Jeddah: The successive developments of cyberattacks and malware pose increasing dangers to the global economy by targeting all industrial systems simultaneously, a global cybersecurity expert warned.

Robert M. Lee, CEO, and Co-founder of Dragos Inc, a global company in the field of cybersecurity, said on the sidelines of his attendance at the World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, that the year 2022 saw a critical development in the threats that target industrial controls systems. The year saw the first malware that is capable of targeting organizations in virtually all industrial sectors.

Because of its ability to scale and span across industries, this new malware, called PIPEDREAM, represents the highest level of threat to critical infrastructure globally. Industrial organizations in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, where digital transformation is driving increased connectivity, are at risk from this type of sophisticated and expandable attack.

Saudi Arabia’s Advanced Vision

Robert Lee spoke about the most prominent cyber threats globally, including those facing the Middle East region. While the threats to industrial systems, including the possibility of increasingly sophisticated and scalable attacks, represent a major threat, Lee praised the region for taking a mature position. Lee said the Saudi government and private establishments are aware of the importance of cybersecurity and prioritizing solutions to protect industrial control systems (ICS) and their operational technology (OT).

"The Kingdom has an advanced vision regarding this issue and the necessary measures to protect society from cyberattacks," he added.

Dragos’s Role

Dragos’s mission is to protect the industrial infrastructure through cybersecurity solutions for ICS/OT, including institutions in the fields of electricity, oil, gas, manufacturing, building automation systems, chemicals, government, water, food & beverage, mining, transportation, and pharmaceuticals.

Lee said: “Dragos is focused on supporting the industrial community, providing its own cybersecurity platform to customers, and working to enhance collective defense in which organizations work together to defend against cyber threats. We are also dedicated to providing resources for knowledge building and training, and knowledge transfer to local experts."

The top Dragos official stressed that the Dragos Platform gives customers visibility into the cyber threats to ICS/OT systems, the weaknesses that they need to mitigate, and the response actions they need to take. In-depth forensics and technology operational manuals help organizations quickly respond to incidents, and Dragos experts are available to help organizations build safe and effective OT cybersecurity programs.

Building cyber resilience

Lee, who is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Centre for Cyber Security (CSS), delineated the Centre’s priorities in facing cyber challenges and improving digital trust in the world: building electronic resilience, enhancing global cooperation, and understanding future networks and technology to identify challenges. and cybersecurity opportunities in the future.

On protecting industrial environments, he advised that technology leaders should establish a path dedicated to the challenges and unique tasks of OT, indicating that if they seek to simply imitate their IT strategies and apply them to OT environments, they will fail to protect their industrial systems.

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About Dragos, Inc.

Dragos has a global mission to safeguard civilization from those trying to disrupt the industrial infrastructure we depend on every day. The practitioners who founded Dragos were drawn to this mission through decades of government and private sector experience.

Dragos codifies the knowledge of our cybersecurity experts into an integrated software platform that provides customers critical visibility into ICS and OT networks so that threats are identified and can be addressed before they become significant events. Our solutions protect organizations across a range of industries, including power and water utilities, energy, and manufacturing, and are optimized for emerging applications like the Industrial Internet of Things (IIOT).

Dragos is privately held and headquartered in the Baltimore-Washington, DC area with a regional presence around the world, including Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Europe, and the Middle East.

For More Information:
Abdullah Inayat
W7Worldwide Marketing Communications Consultancy Agency
Media Relations Director
a.inayat@w7worldwide.com