Cisco will highlight how organizations can be more productive, efficient, and profitable as they invest in enhanced security solutions 

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - November 15, 2022 – At Black Hat MEA 2022, Cisco will demonstrate its latest portfolio of security innovations, highlighting how organizations in Saudi Arabia can secure their workplaces with hybrid work continuing to gain traction. 

Black Hat MEA will take place in Riyadh from 15th-17th of November 2022, co-organized by the Saudi Federation of Cybersecurity, Programming and Drones (SAFCSP).

Attendees will hear Cisco’s vision on how workforces can be more productive and protected, wherever they are working. The move to long-term hybrid work and rising sophisticated attacks have increased the risk of potential cyber threats against critical infrastructure, companies, and organizations. Focused on achieving security resilience is more crucial than ever; to protect business integrity, withstand unpredictable threats and then, emerge stronger.

“It is increasingly critical for IT decisionmakers to achieve security resilience, protecting the integrity of their business to withstand threats and emerge stronger,” said Fady Younes, Cybersecurity Director, EMEA Service Providers and MEA, Cisco.

“Black Hat MEA provides a strategic platform for industry leaders to align and discuss the future of cybersecurity. At Cisco, we believe that organizations can be more successful if they invest in the right kind of security solutions,” he added. 

Cisco will be present at booth H3. B30 highlighting the following key innovations across its security portfolio:

Zero Trust
Multi-cloud environments, lack of visibility and constantly evolving cyber threats are a new reality that old security models can no longer handle. In a hybrid-first world, everyone can become an insider threat. A Zero Trust model can help organisations to protect the integrity of their business by securing access in a way that frustrates attackers, not users. 

Duo Passwordless Authentication is now available for customers in Saudi Arabia to protect Single Sign On (SSO) applications. Customers can login without any password by leveraging biometrics (Windows Hello and Mac touch ID) and security keys. Cisco is adding the Duo Mobile app as another option for passwordless authentication. This will simplify implementation and lower the total cost of ownership for customers, as well as better meet the needs of all end-users as global biometric adoption stalled after several years of sharp growth. Among Duo’s customers, biometrics were enabled on 81% of mobile devices.

Network Security
Data shows that employees are back in the office. Remote access authentications declined since peaking in 2020, reaching lower than pre-pandemic levels in 2022. As hybrid work becomes the new normal, organizations are demanding high-performance network security without the increased cost. 

To better meet the needs of customers, Cisco is introducing the newest addition to the Secure Firewall 3100 Series, the first firewalls purpose-built for hybrid work. Secure Firewall 3105 expands sizing options for branch offices at a price point accessible to more organizations. It empowers hybrid workers with support for more remote users and increases VPN speed and performance by 17X.

Secure Connectivity
As critical resources are moved into cloud, customers are concerned about data vulnerability. The challenge is only growing, as authentications to cloud applications increased 24% in 2022. Data needs to be protected, not just because of the risk tied to malicious threat actors, but the unintentional problems caused by inexperienced users. To help with this, Cisco enhanced its Umbrella solution, the foundation of Cisco’s Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) offering with stronger data loss prevention (DLP) capabilities, making management easier for security teams.

Threat Detection & Response
Cisco takes a unique approach to Extended Threat Detection and Response (XDR) by connecting proprietary Cisco security solutions as well as third-party solutions, aggregating and correlating associated alert and telemetry data, providing actionable insights, and offering immediate response capabilities. For teams with existing SIEM or SOAR solutions, Cisco’s SecureX platform can build on those benefits and deliver fast value for security teams with little to no calibration. 
  
Cisco is a Strategic Sponsor of Black Hat MEA. As part of Cisco’s program of events at the conference, Lothar Renner, Managing Director for Cybersecurity, Cisco EMEA will deliver a keynote speech on the 15th of November on ‘Building Security Resilience with Zero Trust’.