Dragos CEO to Saudi Shopper: We continue expansion in the Kingdom to Meet Region’s Growing Demand for Industrial Cybersecurity
Robert M. Lee, CEO of Dragos, a global leader in cybersecurity for industrial control systems (ICS)/operational technology (OT) environments, explained the company’s decision for expansion in the Kingdom is set against the expected significant growth of the KSA’s cybersecurity market at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16.59 percent between 2018 and 2023.
During a special interview for Saudi Shopper, he emphasized that Dragos has been operating in the Kingdom for close to four years and will continue to expand to meet the surging market demand for ICS/OT cybersecurity solutions and to service the cybersecurity needs of critical infrastructure organizations in the Kingdom and across the Middle East.
Lee stated that Dragos’ expansion will allow the company to give more organizations direct access to its industrial cybersecurity technology and services and protect them with its specialized ICS/OT monitoring, threat detection, and response technology and services.
Commenting on Dragos’ plans in the Kingdom in the upcoming five years, Lee said: “We will continue to invest fully, including with our partner SITE, to ensure that there is not only success in the companies through our technology but that there’s also knowledge transfer from our experts to local experts, thus enabling Saudi citizens to become world-leading experts on OT cybersecurity”.
Commenting on the challenges in the Saudi cybersecurity market, Lee commented: “The challenges are similar to anywhere else across the globe with CISOs, CIOs, and IT leaders looking at OT and wondering what path to take. If they take a focused and dedicated approach, scoped out and tailored to OT’s unique challenges and missions, they will be successful. If they simply look to copy and paste their IT security strategies into OT, they will fail.”
Lee pointed to the growth in the Saudi cybersecurity market, supported by Saudi Arabia’s 2020 budget allocation of SAR102 billion ($27.2 billion) for security and regional administration including cybersecurity.
He added: “The KSA has made extraordinary advances in cybersecurity with a global achievement ranking of 2nd out of 193 countries in the world according to the 2021 Global Cybersecurity Index. This represents an 11 rank jump since 2018, and more than 40 ranks since the launch of Vision 2030”.
