European and Asian firms have been working towards establishing themselves in the Middle East
The year 2020 brought a rapid escalation in cyber incident cases throughout the world. Several companies and businesses suffered huge losses in these data breach incidents. But much before this also Middle East has been trying to strengthen their cyber capabilities given the vitality of the region.
To minimise the growing cyber threats, major powers in the Middle East have been outsourcing foreign players. The move will not only put the growing cyberattack cases at bay but also enhance the regional offensive cyber capabilities, making the Middle East an important market for cyber intelligence companies.
On May 10, XM Cyber under the leadership of “Tamir Pardo”, the former head of Israel Mossad, signed an agreement with “Spire Solutions”, the largest cybersecurity company in the Persian Gulf, based in Dubai.
XM cyber is a multi-award winner in advanced cyber risk analytics and attack path management, founded by top executives from the Israeli cyber intelligence community. The firm has offices in North America, Europe, and Israel. Spire solutions, on the other hand, is an Indian-Emirati cybersecurity distributor founded and headed by Sanjeev Walia in 2008.
Sanjeev Walia hired many Indian engineers who were closed to Dubai officials. As a leader in its field, Spire won several honours for solving cybersecurity challenges by introducing the latest solutions in the region.
In December 2020, German Intelligence Analytics Firm — Rola was seen touting for business in teh Arabian Peninsula. The move came after Spire Solutions began marketing defence and intelligence and security tools from Germany’s Rola Security Solutions in January. Similarly, many other European and Asian firms have been working towards establishing themselves in the Middle East.
UK Defence Giant BAE Systems is one such company that made large-scale sales of sophisticated surveillance technology across the Middle East. It exported its technology to Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Oman, Morocco and Algeria.
Indian firm Aglaya, a government surveillance supplier, highlighted for attending ISS World Fair in Dubai a few years back also aimed at establishing in the Middle East. The firm was used by Darkmatter, a UAE cybersecurity company to build a surveillance operation for the UAE and is now in a bad name for its notorious deeds.
Past December, Israel’s NSO Group spyware linked to UAE and Saudi govt was used against Al-Jazeera journalist.
Meanwhile, the measures taken by the foreign firms indicate their rigorous efforts to position themselves in the Middle Eastern markets. An Italian firm — Hacking Team has also been selling offensive intrusion and surveillance capabilities to Middle Eastern governments, law enforcement agencies and corporations. These technologies are further being used to spy on pro-democracy activists in UAE, Saudi, and Bahrain.
