On May 17, the sixth edition of the GCC Security Symposium and CISO Awards 2022 presented by Global CISO Forum and GEC Media Group was successfully held at Conrad Hotel Dubai, UAE. The annual mega event continued its tradition of recognising outstanding individuals and companies in the field of cyber security. The event witnessed participation of top IT leaders and decision makers who exchanged critical knowledge on the modern-day vulnerability landscape.

The cyber security threat environment is aggressive, well organised, and constantly changing. Experts predict that in the next three years IT will continue to prioritise cyber security by taking an economically sustainable, risk-based approach. Governments are also playing a greater role facilitating collaborations and intelligence and knowledge sharing to increase the cyber security capabilities of organisations.

GCC Security Symposium and CISO Awards 2022 official event partners were Cloud Box, Human, BeyondTrust, Cohesity, Infinite Blue, Digital Track | Paesslar, Cloudsek, Multipoints | HCL, RNS, Checkmarx | Cyberknight, Atos, Finesse, Help AG, Valto | Accops, Redington | DigiGlass, and Cybereason.

The sixth edition of the GCC Security Symposium and CISO Awards 2022 was inaugurated by Ronak Samantaray, Co-Founder and CEO, GEC Media Group and Anushree Dixit, Global Head, GEC Media Group where they have welcomed all the honourable guests and speakers with utmost gratitude for joining him in-person.

Line up of speakers and panelists  at GCC Security Symposium 2022

• Dr Marwan Al Zarouni, Director of Information Services Department, Dubai Electronic Security Centre, UAE
• Brigadier Barakat Alkindi, Digital Transformation and Information Security Specialist
• Mark Phillips, Vice President, Solution Architecture, International Markets, HUMAN Security, Inc.
• Panel Discussion on Individual Cyber Security – Empowering to Resist Spear Phishing to Prevent Identity Theft and Ransomware Attacks was joined by Robert John Lourenco, Senior Sales Engineer, Cybereason; Amit Bhatia, Head of Information Security-Middle East, Asia and Continental Europe, Maximus Gulf; Hafiz Sheikh Adnan Ahmed, Chief Information Security and Data Privacy Advisor, Premier Real Estate Group; Shahab Uddin, Group IT Infrastructure and Security Manager, Ittihad International Investment LLC, Arun Tewary, Strategic Advisor and Director, FINESSE; and moderated by Alessandro Bassano, Principal Cyber Security Researcher, Technology Innovation Institute.
• Ian Mckay, Vice President of Global Security Transformation, People 2.0
• Gregg Petersen, Regional Director Middle East & Africa, Cohesity
• Shaytel Patel, VP Technology Audit DP World
• Panel Discussion on Cloud Security in 2022 was joined by Srihari Upadhya, IT Security Assurance Professional; Jeevan Badigari, Director of Information Security (CISO) DAMAC Properties; Dr Fene Osakwe, Information Technology and Business Advisory professionall Rahul Sasi, Executive Chairman and Founder, CloudSEK; Amit Roy, General Manager and Head of Cybersecurity, Middle East Turkey and Africa, Atos and moderated by the Kuldeep Bhatnagar, Former CISO, EAD, Abu Dhabi Government.
• Rajeev Dutt, General Manager – EMEA & APAC, Infinite Blue
• Hanadi Al Yafei, Director of Child Safety Department, Child Safety Department, Sharjah
• Hesham Saad Aly, Sr. Regional Cybersecurity Specialist, Microsoft
• Panel Discussion on Innovation and Future Security in BFSI Sector was powered by Help AG and joined by Hussein Shafik Bahgat, Regional Information Security Risk Officer, Standard Chartered Bank; Hussain Al Khalsan, CISO, Zand; Hariprasad Chede, CISO, National Bank of Fujairah; and moderated by Nicolai Solling, Chief Technology Officer, Help AG
• Shabir Bhat, Regional Sales Director, Middle East Checkmarx
• Vijender Yadav, CEO, CTO & Co-Founder, Accops Systems Pvt Ltd