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Oman team shines at the Standoff international cyberbattle at SPIEF 2024

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Positive Technologies

Experts from over two dozen countries across Asia, the Middle East, and Africa took part in the Standoff cyberbattle, which was held in 2024 as part of the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum for the first time. In just four days, the participants familiarized themselves with various cyberattack defense tools, tested strategies, and exchanged knowledge to use their newfound expertise in building result-driven cybersecurity for their organizations in real life.

During the online and offline cyber exercises, cybersecurity specialists tested the security of companies using a virtual state model. In this model, cyberattacks of varying complexity were simulated on realistic replicas of IT systems from the financial sector, industry, power, oil and gas, and utilities.

The defense teams registered 425 incidents and investigated 145 attacks during the battle. The attackers detected 112 vulnerabilities and triggered 12 critical events. The award ceremony included the participation of Alexander Shoitov, Deputy Minister of Digital Development, Communications, and Mass Media of Russia, and Tatyana Matveeva, Chief of the Presidential Directorate for the Development of Information and Communication Technology and Communication Infrastructure.

A total of 42 teams from 21 countries in Central and South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East—including the Kingdom of Bahrain and the Sultanate of Oman—participated in the cyber exercises at SPIEF 2024. The cyberbattle also featured response teams (CERT) and observers, such as independent experts and business function leaders.

Insight Information Security from Oman successfully participated in the battle with its employees performing remarkably well as both the red and the blue teams. Insight Warriors attacker team was recognized for having the highest number of accepted reports, detecting 25 vulnerabilities and securing the second-highest score, by points. Meanwhile, defenders from Insight CyberX ranked among the top three blue teams by the number of detected incidents.

Motasim Alanburi, Senior Cyber Security Analyst at Insight Information Security, commented: “The popularity of cyber exercises is growing every year due to the increasing cyberthreats to organizations. The exercises help specialists better understand these threats and how to defend against them. Participants in Standoff Cyberbattle can test their cybersecurity skills in highly realistic conditions, facing simulated attacks and learning to protect against them. Here, fierce competition meets intensive training, allowing for the expansion of cybersecurity knowledge, and opportunities to network with fellow professionals. Undoubtedly, after the battle, we will continue to exchange experiences with other teams, as this is a surefire way to develop competencies.”

Alexey Novikov, Managing Director at Positive Technologies, emphasized that in the face of rising cyberthreats and a global talent shortage, regular cyberrange exercises are the cornerstone of building result-driven cybersecurity.

“For eight years at Standoff, thousands of cybersecurity experts from around the globe have been learning from each other and honing their skills to effectively protect their organizations in real life. This international exchange of expertise is crucial because cybercrime knows no borders, and the white hat communities must not be confined within their own countries. We need to stand together to face this global challenge,” said Alexey Novikov.

Positive Technologies has been hosting Standoff Cyberbattle since 2016. In 2019, the battle took place in another country for the first time—in Abu Dhabi (UAE), and in 2020, Moscow hosted the first global exercises on a cyberrange with an online conference. Since then, the cyberbattle has been held twice a year offline: in the autumn as standalone competitions and in the spring as part of the international cyberfestival Positive Hack Days.

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Datadobi Adds Data Access Governance to StorageMAP, Enabling Enterprises to Answer the Critical Question: “Who Has Access to What?”

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Datadobi, a leader in the Data Storage Management Services space, today announced the general availability of Data Access Governance (DAG) within StorageMAP. The new capability gives organizations visibility into who has access to their unstructured data and whether that access aligns with corporate policy. It extends Datadobi’s ability to help enterprises discover, align, and operationalize data across fragmented environments as their intelligence and orchestration layer.

As AI initiatives, cyber threats, and rising data complexity expose the limits of traditional approaches, DAG addresses a critical gap: organizations cannot govern, protect, or extract value from data they cannot see or control. As AI initiatives, cyber threats, and rising data complexity expose the limits of traditional approaches, DAG addresses a critical gap: organizations cannot govern, protect, or extract value from data they cannot see or control.

StorageMAP’s DAG capability gives administrators comprehensive visibility into access permissions across fragmented unstructured data environments. By surfacing who has access to what data, and whether that access aligns with business and security policy. Organizations can detect misaligned permissions, reduce cyber exposure, and enforce governance at scale. This visibility is the essential first stage of the broader DSMS discipline — visibility, understanding, decision, execution — that determines whether organizations can act on their data with confidence.

The introduction of DAG extends StorageMAP’s existing capabilities across data discovery, classification, risk assessment, lifecycle management and AI Data Readiness. Together, these capabilities help organizations to discover what data they have, align it with business value and risk requirements, and operationalize policy-driven action across their environments. The result is unstructured data that supports AI initiatives, strengthens cyber resilience, reduces cost, and drives long-term business value rather than holding it back.

DAG, which was trialed by a number of beta customers, supports a range of enterprise use cases, from protecting sensitive data and reducing breach impact, to maintaining records compliance and managing risk through mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures. Early access customers identified a gap in their understanding of which critical datasets were exposed and who could access them, often relying on manual investigation to respond to audits and security incidents.

