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Evolving Middle East economic landscape poses cybersecurity challenges
OPSWAT seeks to boost defences for critical infrastructure in the region
- PUBLISHED: Thu 8 May 2025, 10:44 PM
The Middle East has evolved significantly from being largely gas and oil dominated two decades ago to spanning across banking, manufacturing, shipping, and other industries today.
All of these now have unique infrastructure and cybersecurity requirements, especially with the rise of AI.
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OPSWAT, a leader in critical infrastructure cybersecurity, is seeking to close the gap in this regard through multi-layered systems. “Many AI tools today analyze network traffic to spot patterns and vulnerabilities. Our platform provides an extra layer of assurance against such evolving threats,” Benny Czarny, CEO, Founder and Chairman of the Board, said on the sidelines of Gisec Global.
Excerpts from an interview.
AI is often called a double-edged sword in cybersecurity. How do you see AI impacting the industry, and how is it integrated into your solutions?
You’re absolutely right — AI is a double-edged sword. While it offers immense advancement opportunities, it’s also a powerful tool for hackers. Our approach to AI in cybersecurity is multi-layered.
First, we focus on data regeneration. By generating new files that extract only the clean data paths from original files (JPEGs, logos, etc.), we make it extremely difficult for AI-based malware to bypass our defenses.
We’re also working with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and have developed unique solutions like an optical file transfer system. It uses a one-way, multi-cable setup that physically ensures data can’t be breached, offering provable isolation.
This is critical because many AI tools today analyze network traffic to spot patterns and vulnerabilities. Our platform provides an extra layer of assurance against such evolving threats.
Cybersecurity tools used to be known for slowing down system performance. How do you address those concerns today?
That’s a great point. Traditional firewalls, for example, are somewhat outdated. They were developed during a time when people used services like Yahoo, accessed networks only from offices, and encryption was minimal. Today, networks are highly distributed and mostly encrypted — sometimes multiple times over.
Firewalls are now overloaded with informatics and vulnerabilities. Some large enterprises use over 3,000 firewalls and maintain rule sets so complex that it’s often easier to breach a network than to manage the firewall configurations effectively.
So, while we’re not saying firewalls should be completely replaced, we do recommend optical path solutions as a more secure and efficient alternative in certain scenarios. These provide better performance and stronger security for modern, distributed systems.
What is your outlook for the cybersecurity market in the Middle East?
The Middle East has evolved significantly. Two decades ago, it was largely gas and oil dominated. Today, the region spans across banking, manufacturing, shipping, and other industries — all of which have unique infrastructure and cybersecurity requirements.
Saudi Arabia, in particular, is making bold moves with AI, and this will greatly shape the cybersecurity landscape over the next several years. Quantum computing is also an area being developed here, and that could significantly advance encryption technologies.
As networks become more complex and data flows grow more diverse, the entire ecosystem — not just oil and gas — will require high-assurance cybersecurity. We’re thrilled to be in the region and are actively seeking to partner with local stakeholders to help protect critical infrastructure across industries.
What are the principal products and services that you’re focusing on?
We focus on protecting critical infrastructure, which is a challenging and complex area — especially when it comes to networking. Our platform connects directly to enterprise systems to capture both data flow and network flow in and out of physical networks. From a technology standpoint, we showcase a full tech stack that includes CDR (Content Disarm and Reconstruction), multi-scanning, and DLP, along with 10 other technologies we’ve specifically built to safeguard critical infrastructure.
We also operate the OPSWAT training academy, where we’ve certified hundreds of thousands of professionals globally, including many from the Middle East. It’s something we take great pride in because we view cybersecurity for critical infrastructure as a holistic mission — and we’ve received tremendous feedback for our efforts.
Associate Editor Somshankar Bandyopadhyay brings more than three decades of experience to the KT newsroom. Currently, he manages the news production of the business section, ensuring that the top economic and business news of the day reaches its readers.