Connect with us

Tech Interviews

RISING TO THE OCCASION

Published

10 years ago

on

Updated : September 8, 2013 0:0  ,Dubai
By Editor

img53Describe Gemalto’s operations in the regionWithout even knowing it, almost all of use Gemalto services on a daily basis, the company being a global leader in secure access solutions. Hsin Hau Hanna, VP, Global Marketing Communications discusses how Gemalto is helping secure our increasingly mobile future 

We are a leader in digital security solutions; a lot of that has to do with solutions that run over the servers and that in turn leverage secure personal devices that are there to protect the accessees. It’s different from the usual anti-virus where you are protecting the perimeter of the network. Our solutions are creating the right authenticated access for communications, payment, data access or for physical access of some kind. Basically, our solutions are for creating some kind of authenticated user access. For instance in the region we are doing Electronic Identity Cards, and the systems behind it to manage e-Government services to make sure that people can be properly authenticated and they can maintain their privacy to protect them as well. We also work with mobile service providers that cover 75% of consumers in the region. We also worked with about 30 banks in the region when they migrated to chip cards and now we work with some of the biggest banks in the region including Emirates NBD, Barclays, Standard Chartered and many more.

Discuss some of your solutions in banking and card payments

For banks, we provide them various server services and payment cards so their end customers can have peace of mind as they enjoy the payment services or e-banking and make sure that all the back-end services are well taken care as well. We have many types of solutions in mobile communication; from helping mobile providers send out marketing campaigns to telephones; to setting up mobile payments or for people to use their mobile payments; to enabling people use their smartphones to pay for transport.

We are working with Emirates NBD for their Go4it card, a multi-application card that allows customers to use in in Dubai’s metro system as we all as traditional shopping thus creating more convenience for users in having a single card to use for several different functions. For banks the key is “Top-of-Wallet”, in that whatever you can do, be it an innovative service or marketing; you do what you can do to help consumers have an affiliation with your products that help you push your products better.

What in your opinion sets Gemalto apart from the competition?

What we strive to do is provide a range of security solutions that are convenient to use. Many times security and convenience may seem incompatible with each other. Security applications sometimes means adding layers on top of one another making it very difficult for customers. So we always think of how to make things easy the end result being solutions such as Near Field Communication (NFC). It’s very easy to create consumer friction with people deciding to stop using your services. In the workplace, if you make life too difficult for employees to access the emails or the company account, they may not use it or try for ways around it.

Discuss your solutions for mobile payments and the security protocols around it

People are concerned with the security implications of putting a bank account in a smart phone that is as safe as your own bank card. Gemalto can take your bank credentials and put them in a phone, store it in a tamper-proof place, in this case a sim card and the leverage your payment account and enable you activate it, deactivate it, download it and so on. Within those secure devices, there’s not only secure OS that enable you to run the application, but the one thing that Gemalto has been doing very well is that we have been miniaturizing applications to allow access over smartphones as many of us do not have the luxury to desktops and laptops. The embedded software sitting on those devices is the one doing the authentication.

How can an organization that takes Gemalto as a vendor be able to protect itself from the rising cases of hacking and other security breaches

All organizations need to be able to protect their IT assets; make sure that the right people with the right access have the right credentials. For banks, the database that holds customer information is the most sensitive of all. So you have to be sure that you have all the right security policies and the technology framework around it. The best way is to have a multi-channel and holistic way of looking at all these aspects. It does not take just one breakthrough to compromise the whole system. There are many ways this can be done-you can protect consumers from the back end to make sure their data is not leaked; you can upgrade technology to make sure you are using the latest technology whether they are making card payments, online payments and so on.

If you have high value customers like enterprise customers like company CEOs, make sure you give them two-factor authentication for them whenever they do e-banking so that they are not just logging using their passwords which are inherently insecure.  A bank should offer them a secondary factor such as a one-time password or a secure token to verify who they are. For people who are high value risk, it’s not too much of a hassle to have them have extra security. And that is one thing Gemalto has always advocated with our customers for them to take a layered approach to security. Consider who’s a high value risk and then take a segmented approach to security-basic level of security, increased levels of security, or two-factored authentication because if you put the same level of security for everyone, either you are not addressing everyone sufficiently, you are not investing adequately or you are over-investing as some people do not want to use excessive technology.