With Datadobi’s DAG capabilities, these organizations quickly identify overexposed data and validate access controls to proactively strengthen their security posture. For organizations investing in AI, it provides the governance foundation that trusted, well-governed data requires.  And for those subject to data protection regulations (such as GDPR, HIPAA, or PCI DSS), it delivers the visibility needed to demonstrate that access controls are in place, operating as intended, and aligned with business policy.

“Unstructured data is at the center of every major enterprise challenge right now including AI readiness, cyber resilience, cost management, and regulatory compliance,” said Michael Jack, Co-founder and Chief Revenue Officer for Datadobi. “But organizations cannot address any of those challenges with data they cannot see or control. Data Access Governance gives teams the visibility to understand who has access to what, identify where risk exists, and take action to bring their unstructured data under control. It is a foundational step in turning unstructured data from a source of risk and complexity into a driver of business value.”

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Cloudera and Muroon Announce Strategic MoU

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In a strategic move to advance enterprise digital enablement and support the technological ambitions of Saudi Vision 2030, Cloudera, the only true hybrid platform for data, analytics, and AI, has agreed to a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with MuroonI the technology and digital enablement subsidiary of Tawuniya.

The proposed collaboration aims to evaluate opportunities to help organizations across the region modernize their technology capabilities, accelerate digital transformation, and unlock long-term business value. By leveraging Cloudera’s products and services, the engagement will explore how Cloudera’s hybrid data platforms and AI-driven analytics can help to boost Muroon’s expanding IT and digital enablement objectives.

Under the proposed partnership, Muroon and Cloudera will aim to collaborate on delivering secure data exchange and modern cloud architecture. Integrating Cloudera Anywhere Cloud™ principles, the proposed collaboration will explore ways to deliver a consistent cloud experience, enabling organizations to deploy AI and analytics workloads across private data centers and cloud environments with unified governance and security.

The proposed alliance creates complementary roles for both organizations. Muroon will leverage its delivery capabilities, consulting expertise, implementation services, across the Tawuniya ecosystem and the wider region. Cloudera will look to provide technology leadership, platform expertise, solution architecture, and technical enablement.

Ahmad Shakora, General Vice President of META, Cloudera, said:
“Our proposed collaboration with Muroon represents an important milestone in empowering regional organizations with modern hybrid data and AI architectures. Through Cloudera’s ability to bring AI and analytics to data anywhere it resides, combined with Muroon’s deep digital enablement and implementation capabilities, we aim to accelerate innovation, ensure secure data management, and actively contribute to the digital economy goals of Saudi Vision 2030.”

Faisal Bakhsh, Vice President of Business Development and Services Delivery at Muroon, added:
“As the technology arm of Tawuniya Group, Muroon is dedicated to delivering cutting-edge digital solutions that drive operational efficiency and business growth. Exploring this partnership with Cloudera allows us to harness world-class hybrid data and AI platforms to expand our service capabilities, facilitate secure data exchange, and deliver transformative value to our ecosystem and clients across Saudi Arabia.”

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Cloudera and Muroon Announce Strategic MoU

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In a strategic move to advance enterprise digital enablement and support the technological ambitions of Saudi Vision 2030, Cloudera, the only true hybrid platform for data, analytics, and AI, has agreed to a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with MuroonI the technology and digital enablement subsidiary of Tawuniya.

The proposed collaboration aims to evaluate opportunities to help organizations across the region modernize their technology capabilities, accelerate digital transformation, and unlock long-term business value. By leveraging Cloudera’s products and services, the engagement will explore how Cloudera’s hybrid data platforms and AI-driven analytics can help to boost Muroon’s expanding IT and digital enablement objectives.

Under the proposed partnership, Muroon and Cloudera will aim to collaborate on delivering secure data exchange and modern cloud architecture. Integrating Cloudera Anywhere Cloud™ principles, the proposed collaboration will explore ways to deliver a consistent cloud experience, enabling organizations to deploy AI and analytics workloads across private data centers and cloud environments with unified governance and security.

The proposed alliance creates complementary roles for both organizations. Muroon will leverage its delivery capabilities, consulting expertise, implementation services, across the Tawuniya ecosystem and the wider region. Cloudera will look to provide technology leadership, platform expertise, solution architecture, and technical enablement.

Ahmad Shakora, General Vice President of META, Cloudera, said:
“Our proposed collaboration with Muroon represents an important milestone in empowering regional organizations with modern hybrid data and AI architectures. Through Cloudera’s ability to bring AI and analytics to data anywhere it resides, combined with Muroon’s deep digital enablement and implementation capabilities, we aim to accelerate innovation, ensure secure data management, and actively contribute to the digital economy goals of Saudi Vision 2030.”

Faisal Bakhsh, Vice President of Business Development and Services Delivery at Muroon, added:
“As the technology arm of Tawuniya Group, Muroon is dedicated to delivering cutting-edge digital solutions that drive operational efficiency and business growth. Exploring this partnership with Cloudera allows us to harness world-class hybrid data and AI platforms to expand our service capabilities, facilitate secure data exchange, and deliver transformative value to our ecosystem and clients across Saudi Arabia.”

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