Against an increasingly menacing threat landscape, we need protectors – those with the economies of scale, expertise, and innovation to meet the cyber-villains on their field of battle and beat them back. Trend Micro specializes in the protection of cloud, endpoints, and networks for industries from government and BFSI to oil and gas and education, supported by a network of hundreds of partners across Saudi Arabia. Dr. Moataz Bin Ali is the company’s Area Vice President and Managing Director for the Middle East and Africa (MEA). “The biggest challenge we see is unknown threats,” he said. “Sometimes, a threat that hasn’t been identified is the most dangerous threat of all.” Trend Micro has a global ZDI (Zero Day Initiative) program that offers incentives for bug-hunting to aid research and development in threat discovery and identification. “We use the information gathered from such programs to bolster our response and provide solutions that enable organizations to protect against a range of threats,” Bin Ali added. “We’ve made remarkable strides in threat protection and prevention over the years, and I believe we will continue to do so in the future.” One of Trend Micro’s offerings is its flagship Cloud One platform, which is designed around compliance and data sovereignty. The company splits its solutions into two pillars: local public cloud and private cloud. “For the public cloud, we are aligning with local cloud service providers to provide solutions from inside the country, in full compliance with various authorities. With private cloud we are, of course, focused on customer-to-customer compliance.” Trend Micro showcased this pillared approach recently at Black Hat MEA 2022, in Riyadh. “We’re among the most elite and innovative companies to attend large events and showcase our solutions, products, and portfolios,” Bin Ali remarked. At Black Hat 2022, Trend Micro addressed the state of play in the threat landscape, bring up the trends and best practices that are driving risk and defense strategies across the region. Bin Ali cited several factors that have brought about seismic change in an already formidable cyber-menace. “COVID-19 pushed people to work from home more often,” he pointed out, “and the increasing number of new advancements and technologies in AI, IoT, and blockchain have only made things worse. The political landscape of the region also exposes us to more attacks. Events like Black Hat provide with a platform to air these trends and discuss ways of dealing with them. “We showcase our latest and greatest solutions to the market to let them know that they do not stand alone. We share our insights and experience with our customers and partners to arm them for the battle ahead. And we forge new partnerships and collaborations with entities that focus on protecting Saudi Arabia and the rest of the region from actors who would disrupt our digital progress.” The array of threats now stacked against regional organizations is best fought through a “connected threat defense solution that offers a multilayered approach to safeguarding industries”, Bin Ali said. “Our solutions have layers to protect the cloud, layers to protect endpoints, layers to protect networks, and layers to protect emails,” he explained. “It is this multilayered approach that provides our customers with peace of mind when they try to monitor, prevent, and respond to the threats in their midst.”