, innovate, and
grow requires an always-on, multifaceted
approach to security. With events like our
CISO executive series, we aim to create
awareness among the security professionals
of Kuwait and introduce truly intelligent
security capabilities that we can offer, in
order for them to harness these technologies
and better protect their digital estates to
achieve more.”
The Microsoft CISO executive event
concluded with key takeaways from all
perspectives of cybersecurity and proved to
be a strong platform for security professionals
from across Kuwait to network with peers and
engage with subject matter experts. n
www.intelligentcio.com