With a lot other services being offered on the cloud, is this an area you are focusing on?

We are offering a lot of services over the cloud by using our data centres for things like activating payment for mobile phones from our secure data centres. A lot of our services do not need to be heavily installed in the company’s servers. Mobile payment is a very good example with TSM (Trusted Service Management) where we can for instance take a metro ticket and put it in a smartphone. We can do the same for authentication. If a company wants to authenticate the credentials of their employees, the traditional way was to put a big server on the back-end but now we have customers asking us to help do the authentication on their behalf through our servers and then give their employees the access.

Discuss a specific solution for clients over the cloud

A lot of the small service providers do not have the means to install their own servers especially so they rely on hosted services. SensorLogic, now part of Gemalto is a SaaS, runs over the cloud which customers can use to monitor several applications. An example would be small scale healthcare provider. Healthcare provision is typically much localised and niche and the providers do not have the scale to go global sometimes for regulatory reasons. In that situation, it’s very compelling for them to have a cloud service where they can monitor without the expense of putting up a server. They can use our cloud services to run their M2M monitoring and track their patients. This is a very important area because most of the time you are dealing with very sensitive data in healthcare, not just in the personal health records themselves, but also the billing aspect of it. We have to ensure that this health data is well protected. This is where Gemalto excels bringing services that are not only easy to use but they’ve also got the Gemalto security features as well.

What’s the future of secure access in the region from Gemalto’s perspective?

It’s only the beginning for digital security; this is only the beginning. Millions of people still do not have electronic IDs or passports. eGovernment services are just starting while cell phones are only becoming powerful now. The world is only moving in one direction-more digital interaction.  And when you go digital, not only do you have to authenticate people well, you got to be able to protect transactions well and you also have to protect their privacy well. Security is the functional mirror image of what’s really at stake. What’s at stake is that people trust your service a lot-consumers are fickle, if they don’t trust your service, they won’t use it.

Describe Gemalto’s operations in the region

We are a leader in digital security solutions; a lot of that has to do with solutions that run over the servers and that in turn leverage secure personal devices that are there to protect the accessees. It’s different from the usual anti-virus where you are protecting the perimeter of the network. Our solutions are creating the right authenticated access for communications, payment, data access or for physical access of some kind. Basically, our solutions are for creating some kind of authenticated user access. For instance in the region we are doing Electronic Identity Cards, and the systems behind it to manage e-Government services to make sure that people can be properly authenticated and they can maintain their privacy to protect them as well. We also work with mobile service providers that cover 75% of consumers in the region. We also worked with about 30 banks in the region when they migrated to chip cards and now we work with some of the biggest banks in the region including Emirates NBD, Barclays, Standard Chartered and many more.

Discuss some of your solutions in banking and card payments

For banks, we provide them various server services and payment cards so their end customers can have peace of mind as they enjoy the payment services or e-banking and make sure that all the back-end services are well taken care as well. We have many types of solutions in mobile communication; from helping mobile providers send out marketing campaigns to telephones; to setting up mobile payments or for people to use their mobile payments; to enabling people use their smartphones to pay for transport.

We are working with Emirates NBD for their Go4it card, a multi-application card that allows customers to use in in Dubai’s metro system as we all as traditional shopping thus creating more convenience for users in having a single card to use for several different functions. For banks the key is “Top-of-Wallet”, in that whatever you can do, be it an innovative service or marketing; you do what you can do to help consumers have an affiliation with your products that help you push your products better.

What in your opinion sets Gemalto apart from the competition?

What we strive to do is provide a range of security solutions that are convenient to use. Many times security and convenience may seem incompatible with each other. Security applications sometimes means adding layers on top of one another making it very difficult for customers. So we always think of how to make things easy the end result being solutions such as Near Field Communication (NFC). It’s very easy to create consumer friction with people deciding to stop using your services. In the workplace, if you make life too difficult for employees to access the emails or the company account, they may not use it or try for ways around it.

Discuss your solutions for mobile payments and the security protocols around it

People are concerned with the security implications of putting a bank account in a smart phone that is as safe as your own bank card. Gemalto can take your bank credentials and put them in a phone, store it in a tamper-proof place, in this case a sim card and the leverage your payment account and enable you activate it, deactivate it, download it and so on. Within those secure devices, there’s not only secure OS that enable you to run the application, but the one thing that Gemalto has been doing very well is that we have been miniaturizing applications to allow access over smartphones as many of us do not have the luxury to desktops and laptops. The embedded software sitting on those devices is the one doing the authentication.

