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Proofpoint’s 2024 Voice of the CISO Report: More Than Two-Thirds of CISOs in the UAE Feel Prepared for Targeted Cyber Attacks

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1 month ago

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proofpoint

89% of UAE CISOs are turning to AI-powered technology to protect against human error and block advanced human-centric cyber threats

Proofpoint, a leading cybersecurity and compliance company today released its annual Voice of the CISO report, which explores key challenges, expectations and priorities of chief information security officers (CISOs) worldwide.

The 2024 report draws attention to a notable trend: while fears of cyber attacks remain high, CISOs in the UAE demonstrate increasing confidence in their ability to defend against these threats, reflecting a significant shift in the cybersecurity landscape. Over two-thirds (70%) of surveyed CISOs in the UAE feel at risk of a material cyber attack over the next 12 months, compared to 75% the year before, and 44% in 2022. CISOs today clearly remain on high alert, but confidence among them is growing: just 34% feel unprepared to cope with a targeted cyber attack, showing a marked decrease over last year’s 57% and 47% in 2022.

Human error continues to be perceived as the Achilles’ heel of cybersecurity, with more than three-quarters (76%) of CISOs in the UAE identifying it as the most significant vulnerability. In a year of growing insider threats and people-driven data loss, more CISOs in the UAE than ever (83%) see human risk, in particular negligent employees as a key cybersecurity concern over the next two years. However, there’s growing optimism in the role of AI-powered solutions to mitigate human-centric risks, reflecting a strategic pivot towards technology-driven defenses.

The 2024 Voice of the CISO report examines global third-party survey responses from 1,600 CISOs from organizations of 1,000 employees or more across different industries. Throughout the course of Q1 2024, 100 CISOs were interviewed in each market across 16 countries: the U.S., Canada, the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, the Netherlands, UAE, KSA, Australia, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, and Brazil.

The report offers a vital perspective on the state of cybersecurity from those at the forefront of protecting people and defending data. The report also stresses the importance of maintaining robust cybersecurity measures in the face of economic pressures and the critical role of human factors in organizational cyber readiness. The survey also measures the changes in alignment between security leaders and their boards of directors, exploring how their relationship impacts security priorities.

“As we navigate through the complexities of today’s cyber threat environment, it’s encouraging to see CISOs in the UAE gaining confidence in their strategies and tools,” commented Emile Abou Saleh, Senior Regional Director, Middle East, Turkey, and Africa at Proofpoint. “However, the ongoing challenges of employee turnover, pressure on resources, and the need for continuous board engagement remind us that vigilance and adaptation are key to our collective cyber resilience.”

Key global findings from Proofpoint’s 2024 Voice of the CISO report for the UAE include:

  • Human error still tops cyber vulnerability threats but CISOs in the UAE turn to AI solutions to help. This year, we are seeing an uptick in the number of CISOs in the UAE who view human error as their organization’s biggest cyber vulnerability—76% in this year’s survey vs. 59% in 2023. However, 87% of CISOs believe that employees understand their role in protecting the organization. This confidence is higher than in previous years—56% in 2023 and 51% in 2022. This may be attributed to the 89% of UAE CISOs surveyed looking to deploy AI-powered capabilities to help protect against human error and advanced human-centered cyber threats.
  • CISOs in the UAE continue to fear cyber-attacks but fewer feel unprepared, showing growing confidence in their security measures. In 2024, 70% of CISOs surveyed in the UAE feel at risk of experiencing a material cyber-attack in the next 12 months, compared to 75% in 2023 and 44% in 2022. However, just 34% feel their organization is unprepared to cope with a targeted cyber-attack, compared to 57% in 2023 and 47% in 2022.
  • Generative AI tops CISOs security concerns in the UAE. In 2024, 49% of CISOs surveyed in the UAE believe that generative AI poses a security risk to their organization. The top three systems CISOs view as introducing risk to their organizations are: Microsoft 365 (50%), Perimeter network device (45%), Slack/Teams/Zoom/other collaboration tools (43%) and ChatGPT/other genAI (40%).
  • Employee turnover is still a concern, yet CISOs in the UAE trust their defenses. In 2024, 45% of security leaders reported having to deal with a material loss of sensitive data in the past 12 months, and of those, 64% agreed that employees leaving the organization contributed to the loss. Despite those losses, 83% of CISOs believe they have adequate controls to protect their data.
  • The majority of CISOs in the UAE have adopted DLP technology and invested more in security education. 51% of CISOs surveyed in the UAE, in 2024 have data loss prevention technology (DLP) in place compared to just 45% in 2023. More than half (55%) of CISOs surveyed invested in educating employees on data security best practices which is higher in 2024 compared to 2023 (41%).
  • Cloud account compromise and ransomware top CISO concerns in the UAE. The biggest cybersecurity threats perceived by CISOs in 2024 are cloud account compromise (Microsoft 365 or G Suite or other) (44%), ransomware attacks (42%) and malware (42%). These top threats are different from last year in which CISOs perceived distributed email fraud, cloud account compromise (Microsoft 365, G Suite or other), malware and smishing/vishing as the biggest threats.
  • Steady stance on ransom payments with increased reliance on cyber insurance in the UAE. In 2024, 64% (59% in 2023) of CISOs in the UAE believe their organization would pay to restore systems and prevent data release if attacked by ransomware in the next 12 months. 76% of CISOs said they would rely on cyber insurance claims to recover potential losses incurred, compared to 56% in 2023.
  • The Board-CISO relationship has improved significantly in the UAE. In 2024, 80% of CISOs agree their board members see eye-to-eye with them on cybersecurity issues. This is a significant jump from 63% in 2023, and 47% in 2022.
  • Pressures on CISOs in the UAE are unrelenting. In 2024, 69% of CISOs in the UAE admitted to burnout compared to 59% last year, while 87% feel they face excessive expectations, a steady increase from 59% last year and 38% in 2022. The sustainability of the ongoing expectations on CISOs continues to be tested—69% are concerned about personal liability (60% in 2023) and 74% (56% in 2023) would not join an organization that does not offer Directors & Officers (D&O) insurance coverage. In addition, 63% of CISOs agreed that the current economic downturn has hampered their ability to make business-critical investments, with 49% of them being asked to cut staff or delay backfills as well as reduce security budgets.

