Building cyber resilience in Saudi Arabia’s growing threat landscape

In today’s digitally driven world, businesses face a rapidly evolving cyber threat landscape. With increasing sophistication in attacks, organizations must shift their focus from traditional security to Cyber Resilience, write Mohammad Kashif, Syed Sajjad Bukhari and Shaikh Muhammad Rahib from Ecovis Al Sabti.

The ‘Cost of a Data Breach Report 2023’ reported the average cost of a data breach in 2024 to be $4.88 million, a 10% increase over the last year. This highlights the significant rise in the frequency and complexity of cyberattacks. With Saudi Arabia emerging as one of the world's most connected countries, experts emphasize the need and importance of implementing proactive strategies to prevent and mitigate cyber-attacks.

What is Cyber Resilience

Cyber Resilience refers to an organization’s capability to withstand and protect its data and digital systems from a cyberattack while swiftly recovering any security incidents. Preparing to manage a wide range of cyber risks is always a best practice. Cyber Resilience enables businesses to prevent significant disruptions by safeguarding their operations and maintaining normal business during cyber threats.

Why is it Important?
1) Enhanced Protection Against Cyber Threats
2) Minimized Downtime & Service Disruptions
3) Financial Protection
4) Preserved Reputation & Customer Trust
5) Compliance with Regulatory Requirements
6) Strengthened Business Continuity Planning

Saudi Arabia data breach highlights

Saudi Arabia is a prime target for cyberattacks due to its economic growth and focus on digitalization in line with the Vision 2030. Building Cyber Resilience is crucial to safeguard Saudi Arabia’s national infrastructure, businesses, and citizens’ information.

Current state of threats in Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia is a prime target for cyberattacks due to its economic growth and focus on digitalization in line with the Vision 2030. Building Cyber Resilience is crucial to safeguard Saudi Arabia’s national infrastructure, businesses, and citizens’ information.

• 40% of the total cyberattacks sustained by Saudi Arabian organizations in the last two years were successful.
• An analysis of incidents from the year-end 2023 uncovered over 180 incidents in Saudi Arabia, of which 47% of the data related to Saudi organizations was sold on dark web. These incidents predominantly targeted the retail, military, government, telecommunications, and financial services sectors.
• In Saudi Arabia, various security tools detected and blocked over 50 million (50,771,605) email threats, preventing more than 10 million (10,779,001) malicious URL victim attacks and 28,554 URL hosts. Additionally, over 34 million (34,183,412) malware attacks were identified and stopped.

Source: Trend Micro Annual Cyber Security Report, SOCRadar XTi Report 2023

Why Cyber Resilience matters

In addition to business disruption and reputational damage, cyberattacks also trigger legal and regulatory consequences. Cyber Resilience enables organizations to avoid these outcomes by preventing attacks and demonstrating responsible data management practices.

A successful Cyber Resilience strategy begins with understanding the digital assets, including IT systems, cloud storage, and vendor cybersecurity. It encompasses protecting critical data through a zero-trust approach, network segmentation, and offline backups.

Roadmap to Cyber Resilience

1) Comprehensive Risk Assessment

Critical Asset Inventory and Classification
Identify and catalog all critical assets, including hardware, software, data, and network infrastructure, that need protection.

Business Impact Assessment
Determine the potential business and operational risks if key assets or processes are compromised or disrupted.

2) Cyber Resilience Governance & Strategy

Governance Framework and Strategy
Establish a comprehensive governance framework by defining clear roles, responsibilities, and processes, ensuring alignment with organizational goals.

Risk-Based Cybersecurity Strategy
Prioritize strategic initiatives on the potential impact of non-compliance.

3) Cyber Resilience Plan

Incident Response Plan
Develop a robust incident response plan to ensure preparedness.

Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Planning
Develop comprehensive plans to maintain critical operations during and after a cyberattack.

4) Security Control Implementation

Continuous Compliance Monitoring
Implement real-time monitoring of processes to identify deviations from compliance standards and enable prompt corrective actions.

Zero-Trust Architecture
Implement a security model that grants access based on continuous verification, minimizing the attack surface.

5) Fostering Security Culture

Cybersecurity Culture
Foster a strong security culture where employees are empowered to identify and report potential threats.

Training through Gamification
Transform cybersecurity training into interactive, engaging experiences with challenges, rewards, and leaderboards.

6) Continual Improvement

Metrics and KPIs Monitoring
Analyze KPIs related to security incidents, response times, and threat mitigation to assess the effectiveness of cybersecurity efforts and guide improvements.

Real Time Threat Intelligence
Real-time threat intelligence to adapt defences based on the latest attack trends and vulnerabilities.

Cyber Resilience incorporates people, process and technology into a holistic framework that protects an entire business, organization or entity.

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