How can an organization that takes Gemalto as a vendor be able to protect itself from the rising cases of hacking and other security breaches

All organizations need to be able to protect their IT assets; make sure that the right people with the right access have the right credentials. For banks, the database that holds customer information is the most sensitive of all. So you have to be sure that you have all the right security policies and the technology framework around it. The best way is to have a multi-channel and holistic way of looking at all these aspects. It does not take just one breakthrough to compromise the whole system. There are many ways this can be done-you can protect consumers from the back end to make sure their data is not leaked; you can upgrade technology to make sure you are using the latest technology whether they are making card payments, online payments and so on.

If you have high value customers like enterprise customers like company CEOs, make sure you give them two-factor authentication for them whenever they do e-banking so that they are not just logging using their passwords which are inherently insecure.  A bank should offer them a secondary factor such as a one-time password or a secure token to verify who they are. For people who are high value risk, it’s not too much of a hassle to have them have extra security. And that is one thing Gemalto has always advocated with our customers for them to take a layered approach to security. Consider who’s a high value risk and then take a segmented approach to security-basic level of security, increased levels of security, or two-factored authentication because if you put the same level of security for everyone, either you are not addressing everyone sufficiently, you are not investing adequately or you are over-investing as some people do not want to use excessive technology.

With a lot other services being offered on the cloud, is this an area you are focusing on?

We are offering a lot of services over the cloud by using our data centres for things like activating payment for mobile phones from our secure data centres. A lot of our services do not need to be heavily installed in the company’s servers. Mobile payment is a very good example with TSM (Trusted Service Management) where we can for instance take a metro ticket and put it in a smartphone. We can do the same for authentication. If a company wants to authenticate the credentials of their employees, the traditional way was to put a big server on the back-end but now we have customers asking us to help do the authentication on their behalf through our servers and then give their employees the access.

Discuss a specific solution for clients over the cloud

A lot of the small service providers do not have the means to install their own servers especially so they rely on hosted services. SensorLogic, now part of Gemalto is a SaaS, runs over the cloud which customers can use to monitor several applications. An example would be small scale healthcare provider. Healthcare provision is typically much localised and niche and the providers do not have the scale to go global sometimes for regulatory reasons. In that situation, it’s very compelling for them to have a cloud service where they can monitor without the expense of putting up a server. They can use our cloud services to run their M2M monitoring and track their patients. This is a very important area because most of the time you are dealing with very sensitive data in healthcare, not just in the personal health records themselves, but also the billing aspect of it. We have to ensure that this health data is well protected. This is where Gemalto excels bringing services that are not only easy to use but they’ve also got the Gemalto security features as well.

What’s the future of secure access in the region from Gemalto’s perspective?

It’s only the beginning for digital security; this is only the beginning. Millions of people still do not have electronic IDs or passports. eGovernment services are just starting while cell phones are only becoming powerful now. The world is only moving in one direction-more digital interaction.  And when you go digital, not only do you have to authenticate people well, you got to be able to protect transactions well and you also have to protect their privacy well. Security is the functional mirror image of what’s really at stake. What’s at stake is that people trust your service a lot-consumers are fickle, if they don’t trust your service, they won’t use it.

Related Topics:
Continue Reading

Tech Interviews

How Aspen Medical is Leveraging AI to Deliver Healthcare in Crisis Zones and Remote Regions

Published

3 weeks ago

on

November 4, 2025

By

How Aspen Medical is Leveraging AI to Deliver Healthcare in Crisis Zones and Remote Regions

Exclusive Interview with Glenn Keys, Founder and Executive Chair, Aspen Medical

A portrait of Glenn Keys, Founder and Executive Chair, Aspen Medical
Glenn Keys, Founder and Executive Chair, Aspen Medical

Aspen Medical has a strong legacy in humanitarian and military healthcare. How does AI fit into your long-term vision for transforming healthcare delivery, particularly in the UAE and MEA region?

