TECHNOLOGY | CYBER
Is your digital transformation sacrificing company security ?
WRITTEN BY : KATE BIRCH
Cyber and cloud security should be the biggest concern for CEOs driving digital transformation , according to a new Business Chief-backed research report
If 2022 was the year of Risk and Resilience , then many observers feel 2023 is the year of Sustainability and Security .
As the corporate world embraces digital transformation in the face of an economic downturn , the emphasis for all organisations is to survive and thrive – and that can only be achieved with greater cloud adoption and enhanced security .
These sentiments are highlighted in The Future of Cloud Security in the Middle East – a research report produced by sister publication Cyber magazine in conjunction with Business Chief .
We surveyed cloud professionals and IT decision-makers across the region in an extensive survey , and discussed those findings in two roundtable events held in Dubai and Abu Dhabi , and sponsored by Huawei .
Cloud security – the current threat landscape Cloud adoption in Middle Eastern countries has been growing rapidly in recent years , driven by increasing digitalisation , the need for improved IT infrastructure , and the desire to reduce costs and improve efficiency . According to Blueweave Consulting , the regional cloud market is growing at a CAGR of 21 %, and will reach US $ 9.8 billion by 2027 , up from US $ 2.7 billion in 2020 .
The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 accelerated digital transformation as entire nations were forced to adapt to a new way of working and way of life . However , this rapid acceleration brought with it greater risk – due to the sheer scale and rate of transformation – which sometimes saw security lag behind .
That was painfully clear around the globe , not just in the Middle East . According to a report by cybersecurity firm Kaspersky , the number of ransomware attacks in the Middle East increased by 57 % in the first quarter of 2021 compared to the same period in 2020 . Another survey by Cybereason said cyberattacks rose 71 % in the UAE in 2021 , with 84 % of UAE companies paying a ransom – a figure that is 20 % higher than the global average .
It is not just the number of cyber attacks that is the problem , rather the sensitive data and critical infrastructure that is now hosted in the cloud – making it a potential target for cyber criminals . Finance and healthcare , for example , have been hit particularly hard in the region .
56 June 2023