SIGN OF THE TIMES- Some 91% of companies in the UAE rely on AI to ramp up their security defenses, focusing on threat detection, response, and recovery, digital communications technology conglomerate Cisco said in a press release. This figure is forecasted to continue rising, with nearly all (99%) companies surveyed intending to bolster their cybersecurity budgets in the coming years.

Robust cybersecurity planning comes on the back of expected threats in the landscape: Some 65% of companies in the UAE faced cybersecurity incidents in the past year that disrupted their business operations, with associated costs exceeding USD 300k for many. 85% expect to face similar incidents in the next one to two years, while 68% of organizations said they plan to roll out significant upgrades to their IT infrastructure over the period to combat security challenges.

AI as a means to combat the cyber talent gap: At the time of Cisco's survey, 90% of companies in the UAE experienced a cyber talent shortage, with only half of the respondents employing over 10 cybersecurity-related roles. The vast majority (95%) of companies are eyeing AI technology integration into their cybersecurity frameworks to bridge over 10% of vacant cybersecurity roles, signaling a positive trend towards innovative tech solutions to address talent scarcity.

Companies like pointed solutions: 82% of UAE companies said that having multiple-point solutions slowed down their team’s ability to detect, respond to, and recover from incidents. Meanwhile, 78% of organizations currently deploy ten or more point solutions in their security stacks, while 26% said they have 30 or more, which, according to Cisco’s analysis “raises concerns.”

UAE ahead globally? UAE companies reported higher interest in enhancing their cybersecurity and IT infrastructure with AI-powered technologies than companies across 30 global markets, according to Cisco’s latest Cybersecurity Readiness Index (pdf). A little over half (52%) of the total companies surveyed said they planned to upgrade their IT infrastructure in the next 1-2 years, while 97% of companies said they would increase spending on cybersecurity in 2024.

Almost nine in 10 companies surveyed — including those based in the UAE — expect their cybersecurity budget to grow by more than 10% over the next year. This comes after 91% of the companies increased their cybersecurity budgets over the past two years, with 61% growing their budgets by at least 20% and 30% increasing them by 30% or more to ward off risk due to digitization, more sophisticated attacks, and financial impact of cyber incidents, which for 12% of the companies surveyed, exceeded USD 1 mn.

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