cyber trends
PROOFPOINT ’ S 2021 VOICE OF THE CISO REPORT HAS PROVIDED INSIGHT INTO THE PAIN POINTS FOR CISOS , AS WELL AS THEIR KEY PRIORITIES LOOKING AHEAD . ANDREW ROSE , RESIDENT CISO , PROOFPOINT , TALKS US THROUGH THE FINDINGS OF THE RESEARCH AND HIGHLIGHTS HOW SECURITY LEADERS IN THE MIDDLE EAST ARE DEALING WITH THE MODERN , COMPLEX THREATSCAPE .
cCan you give us some key insights into the challenges that CISOs across the Middle East region have been grappling with ?
The global statistics showed there was no single standout type of attack that CISOs are most concerned about . All scored pretty highly and all were in a very similar range . That really told me that the CISOs didn ’ t know where the next punch was coming from . Looking at the Middle East , within the UAE we did see that the cloud risk was the lowest of all the regions – CISOs there did not really see cloud as a concern for them , perhaps down to the limited adoption of cloud in that region .
But when you look at the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia ( KSA ), it was entirely the opposite – cloud was the number one risk . Generally , most other things were relatively in line with the global picture , although in KSA , BEC was seen as more
‘ Voice of the CISO ’: Proofpoint research shines light on security challenges
of a concern , while in the UAE , insider threat and phishing were higher .
We saw that CISOs are generally on high alert . They feel that there ’ s a big risk of a material cyberattack really happening in their organisation – globally , that was around 64 % of people but in the UAE 68 % were concerned that something was really going to happen , while in KSA the figure was 58 %. In terms of feeling whether they were unprepared for an attack , globally the average was 66 % and KSA was in line with this , but 72 % of
UAE CISOs felt unprepared for the next wave of attacks , which shows the UAE really are scrutinising their situation .
Your report highlighted that there is still a lack of support from the boardroom . What advice would you offer to regional security leaders in obtaining buy-in from the C-suite ?
CISOs are under a lot of pressure generally . Our research found that 67 % of CISOs in the Middle East felt that role
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