SECURE horizons
By Jess Abell, our Chief Content Officer
In this column, we’ ll be discussing key issues for CISOs and their teams – from AI to wellbeing and from Zero Trust to communication. If you’ d like to get in touch, email jess @ lynchpinmedia. com
workforces by automating many traditionally labour-intensive elements of the role.
Cybersecurity preparedness
CISOs across the GCC are managing a plethora of diverse, competing challenges and responses were split across several different areas. With a slightly higher percentage of the vote( 29 %), strengthening endpoint security is the top priority for the year ahead, followed by implementing advanced threat detection systems( 27 %).
These results highlight a clear focus on securing access points and devices – potentially driven by an increasingly remote workforce and sophisticated attacks on the endpoint, as well as the need for proactive threat detection. Organisations also recognise the need to address employee training and awareness and enhancing data protection and privacy measures, with both receiving 22 % share of the vote. The findings demonstrate the need to balance‘ people and processes’ to ensure a strong overall cybersecurity strategy.
A significant number of organisations in the GCC are either maintaining or reducing their budgets, according to our research. In fact, more than 55 % of respondents reported an overall boost to budget for the year ahead – 31 % said this was by more than 10 %, while for 25 % there has been a slightly lower increase of less than 10 %. However, 22 % reported a budget that has decreased by more than 10 % in 2025 and 22 % said there had been no change.
Just over half( 52 %) of CISOs plan to invest more in threat intelligence in 2025 – indicative of the value seen in enhancing threat intelligence capabilities. With cyberthreats continuing to grow in complexity,
the data shows that organisations understand the importance of taking a proactive approach to staying ahead of malicious actors. In contrast, 48 % of respondents were not planning to boost their threat intelligence capabilities in the coming year. This could be due to budget constraints or due to prioritising other areas of cybersecurity.
While respondents were interested in several emerging technologies, Zero Trust architecture was selected by almost one third as being most impactful for the cybersecurity sector looking ahead. This has grown increasingly popular in recent times, as organisations have shifted away from a traditional perimeter-based security model, particularly with remote – or at least hybrid – working now the norm. Quantum Computing is also a focus area, possibly due to its potential to impact encryption.
Threat Intelligence Platforms( TIP)( 12 %) and Security Orchestration, Automation and Response( SOAR)( 11 %) are the tools that organisations are most commonly integrating with intelligence tools. This reiterates the importance that security teams are placing on automating and enhancing threat detection, response and intelligence sharing.
A total of 7 % of respondents do not integrate intelligence tools at all, which could point to budget constraints, lack of expertise, or reliance on other security strategies.
The full report contains many more insights into the key cybersecurity challenges and priorities for CISOs across the region. To read the full report, click here.
Just over half( 52 %) of CISOs plan to invest more in threat intelligence in 2025 – indicative of the value seen in enhancing threat intelligence capabilities.
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