“While the cybersecurity landscape continues to evolve with increasing human-centric threats, the 2024 Voice of the CISO report highlights what appears to be a pivotal shift towards greater resilience, preparedness and confidence among global CISOs,” said Patrick Joyce, global resident CISO at Proofpoint. “This year’s findings underscore a collective move towards strategic defenses, including enhanced education, technological adoption, and an adaptive approach to emerging threats like generative AI.”

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Hewlett Packard Enterprise and NVIDIA Announce ‘NVIDIA AI Computing by HPE’ to Accelerate Generative AI Industrial Revolution

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3 days ago

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June 20, 2024

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nvidia

Hewlett Packard Enterprise and NVIDIA announced NVIDIA AI Computing by HPE, a portfolio of co-developed AI solutions and joint go-to-market integrations that enable enterprises to accelerate adoption of generative AI.

Among the portfolio’s key offerings is HPE Private Cloud AI, a first-of-its-kind solution that provides the deepest integration to date of NVIDIA AI computing, networking and software with HPE’s AI storage, compute and the HPE GreenLake cloud. The offering enables enterprises of every size to gain an energy-efficient, fast, and flexible path for sustainably developing and deploying generative AI applications. Powered by the new OpsRamp AI copilot that helps IT operations improve workload and IT efficiency, HPE Private Cloud AI includes a self-service cloud experience with full lifecycle management and is available in four right-sized configurations to support a broad range of AI workloads and use cases.

All NVIDIA AI Computing by HPE offerings and services will be available through a joint go-to-market strategy that spans sales teams and channel partners, training and a global network of system integrators — including Deloitte, HCLTech, Infosys, TCS and Wipro — that can help enterprises across a variety of industries run complex AI workloads.

Announced during the HPE Discover keynote by HPE President and CEO Antonio Neri, who was joined by NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang, NVIDIA AI Computing by HPE marks the expansion of a decades-long partnership and reflects the substantial commitment of time and resources from each company.

“Generative AI holds immense potential for enterprise transformation, but the complexities of fragmented AI technology contain too many risks and barriers that hamper large-scale enterprise adoption and can jeopardize a company’s most valuable asset – its proprietary data,” said Neri. “To unleash the immense potential of generative AI in the enterprise, HPE and NVIDIA co-developed a turnkey private cloud for AI that will enable enterprises to focus their resources on developing new AI use cases that can boost productivity and unlock new revenue streams”.

“Generative AI and accelerated computing are fueling a fundamental transformation as every industry races to join the industrial revolution,” said Huang. “Never before have NVIDIA and HPE integrated our technologies so deeply – combining the entire NVIDIA AI computing stack along with HPE’s private cloud technology – to equip enterprise clients and AI professionals with the most advanced computing infrastructure and services to expand the frontier of AI.”