Everything we do at Aspen Medical is health-led and technology-enabled. Our existing systems, governance, training and so on, are about the delivery of high-quality and safe care wherever our clients need us. Technology, including artificial intelligence (AI) enables us to do this. At Aspen Medical, we see AI as an integral part of our strategy to reimagine healthcare access and delivery. In the UAE and broader MEA region, rapid development is creating new demands for precision, resilience and scalability in health systems. AI will enable us to meet those demands in ways that are faster and smarter, for example, embedding AI into remote diagnostics, predictive modelling and digital triage, especially in primary and emergency care settings. In the UAE, where digital transformation is a national priority, we’re aligning with initiatives like the National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence 2031. AI strengthens our capacity to deliver care that is accessible, responsive and tailored to diverse populations.

In humanitarian zones where traditional infrastructure is limited or absent, how can AI-powered healthcare solutions help close the gap in access, diagnostics, and continuity of care?

In regions facing instability, displacement or lacking basic infrastructure, AI can help overcome barriers that have long blocked access to care. Using AI-enabled triage tools, speech recognition and machine translation, language and literacy barriers are reduced whilst guiding patients toward appropriate care pathways. AI technologies that support health workers on the ground – scanning images, analysing vitals and supporting early intervention – can be embedded into mobile devices allowing deployable clinical teams to operate in even the most remote or disconnected settings. Combined with cloud-based health records, AI can ensure continuity of care across humanitarian corridors. It’s not going to be about replacing clinicians; it will be about improving outcomes where they are needed most.

Deployable healthcare is a core pillar of Aspen Medical’s work. How is AI being used to prepare healthcare professionals for unpredictable, high-stress environments such as disaster zones or military operations – and what outcomes have you seen so far?

When lives are on the line, preparation is everything. That’s why we’re working towards integrating AI into the way we train and prepare our deployable healthcare teams. Our goal is to enable clinicians and responders to experience realistic, high-stress environments ranging from natural disasters to military deployments before they ever set foot in the field. By developing AI-powered virtual reality and adaptive learning platforms, we aim to replicate mass casualty incidents, austere conditions, and trauma scenarios. This technology will allow us to track decision-making under pressure and tailor learning in real time. We’re striving to build systems that enhance response times, improve triage accuracy, and boost confidence in the field. Ultimately, we’re working towards using AI not only to strengthen operational readiness but also to reduce burnout and build psychological resilience before deployment.

What role does AI play in enhancing the efficiency and responsiveness of mobile clinics and field hospitals? How is Aspen Medical applying these technologies to support remote workforce health in sectors like oil & gas and humanitarian aid?

AI is beginning to play a supportive role across our mobile clinics and field hospitals, helping teams make better, faster decisions in complex environments. At Aspen Medical, we’re exploring how AI can assist with triage, inventory management, logistics, and reporting, always with clinicians and field experts in control. Early algorithms are helping us analyse trends in patient data and resource use, offering insights that complement, not replace, human judgement. In sectors such as oil and gas, AI tools are being trialed to identify emerging health patterns, like fatigue or heat stress, by combining wearable and clinical data under the supervision of our medical staff. In humanitarian and disaster response settings, these systems are helping improve coordination and data continuity as populations move across regions. Our focus is on using AI responsibly to enhance situational awareness and operational resilience, keeping humans at the centre of every decision that affects care.

Is Aspen Medical collaborating with governments or local health authorities to scale AI-driven solutions across the region as well as globally? What have been the most promising outcomes or lessons from these partnerships?

Yes, we are working directly with health ministries, defence forces and regulators across the UAE and other MEA countries to localise AI solutions that meet national goals. These partnerships are built on co-design: we bring our clinical expertise and global experience, and local authorities bring contextual insight and public health priorities. The most promising outcomes stem from long-term trust. When local systems are involved from the start, adoption increases and impact is sustained.

What would you say are the biggest barriers to AI adoption in healthcare today, and how can companies like Aspen Medical ensure these technologies are deployed ethically and equitably across diverse communities?

Ethical deployment is the challenge and the opportunity. AI is only as effective as the data behind it, and in healthcare, bias or poor-quality data can be dangerous – it is vital that there are strict protocols to validate every AI tool. We prioritise transparency, clinical oversight and community input. We also advocate for inclusive AI, built with diverse datasets that reflect different genders, ethnicities and disease profiles.

Looking ahead, which emerging AI technologies do you believe have the greatest potential to revolutionize healthcare? How do you see Aspen Medical’s role evolving as AI becomes more integrated into healthcare infrastructure?

