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EDITOR’ S NOTE
Greetings to the readers of Intelligent CIO Middle East. Supporting GISEC Global in Dubai, which takes place in the first week of May, this month’ s edition focusses on cybersecurity and CISOs. In our feature section, top executives from Acronis, Anomali, BeyondTrust, Check Point, Cloud Box, Fortinet, GBM, Globant, Help AG, Infoblox, NETSCOUT, NTT DATA, Palo Alto Networks, Phosphorus, Positive Technologies, Proofpoint, Sophos, Tenable, share their perspectives on the polarisation of modern day cybersecurity solutions.
Modern day cybersecurity solutions are more and more being enabled by AI and Generative AI, but require experienced human administrator skills to generate results from these advanced systems. Automation is particularly important in cybersecurity given the shortage of expert security staff. However, human oversight will still be vitally important says Alain Penel at Fortinet.
To get through this perfect storm, CISOs need strategic partners, not just vendors. The best security vendors are those who think and speak like CISOs, demonstrating an understanding of enterprise risk and resilience, says Saqib Chaudhry at CPX.
CISOs face a complex and rapidly evolving threat landscape, with increasing pressure to balance security, compliance, business agility. While AI is accelerating innovation and business transformation, it is also introducing cybersecurity and privacy challenges, says Miguel Khouri at GBM.
The effectiveness of a CISO grows when they are seen as a strategic advisor embedded in the business, not just as a technical gatekeeper, says Gerald Beuchelt at Acronis.
Turn these pages to read more about the adoption of digital and business transformation across leading regional enterprises.
AI excels at tactical responses based on predefined rules. However, defining security policies, understanding risk tolerance, and making strategic decisions still require human expertise. Mastering the basics is, and always will be, the backbone of effective cybersecurity says Help AG’ s Nikola Kukoljac.
And in this month’ s cover feature, we present how Al Futtaim’ s customer loyalty programmes is being transformed by AI. Al-Futtaim’ s vision is to be a data driven intelligent organisation, and the UAE based business conglomerate has integrated AI into its Blue customer loyalty programme.
And in our second related feature, top executives from Acronis, BeyondTrust, Check Point, CPX, Fortinet, GBM, Infoblox, ManageEngine, Proofpoint, Sophos and Tenable, describe why CISOs will require a healthy blend of management, technology and business risk skills to navigate challenges ahead of them.
CISOs are navigating a perfect storm of cyber threats, budget pressures, and internal demands.
Wishing you the best of business success in the month ahead.
Arun Shankar Managing Editor arun @ lynchpinmedia. com
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