Intelligent CIO Middle East Issue 28 | Page 10

NEWS Fortinet expert: KSA cyber safety threatened by ageing security systems Infoblox appoints Brad Bell as CIO I nfoblox Inc, the network control company that provides Actionable Network Intelligence and has a base in Saudi Arabia, has announced that it has appointed Brad Bell as chief information officer (CIO) of Infoblox. Bell will report to Infoblox president and chief executive officer Jesper Andersen. He will be responsible for all aspects of the company’s global information technology strategy, services and operations. A key initative will be leading Infoblox’s IT business transformation strategy and adopting a SaaS based business model. This involves moving internal and external functions and applications to the cloud in order to create operational efficiencies and accelerate the ability to bring new offerings to market. Emad Abu Jazar, KSA Country Manager, Fortinet O ne of the biggest challenges in fighting cybercriminals in KSA is the lack of security-focused resources. This is the opinion of Emad Abu Jazar, KSA Country Manager for Fortinet, who believes that a lack of up-to-date security systems makes life easier for malicious actors. “The biggest challenges we have in Saudi is the lack of resources which really are security focused,” said Abu Jazar. “We still see some organisations using applications that were being developed 15 years ago, and these were taking care of their vulnerabilities at that time. “However, since then things have changed dramatically. This is a loophole in to the infrastructure for hackers to 10 INTELLIGENTCIO come in and start putting malware within the customer network.” He added that KSA is just like any other country in the World when it comes to the threat of cybersecurity. “Brad is an innovator and chief architect with excellent business instincts,” said Andersen. “He is a strategic technologist with a collaborative and transparent management style. As we transform our business for the future, it’s important that we have an IT leader positioned to protect our information technology and accelerate our growth around the world. I am confident he will lead Infoblox to the next level in becoming a SaaS focused organisation.” Bell is a veteran technology executive with over 25 years of experience leading global organisations in the high-tech industry. “Saudi is like any other country. We have similar challenges worldwide. In particular, when it comes to the increasing number of devices connected to networks nowadays with increasing mobile and IOT sectors,” said Abu Jazar. “The threat surface landscape is getting bigger and we have noticed that the volume of threats is increasing day by day.“ Fortinet secures the largest enterprise, service provider and government organisations around the world including those in the Middle East. Brad Bell is the newly appointed CIO at Infoblox www.intelligentcio.com