We believe technologies like generative AI, clinical large language models and AI-assisted imaging will drive the next wave of transformation. Imagine a frontline clinician dictating hands-free notes, while a real-time AI scribe prepares documentation and decision-support summaries. Or an emergency responder receiving instant feedback from an AI model scanning a wound image. Our goal is to leverage federated learning so AI systems can learn from decentralised, privacy-protected data sets. This approach will be critical for delivering safe, compliant, and coordinated care across borders. Our role is to be the connector: bringing together best-in-class technology, robust clinical practice and local insight to deliver safe, smart and scalable healthcare.

Finally, as a founder, what drives your commitment to innovation in healthcare? What legacy do you hope Aspen Medical leaves in the AI healthcare space, especially in regions facing complex and urgent challenges?

Innovation is in Aspen Medical’s DNA. We started by asking: How do we deliver high-quality care where others can’t or won’t go? Today, AI gives us powerful new ways to answer that question. Vitaport, our flagship workplace health and wellbeing platform, developed by Aspen Medical, is the embodiment of that vision. Using agentic AI grounded in clinical governance to deliver personalised care, real-time insights and behaviour-shaping support. But whilst our tools evolve, our purpose remains the same: people are always at the centre. I’m driven by the belief that healthcare must be a force for equity. AI is a tool, not a destination – it helps us extend our reach, deepen our impact, and build systems that are smarter, fairer and more human. The legacy I hope we leave is simple: that we used technology not just to innovate, but to uplift. Especially where the stakes are highest.

Continue Reading

Tech Interviews

INCEPTION SHOWCASES THEIR LATEST INNOVATION AT GITEX GLOBAL 2025

Published

3 weeks ago

on

November 3, 2025

By

Professional headshot of a bald man with a grey beard wearing a blue suit jacket and white shirt against a light grey background

Attributed to Vishal Mishra, Director of AI and Software Engineering, Inception, a G42 company

Inception’s presence at GITEX this year focused on bringing enterprise-ready AI solutions to life. Could you walk us through the key innovations being showcased and what makes them stand out in the regional AI landscape?

At GITEX Global 2025, under the theme ‘Authentic Intelligence. Real Impact.’, we showcased our suite of domain-specific and sector-agnostic AI products that are transforming how organizations operate and make decisions. This included (In)Sight, (In)Alpha, (In)Procurement, (In)Business Human Capital, (In)Business Productivity, (In)Business Process, (In)Business Customer Experience, and (In)Media, with a selection of them being demonstrated. These products showed how Inception is helping governments and organizations accelerate transformation, improve efficiency, and generate measurable progress across sectors.

We are also announced a series of strategic partnerships to strengthen our capabilities and global reach and reflect Inception’s commitment to bringing authentic intelligence to life, driving enterprise transformation, and contributing to the UAE’s vision of becoming an AI-native nation.

What distinguishes these innovations in the regional AI landscape is their enterprise readiness and practical impact. Each product has been designed to integrate seamlessly into real operational environments, enabling businesses and government entities to automate complex processes, enhance decision-making, and drive value creation responsibly and transparently. Our focus is on delivering AI that is explainable, compliant, and aligned with national priorities for sustainable digital transformation.

Our presence and partnerships reflect Inception’s commitment to bringing authentic intelligence to life, driving enterprise transformation, and contributing to the UAE’s vision of becoming an AI-native nation.

Inception has evolved rapidly from an AI research hub to a product-first company. Can you give us an overview of your current AI-native products and how they are enabling organizations to automate complex workflows and make smarter decisions?

Inception’s transition from a research-driven institute to a product-first company reflects a clear focus on building practical, enterprise-ready AI that delivers measurable outcomes. Our current portfolio of AI-native products is designed to address specific business and leadership challenges while enabling enterprises to automate complex workflows, generate real-time insights, and make data-driven decisions with confidence.