HPE and NVIDIA co-developed Private Cloud AI portfolio

HPE Private Cloud AI delivers a unique, cloud-based experience to accelerate innovation and return on investment while managing enterprise risk from AI. The solution offers:

● Support for inference, fine-tuning and RAG AI workloads that utilize proprietary data.
● Enterprise control for data privacy, security, transparency, and governance requirements.
● Cloud experience with ITOps and AIOps capabilities to increase productivity.
● Fast path to consume flexibly to meet future AI opportunities and growth.
Curated AI and data software stack in HPE Private Cloud AI
The foundation of the AI and data software stack starts with the NVIDIA AI Enterprise software platform, which includes NVIDIA NIM inference microservices.
NVIDIA AI Enterprise accelerates data science pipelines and streamlines development and deployment of production-grade copilots and other GenAI applications. Included with NVIDIA AI Enterprise, NVIDIA NIM delivers easy-to-use microservices for optimized AI model inferencing offering a smooth transition from prototype to secure deployment of AI models in a variety of use cases.
Complementing NVIDIA AI Enterprise and NVIDIA NIM, HPE AI Essentials software delivers a ready to run set of curated AI and data foundation tools with a unified control plane that provide adaptable solutions, ongoing enterprise support, and trusted AI services, such as data and model compliance and extensible features that ensure AI pipelines are in compliance, explainable and reproducible throughout the AI lifecycle.
To deliver optimal performance for the AI and data software stack, HPE Private Cloud AI delivers a fully integrated AI infrastructure stack that includes NVIDIA Spectrum-X Ethernet networking, HPE GreenLake for File Storage and HPE ProLiant servers with support for NVIDIA L40S, NVIDIA H100 NVL Tensor Core GPUs and the NVIDIA GH200 NVL2 platform.
Cloud experience enabled by HPE GreenLake cloud
HPE Private Cloud AI offers a self-service cloud experience enabled by HPE GreenLake cloud. Through a single, platform-based control plane, HPE Greenlake cloud services provide manageability and observability to automate, orchestrate and manage endpoints, workloads, and data across hybrid environments. This includes sustainability metrics for workloads and endpoints.
HPE GreenLake cloud and OpsRamp AI infrastructure observability and copilot assistant
OpsRamp’s IT operations are integrated with HPE GreenLake cloud to deliver observability and AIOps to all HPE products and services. OpsRamp now provides observability for the end- to- end NVIDIA accelerated computing stack, including NVIDIA NIM and AI software, NVIDIA Tensor Core GPUs and AI clusters as well as NVIDIA Quantum InfiniBand and NVIDIA Spectrum Ethernet switches. IT administrators can gain insights to identify anomalies and monitor their AI infrastructure and workloads across hybrid, multi-cloud environments.
The new OpsRamp operations copilot utilizes NVIDIA’s accelerated computing platform to analyze large datasets for insights with a conversational assistant, boosting productivity for operations management. OpsRamp will also integrate with CrowdStrike APIs so customers can see a unified service map view of endpoint security across their entire infrastructure and applications.
Accelerate time to value with AI – expanded collaboration with global system integrators
To advance the time to value for enterprises to develop industry-focused AI solutions and use cases with clear business benefits, Deloitte, HCLTech, Infosys, TCS and WIPRO announced their support of the NVIDIA AI Computing by HPE portfolio and HPE Private Cloud AI as part of their strategic AI solutions and services.
HPE adds support for NVIDIA’s latest GPUs, CPUs and Superchips
● HPE Cray XD670 supports eight NVIDIA H200 NVL Tensor Core GPUs and is ideal for LLM builders.
● HPE ProLiant DL384 Gen12 server with NVIDIA GH200 NVL2 is ideal for LLM consumers using larger models or RAG.
● HPE ProLiant DL380a Gen12 server support for up to eight NVIDIA H200 NVL Tensor Core GPUs is ideal for LLM users looking for flexibility to scale their GenAI workloads.
● HPE will be time-to-market to support the NVIDIA GB200 NVL72 / NVL2, as well as the new NVIDIA Blackwell, NVIDIA Rubin and NVIDIA Vera architectures.
High-density file storage certified for NVIDIA DGX BasePOD and NVIDIA OVX systems
HPE GreenLake for File Storage has achieved NVIDIA DGX BasePOD certification and NVIDIA OVX™ storage validation, providing customers with a proven enterprise file storage solution for accelerating AI, GenAI and GPU-intensive workloads at scale. HPE will be a time-to-market partner on upcoming NVIDIA reference architecture storage certification programs.
Availability
● HPE Private Cloud AI is expected to be generally available in the fall.
● HPE ProLiant DL380a Gen12 server with NVIDIA H200 NVL Tensor Core GPUs is expected to be generally available in the fall.
● HPE ProLiant DL384 Gen12 server with dual NVIDIA GH200 NVL2 is expected to be generally available in the fall.
● HPE Cray XD670 server with NVIDIA H200 NVL is expected to be generally available in the summer.

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The UAE AI’s Office and Rittal sign MOU to enhance the digital infrastructure and Pioneering the Future

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4 days ago

on

June 19, 2024

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AI MOU digital economy

The UAE’s Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy, and Remote Work Applications Office and Rittal FZE have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). This partnership aims to collaborate on various AI initiatives, enhance AI adoption and learning, and strengthen the robust digital infrastructure of the UAE through international joint efforts.

