Fortifying the Future For Four Decades
September 2024, by Rushab Shah, Head - Security Solutions
Key Takeaways:
This blog highlights Emircom’s four-decade journey from an IT services provider to a leading technology solutions powerhouse in the Middle East. It covers the growing need for cybersecurity due to digital transformation, the company’s comprehensive security portfolio, and key cybersecurity trends like AI, Zero Trust, and SASE. Additionally, it discusses Emircom’s strategic partnerships, cutting-edge solutions, and regional relevance in addressing the unique cybersecurity challenges of enterprises and public sectors in the UAE and KSA.
Fortifying the Future For Four Decades
Over the past four decades, Emircom has evolved from a small IT services provider into a leading technology solutions powerhouse. Emircom’s journey is marked by relentless innovation, customer-centricity, and a forward-thinking vision that has kept it at the forefront of the industry.
As the digital landscape grows more complex, safeguarding operational infrastructure, protecting customer data, and ensuring regulatory compliance have become business imperatives. Cybersecurity is no longer just a technical issue but a strategic necessity. Emircom has responded by establishing itself as a leader in delivering cutting-edge security solutions tailored to the unique challenges of the Middle East.
This blog explores Emircom’s comprehensive security portfolio, the latest trends in cybersecurity, and the key priorities driving its approach to protecting digital assets.
A Strategic Imperative
The cybersecurity landscape has transformed significantly over the past three decades, and more intensively within the last decade. With digital transformation becoming a focal point for businesses and governments in the UAE, KSA, and across the Middle East, cyberattacks have surged by 250% in the last five years. The increasing reliance on digital platforms, cloud services, IoT, and data centers has expanded the attack surface, prompting Emircom and other ICT systems integrators to enter the cybersecurity market with a sense of strategic necessity.
Transforming Security with Strategic Solutions
Emircom has designed its security portfolio to address the multifaceted challenges of modern cybersecurity. The company offers a wide range of solutions to meet the unique needs of its clients in the UAE and KSA, providing robust protection across all layers of their digital infrastructure.
- Network and Infrastructure Security: Emircom’s network and infrastructure security solutions protect businesses from external threats and vulnerabilities, ensuring operational continuity. These solutions include next-generation firewalls, intrusion prevention systems, virtual private networks, and encryption. By implementing a layered defense strategy, Emircom ensures 24/7 protection, allowing businesses to focus on their core objectives.
- Secure Access Service Edge (SASE): SASE combines networking and security into a unified, cloud-native service that protects users, devices, and applications, regardless of location. It simplifies operations with unified policies and provides visibility from anywhere—whether in the office, at home, or on the go.
- Identity and Privilege Access Management (IAM/PAM): Emircom’s IAM and PAM solutions ensure that only authorized users can access critical systems and data. These solutions secure user identities, enforce privilege policies, and offer visibility into access patterns, strengthening overall security posture.
- Cloud Security: As organizations shift to the cloud, Emircom provides tailored cloud security solutions to safeguard data and applications while ensuring compliance with regional regulations. This includes cloud network security, cloud infrastructure entitlement management, and cloud workload protection.
- Endpoint and Data Center Security: Emircom’s multilayered security solutions protect endpoints such as desktops, laptops, servers, and mobile devices from sophisticated cyber threats. The solution includes advanced endpoint detection, encryption, and zero-trust access strategies to prevent breaches.
Our Latest Advancements in Cybersecurity
The cybersecurity landscape is evolving, with new trends emerging to address the ever-changing threat environment. Emircom stays at the forefront of these developments, ensuring its clients benefit from the latest advancements in security technology.
- Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning: AI and ML have revolutionized cybersecurity by enabling more effective threat detection and response. These technologies can analyse vast amounts of data to identify patterns and anomalies, allowing for quicker, proactive and more accurate identification of potential threats.
- Zero Trust Architecture: The zero-trust model is gaining traction as a robust security framework. It operates on the principle of “never trust, always verify,” ensuring that every access request is vetted, regardless of the origin. This approach minimizes the risk of unauthorized access and data breaches.
- Extended Detection and Response (XDR): XDR solutions provide a holistic approach to threat detection and response by integrating multiple security products into a unified platform. This enables better visibility and coordination across different security layers, enhancing the overall effectiveness of threat management.
- Secure Access Service Edge (SASE): SASE simplifies security management by combining networking and security in a single solution, offering protection regardless of a user’s location.
- Cloud-Native Security: With the increased use of cloud services, cloud-native security has become essential. These solutions address the unique challenges of cloud environments, providing advanced threat protection, compliance, and visibility.
- Emircom EiSoc: Emircom’s Enhanced Security Operations Center (EiSoc) provides 24/7 as-as-service monitoring and response services, utilizing state-of-the-art tools and expertise to protect against the latest cyber threats.
Key Features in Security
Emircom’s approach to cybersecurity ensures maximum protection for its clients through several critical features:Comprehensive Protection: End-to-end protection across all layers of digital infrastructure ensures that no part of the business is left vulnerable.Scalability and Flexibility: Emircom’s solutions adapt to the changing needs of businesses, offering flexibility in scaling operations.