Our suite of products spans multiple layers of enterprise operations:

  • (In)Sight: An AI-powered product for top executives that transforms leadership collaboration by automating meeting workflows, surfacing real-time insights, and integrating seamlessly with Microsoft 365 to drive faster, more confident decision-making.
  • (In)Genius: A sophisticated AI-powered insight generation and analysis system designed for automated business strategy research, validation, and reporting
  • (In)Alpha: An AI-driven intelligence product that uncovers hidden patterns and insights from vast volumes of unstructured data, enabling more informed investment decisions while reducing biases
  • (In)Procurement: An AI-powered platform that transforms supplier discovery, contract management, and sourcing processes with automated workflows and built-in regulatory checks that guarantee 100% compliance
  • (In)Media: A next-generation AI media intelligence platform that detects, analyzes, and responds to harmful or misleading narratives in real time.
  • (In)Business Process: A no-code AI automation platform that lets enterprises design, deploy, and orchestrate intelligent agents to streamline complex workflows, integrate with existing systems, and ensure secure, scalable process optimization
  • (In)Business Productivity: A no-code platform designed to transform the way employees handle daily tasks by integrating speed, intelligence, and automation through a suite of prebuilt, AI-powered workflows that simplify and accelerate work processes
  • (In)Business Customer Experience: An AI-powered platform that helps businesses deliver faster, more personalized support across chat, voice, avatar, and web channels through virtual agents and intelligent tools that empower human agents.

Each of these products represent a step toward operationalizing AI across every level of the enterprise. They embody Inception’s mission to leverage authentic intelligence to bring about real impact by enhancing quality decision, operational efficiency, and organizational agility.

Agentic AI is becoming a major theme in enterprise transformation. How does Inception define agentic AI, and what makes it different from traditional chatbots or rule-based systems?

Traditional chatbots or rule-based systems handle tasks by following instructions. They don’t have the ability to interpret, adapt, or anticipate. Instead, they rely on pre-programmed scripts to respond to isolated inputs. Agentic AI, on the other hand, solves problems. It doesn’t wait to be told what to do; it interprets intent, maintains memory across interactions, adjusts to dynamic input, and collaborates with other agents and humans to reach outcomes. It’s essentially an assistant that doesn’t just follow commands but proactively navigates the complexities of enterprise operations.

At Inception, we have a range of products that deploy Agentic AI across different business functions within an organization. (In)Procurement does more than automate contract workflows. It identifies high-performing, sustainable suppliers, accelerates sourcing-to-award cycles, ensures compliance, and drives measurable savings. Our (In)Business Productivity and (In)Business Process products empower teams to deploy no-code AI agents that coordinate workflows, surface knowledge, and make intelligent decisions often faster, more accurately, and at greater scale than human-led systems.

How do you see the adoption of technologies like Agentic AI, sovereign cloud, and domain-specific models influencing the UAE’s innovation and competitiveness over the next few years?

The UAE is entering a new phase of digital maturity where AI is no longer a supporting tool but a national capability. The convergence of Agentic AI, sovereign cloud infrastructure, and domain-specific models is accelerating that transition, creating a foundation for innovation that is secure, scalable, and deeply contextual.

Agentic AI brings autonomy and adaptability to enterprise systems, enabling them to learn and act with minimal intervention. When these systems are deployed within sovereign cloud environments, they operate with trusted national infrastructure that ensures data privacy, compliance, and resilience. Domain-specific models then take this one step further by embedding specialized knowledge that reflects the realities of that respective domain.

By combining Agentic AI capabilities with sovereign infrastructure and purpose-built models, the UAE is demonstrating how nations can build sustainable digital ecosystems that enhance competitiveness, drive productivity, and unlock new opportunities for growth. Inception’s mission is to ensure that this intelligence is not abstract but actionable, bridging the gap between research and real-world impact.

Continue Reading

Tech Interviews

From Reactive to Predictive: How AI is Revolutionizing Cybersecurity in the Middle East

Published

4 weeks ago

on

October 27, 2025

By

From Reactive to Predictive: How AI is Revolutionizing Cybersecurity in the Middle East

Exclusive Interview with Assad Arabi, Regional Managing Director Africa, Mediterranean and CIS, Trend Micro

Portrait of Assad Arabi, Regional Managing Director Africa, Mediterranean and CIS, Trend Micro
Exclusive Interview with Assad Arabi, Regional Managing Director Africa, Mediterranean and CIS, Trend Micro

What are your impressions of GITEX this year?
GITEX has always been an incredible platform, but this year feels different, there’s more energy, more excitement, and a clear focus on meaningful business conversations. The engagement level is impressive, and it’s great to see the region’s digital ecosystem evolving so rapidly.

