UAE, Saudi Expect Lowest Rates for Cyber and Physical Security Threats: Report
The UAE and Saudi Arabia are among the more cyber-secure countries in the Middle East, having mitigated severe threats such as sabotage, competitor and industrial espionage, and property theft, a new report finds.
“Broadly speaking, it is striking how similar the findings for the UAE and KSA are. Both countries expect to face some of the lowest regional rates across a range of security threats – and both are highly advanced in their use of technology within their security operations,” Mohamed Kamal, Regional Managing Director for G4S in the Middle East, told sources.
According to the G4S World Security Report, UAE-based Chief Security Officers (CSOs) expect the lowest regional rates of internal threats including sabotage, violence against employees and industrial espionage. Meanwhile, their Saudi counterparts anticipate facing the lowest rates in the region for intrusion, competitor sabotage, as well as fraud and theft of company property.
“The UAE is extremely cyber safe and policy action in this area has been decisive and effective – it boasts one of the most robust cybersecurity infrastructure frameworks in the region, as does KSA,” Kamal said.
“We believe – and the data in our report confirms – that CSOs in the UAE are very advanced in their thinking about cyber and its interaction with physical security operations and use of technology.”
G4S surveyed over 1,700 CSOs from large global companies which had a combined revenue of $20 trillion (AED 73.5tn) in 2022.
Last year, more than $1 trillion ($3.7tn) in revenue was lost by companies as a consequence of internal and external physical security incidents. This is similar to the monetary impact caused by cyber incidents, the report stated, revealing that 25 percent of publicly-listed companies reported a decline in their corporate value in the last 12 months following an external or internal security incident.