The MOU was signed by Saqr Binghalib, Executive Director of the UAE’s Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy, and Remote Work Applications Office, and Syed Tahir Nazir, Managing Director of Rittal FZE , during the AI Retreat 2024. This event, the largest of its kind, aims to accelerate AI application adoption and features participation from over 2,000 decision-makers, experts, and officials from both the government and private sectors. It was organized recently by the Dubai Center for AI Applications in collaboration with the National Program for Artificial Intelligence.

Saqr Binghalib emphasized that the UAE Government focuses on building skills and talents as a key element in the digital development journey and in creating a future based on intellect and creativity. He noted that Strengthening partnerships between the government and the private sector contributes to enhancing the country’s position as a global hub for the AI sector, reinforcing its active global role, and supporting the national strategies’ goals of building future competencies and equipping them with the necessary tools for development and advancing towards a future based on digital skills.

Syed Tahir Nazir, Managing Director, Rittal FZE said: “We are fully committed and support the vision of the Office of Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy, and Remote Work Applications during our discussion and agreed with Mr. Saqr Binghalib. Rittal FZE is committed to support capacity building, knowledge enhancement, and technology advancements through innovations in the field of AI and other smart applications, especially to support programming in the field of Robotics and Industry 4.0 system and applications along with supporting Green Technologies. Rittal continues its efforts for environmental protection and reducing carbon footprint with its innovative products and solutions through collaborations with government and public sectors to secure a better future for our communities and next generations. We are excited to be a partner of AI department and are looking forward to working with H.E Saqr Binghalib for a mutually successful collaboration.”

The agreement between the Office of Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy, and Remote Work Applications and Rittal, aims to achieve the objectives of the UAE Strategy for AI and its ambitious goals to support private sector initiatives, increase productivity, build a strong research and development base, and develop AI talents and skills. Additionally, it aims to enhance cooperation in various AI initiatives, and enrich and enhance the coding ecosystem and coding community in the UAE. This includes organizing training courses, discussions, and dialogues to develop coding skills and technological innovation among youth, experts, and enthusiasts. Furthermore, it aims to enhance collaboration and communication opportunities between leading technology companies and coders, contributing to driving digital transformation and building a better future.

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Canon offers new firmware and applications for 4K remote PTZ camera systems

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1 week ago

on

June 14, 2024

By

canon

Canon recently announced that it will offer firmware for 4K remote cameras and remote camera controllers intended to improve the functionality and performance of functions, such as auto-tracking, free of charge from mid-July 2024. Upgraded versions of various applications including ‘Auto Tracking Application RA-AT001’ (released in April 2023) will also be made available.

Canon has been enhancing its product line-up of remote camera systems by providing application software that adds necessary functions according to their usage to camera systems, including 4K remote cameras and specialised controllers. With upgrades to firmware and applications across the system to improve their respective functionality and performance, Canon aims to assist workflow improvements on video production projects and aid visual communication in situations such as web conferences and lecture broadcasts.

The tracking function will be improved so that the updated ‘Auto Tracking Application RA-AT001’ will now be able to continue to track the subject even when they intersect with another person (such as someone cutting in front or crossing paths) without transferring to the other person. Its performance will also be improved to achieve more natural and flowing movement as it tracks the beginning and end of a subject’s movements. Additionally, advanced settings for auto-tracking can now be adjusted via the controller so that cameras can be operated without the use of a PC. Canon will also begin providing the basic functions4 of ‘Auto Tracking Application RA-AT001’ free of charge in order to allow a broader range of users to enjoy the improved convenience.

The update will improve the video output framerate during USB connection. Remote cameras CR-N300 and CR-N100 comply with USB Video Class, the standard for USB transmission, and by simply connecting them to a PC via cable they can be used for web conferences. The output framerate will be improved from FHD12.5fps, which the camera was originally equipped to handle, to a maximum of FHD30fps. In addition to Motion JPEG format, the output format will now be offered in YUV format as well, thereby facilitating image processing after shooting. Being compatible with the two formats, the remote cameras – with updated firmware – can be used for various kinds of web conferences.

In addition, the functionality of the dedicated controller will be enhanced so that it will now be possible for the touch panel on the remote camera controller RC-IP1000 to display thumbnail images of presets and trace functions registered on the camera. Users can access the function while displaying the thumbnail image, thereby reducing operational mistakes, and enabling intuitive control operation. Furthermore, images shown on the touch panel, which can display up to nine cameras at one time, can be output to an external monitor via an SDI and HDMI. This controller firmware update will improve on-site operations by enabling users to control the cameras while checking the multiple views simultaneously displayed on a large screen.

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