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EDITOR ’ S NOTE
Welcome to the latest edition of Intelligent CIO Middle East . A recent Threat Intelligence Report from Netscout Systems , revealed that there was a record-setting 10,089,687 distributed denial of service ( DDoS ) attacks observed during 2020 . The reported found that cybercriminals exploited vulnerabilities exposed by massive Internet usage shifts since many users were no longer protected by enterprise-grade security . According to the report , attackers paid particular attention to vital pandemic industries such as e-commerce , streaming services , online learning and healthcare generating a 20 % yearover-year increase in attack frequency over 2019 plus a 22 % increase in the last six months of 2020 .
In this regard , we continue to cover articles in this edition of the magazine addressing the issue of security and how organisations across Africa can overcome challenges and improve their security posture .
Gracing the cover of this month ’ s edition is Mario Foster , Group Chief Information Officer , Al Naboodah Group Enterprises ( ANGE ), who tells us how Saeed and Mohammed Al Naboodah Group , a major Emirati familyowned conglomerate with over 60 years of history in the MEA and Asia region , recently teamed up with software Veeam to bolster its always-on availability . pertaining to designs , project management , supply chain and logistics , and other critical functions .
“ We were in the market for an ‘ availability ’ rather than just a backup solution . It had to enable us to meet our sustainability KPIs , safeguard data being constantly generated by the business and ensure applications were always available to employees .” You can read more by turning to page 58 .
Elsewhere in the magazine , we look at security operations centres ( SOCs ), adoption , type of IT and cybersecurity skills needed and organisations that are using SOC services across the Middle East . You will find this feature on page 40 .
As usual , we have all your favourite features , opinion , insight pieces and analysis articles from the Middle East region . You can also read daily news updates on our website at www . intelligentcio . com / me /.
And kindly , don ’ t forget if you would like to get in touch please email me at manda @ lynchpinmedia . co . uk .
Once again , I would also like to wish you a great month ahead . Enjoy the read !
“ With our existing solution we were only able to back up our mission-critical applications and data , and that too was outside of working hours ,” says Foster .
Among the many insights , Foster shares that : “ We generate tremendous volumes of data daily ,
Manda Banda Editor
www . intelligentcio . com INTELLIGENTCIO MIDDLE EAST 7