What is the current state of cybersecurity in the Middle East and Africa?
It’s getting increasingly complex. We’re seeing more AI-driven, sophisticated cyberattacks that are harder to detect and mitigate. Last year alone, Trend Micro detected around 1.35 billion cyber threats in MEA , a staggering figure considering even one major attack can disrupt entire organisation. Globally, cybercrime is projected to cost around USD 10 trillion, which is an enormous economic loss.

This growing threat landscape demands a new approach. Instead of reacting after attacks occur, we’re shifting to a predictive cybersecurity model  anticipating threats before they strike. By identifying patterns and alerting organisations in advance, we’re helping them safeguard critical data and infrastructure proactively.

What key innovations is Trend Micro showcasing at GITEX 2025?
This year is special for us. Our flagship Trend Vision One platform, known as the world’s most comprehensive cybersecurity platform, continues to evolve. It integrates multiple security layers  from endpoint and server to cloud, network , data, email, IoT, and OT security — into one unified ecosystem.

The latest innovation we’re showcasing is our Agentic  SIEM solution, launched just last month. Among the first of its kind globally, it leverages AI to automate rule creation, configurations, and response actions. This will revolutionise how SOC teams operate  paving the way for fully autonomous security operations powered by AI.

What emerging trends are shaping 2025?
One of the most concerning trends is the rise of AI-driven threats, especially deepfakes. Attackers can now replicate voices, faces, and data to create what we call “malicious digital twins.” Imagine a video that looks and sounds exactly like you, used to deceive others , it’s a new frontier of cyber risk. We’re actively developing tools to detect and neutralise these threats before they cause harm.

How is Trend Micro leveraging AI to stay ahead of evolving attacks?
AI is central to everything we do. We’ve developed systems that not only detect but quantify cyber risk. For example, organisations receive a numerical cybersecurity score , say, 67 today and 70 tomorrow ,helping them see risk fluctuations in real time and take corrective action.

We’re also creating cybersecurity digital twins, replicating clients’ digital cyber security environment on our platform to safely simulate attacks and test resilience. This enables predictive defence and faster response.

What defines the next generation of cybersecurity?
The next era of cybersecurity will be defined by intelligence and foresight. Having advanced tools isn’t enough; you need actionable threat intelligence. It provides visibility into what’s happening, what could happen, and where your vulnerabilities lie. This shifts cybersecurity from reactive to truly preventive.

How is AI transforming the way organisations predict threats?
At Trend Micro, AI is embedded across our entire ecosystem  from endpoint and network protection to cloud, OT, and IoT security. We collect native  telemetry data into a central data lake and apply AI models and threat intelligence to correlate anomalies and detect hidden attacks.

Our proprietary Cybertron large language model (LLM) is a breakthrough. It analyses threats contextually, offering insights tailored to each organisation rather than generic alerts. It empowers security teams to identify, prevent, and neutralize threats before they materialize. This advanced level of intelligence was unimaginable just two years ago, and it’s redefining how cybersecurity protection should be  perceived .

What are the biggest challenges organisations face in a cloud-native environment?
The biggest hurdle is mindset. Many organisations still use traditional security methods for cloud environments  and that simply doesn’t work. Trend Micro offers a complete cloud-native security portfolio covering applications, workloads, containers, storage, and configuration. Our attack surface and exposure management tools continuously assess cloud posture, identify risks, and alert teams before vulnerabilities are exploited.

What impact has the Trend Vision One AI Companion delivered?
The AI Companion acts like our version of ChatGPT for cybersecurity analysts. They can ask questions such as “What does this alert mean?” or “What should I do next?” and receive instant, actionable guidance or even have the system perform those actions automatically. This has dramatically reduced response times and helped close the cybersecurity skills gap, enabling junior analysts to perform at senior levels.

What sets Trend Micro apart from other cybersecurity companies?
As a Japanese company, precision and commitment are part of our DNA. For over 37 years, cybersecurity has been our singular focus. If we enter a segment, it’s because we intend to lead it.

Our leadership is consistently recognised by Gartner, Forrester, and IDC across multiple domains  from endpoint and network to IoT and attack surface management. What truly differentiates us is our natively integrated ecosystem, which simplifies management, enhances visibility, increase the protection , and strengthens customer confidence.

Continue Reading

Trending

Copyright © 2023 | The Integrator