RIYADH — IBM Security Wednesday announced the official opening of its first Security Operations Center in Saudi Arabia and the region to provide managed security services to private and government sector customers. Through the center, IBM will offer clients in Saudi Arabia the option of managing their security operations around-the-clock, via IBM staff and local infrastructure. Located in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, the key areas of focus for the new Security Operations Center are supporting clients in responding to cybersecurity incidents and helping them proactively manage emerging threats through real-time analysis and early warning notification of security events. The center also provides local data residency designed to support clients" preferences and regulatory requirements. IBM Security analysts and experts will help clients with expedited incident investigations and remediation plans. According to a recent IBM study examining the financial impact of data breaches on organizations in Saudi Arabia, incidents cost companies studied $6.53 million per breach on average, which is higher than the global average of $3.86 million per breach. IBM Managed Security Services manages more than 150 billion security events on average daily. It brings together the power and integration of proprietary and third-party machine learning and AI to help customers reduce incident fatigue, perform triage quickly and manage what matters most to clients. With many organizations today navigating complex environments, IBM’s managed security services are built for scale and efficiency to help protect hybrid cloud environments. "The launch of IBM’s Security Operations Center in Saudi Arabia is a critical investment in helping our clients not only respond to the ever-increasing cybersecurity incidents but provide them with local data residency designed to support their preferences and industry requirements," said Hossam Seif El-Din, general manager, IBM Middle East and Pakistan. “We are seeing a lot of new threat actors looking to take advantage of the confusion and uncertainty surrounding COVID-19. Therefore, we are also looking to use the new SOC to drive education and awareness to help clients defend themselves from potential threats.” Amidst the COVID-19 health crisis, the rapid shift to a remote workforce alongside a corresponding increase in attacks by cyber criminals capitalizing on uncertainty have combined to create unparalleled cyber security challenges for organizations across the globe. According to IBM Security X-Force, there was 40% increase in security incidents in 1Q 2020 globally compared to the same quarter in 2019. In the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region, one of the first regions to be hit hard by the virus, incident response rose 125% in the same timeframe. — SG