Visibility and Control: Emircom provides businesses with real-time visibility into their security posture, allowing for effective monitoring and management.Compliance and Governance: Emircom helps businesses meet industry regulations and compliance standards, ensuring robust governance practices.Vendor-Neutral Approach: Emircom’s vendor-neutral strategy ensures clients receive unbiased solutions tailored to their specific needs.
Strategic Partnerships with Leading Vendors
Emircom’s success in delivering top-tier security solutions is supported by strategic partnerships with leading vendors. These collaborations allow Emircom to offer a comprehensive suite of security solutions that meet the diverse needs of its clients.
- Cisco: As a trusted partner of Cisco, Emircom provides access to an extensive range of advanced security solutions, including next-generation firewalls, secure access solutions, and intrusion prevention systems. Cisco’s solutions are designed to protect organizations from increasingly sophisticated cyber threats, ensuring the security and resilience of business operations.
- Fortinet: Our collaboration with Fortinet equips businesses with comprehensive network security solutions. Fortinet’s unified threat management and next-generation firewall solutions help protect enterprises against the ever-evolving landscape of cyber threats, while providing advanced visibility and control over network traffic.
- Palo Alto Networks: Through our partnership with Palo Alto Networks, Emircom offers best-in-class threat detection and response solutions. Palo Alto’s innovative security platform enables organizations to prevent cyberattacks before they cause harm, ensuring the integrity of their most valuable assets.
- Microsoft: Collaborating with Microsoft allows Emircom to offer integrated cloud security solutions. These solutions protect data, applications, and workloads in cloud environments, ensuring that organizations remain secure while migrating and scaling their operations in the cloud.
- F5: Partnering with F5 enables Emircom to provide clients with application delivery and security solutions that protect against application-layer attacks. F5’s application services, including load balancing and web application firewalls, ensure the secure and reliable delivery of applications across diverse environments, whether on-premises or in the cloud.
- Check Point: Our partnership with Check Point allows us to deliver comprehensive threat prevention solutions. Check Point’s unified security architecture provides protection across networks, endpoints, and cloud environments, helping businesses prevent cyberattacks and ensuring continuous security monitoring and incident response.
Towards A Secure Future
Emircom’s 40-year journey is a testament to its innovation, resilience, and customer-centricity. From its humble beginnings, Emircom has become a technology leader, continually embracing change to deliver exceptional value. As Emircom explores new frontiers in security, it remains dedicated to providing cutting-edge solutions that empower clients to face modern cybersecurity challenges. By aligning with global security trends and considering the regional needs of the UAE and KSA, Emircom continues to be the trusted security partner for enterprises and government institutions.
Key Cybersecurity Data
- Cybersecurity Spending: Cybersecurity spending in the Middle East is expected to grow at a 14.5% CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) from 2021 to 2026, reaching $29.9 billion by 2026.
Source: IDC, November 2022 - Increase in Cyberattacks: The UAE witnessed a 250% increase in cyberattacks between 2019 and 2022, with phishing and ransomware being the most prevalent types of attacks.
Source: Kaspersky, October 2022 - Remote Work Impact: Due to the pandemic, 77% of organizations in the Middle East have adopted remote or hybrid work models, significantly increasing the attack surface and necessitating solutions like Secure Access Service Edge (SASE).
Source: PwC Middle East, April 2023 - Data Breach Costs: The average cost of a data breach in the Middle East was $6.93 million in 2023, higher than the global average of $4.45 million, making cybersecurity investments critical.
Source: IBM Cost of Data Breach Report, 2023 - Cloud Adoption: By 2025, 85% of enterprises in the Middle East are expected to operate primarily from the cloud, making cloud security a top priority for businesses.
Source: Gartner, July 2023 - AI in Security: Organizations that leverage AI and automation in their cybersecurity programs experience 30% faster threat detection and a 40% reduction in response times, leading to enhanced operational efficiency.
Source: Deloitte, February 2023 - Zero Trust Adoption: By 2024, 60% of large enterprises globally, including in the Middle East, are expected to implement Zero Trust architectures, driven by the increasing complexity of cyber threats.
Source: Forrester, June 2023 - Government Cybersecurity Initiatives: In Saudi Arabia, the National Cybersecurity Authority (NCA) has invested $6.4 billion into national cybersecurity initiatives to protect public sector institutions and critical infrastructure.
Source: Saudi National Cybersecurity Authority (NCA), August 2022 - IoT Growth: The number of IoT-connected devices in the Middle East is forecasted to reach 350 million by 2025, creating new cybersecurity vulnerabilities and driving the need for robust endpoint and infrastructure security.
Source: Statista, January 2023 - SOC Utilization: Organizations with 24/7 Security Operations Centers (SOCs) like Emircom’s Enhanced SOC can reduce the impact of cyber incidents by up to 50%, thanks to continuous monitoring and rapid incident response.
Source: Ponemon Institute, March 2023
Rushab Shah
Head – Security Solutions (UAE)
