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LONDON: Cybersecurity seems to be the big theme of this year and maybe many years to come.

In a survey conducted in January by the World Economic Forum, the threat of cyberattack was mentioned as one of the most serious threats in the world by business leaders. in the Middle East, this concern was particularly worrying, just behind the price of oil as a perceived risk.

For Karim Sabbagh, it's both a concern and a business opportunity. "The impact on economies and societies is huge. One of the challenges we face as captains of industry and citizens is that we are fascinated by our ability to digitize the elements of our daily lives. But the sad thing is that for every dollar we spend on new digital technologies, we do not spend enough on cybersecurity, "he said last week on the sidelines of the IDEX defense show in Abu Dhabi. .

Sabbagh is CEO of DarkMatter, the digital security company in the Middle East. Among the weapons, tanks and desert camouflage at IDEX, he told Arab News why we should all take the threat of cyberattack more seriously and spend a lot more money defending it.

"I can show you a demonstration on our stand. I can interfere with your transportation network, airport operations or electrical network. All these things are not fiction, they are for real, "he said in front of a backdrop of wartime simulations in the UAE's big defense parade.

"The malicious people will continue to evolve their techniques and their approaches. So the question is not how to completely eliminate the known risks, but how can I prepare for the threats in the future?

"Wicked people" are enemy governments, industrial spies, ransom seekers or "people who subscribe to a cause," he said.

"From what we've seen … state-directed attacks were the most common. In private organizations, it was more about accessing the data and using it to your commercial advantage, "he added, leaving the clear impression that he knew much more than he was willing to say it publicly.

DarkMatter exists since 2015 and is an original idea of ​​Faisal Al-Bannai, the emirati entrepreneur probably best known for the Axiom telecom chain that he has turned into one of the best-known names of the trade. retail in the Middle East.

"He is the sole shareholder, and what he does is pretty unique," Sabbagh said. "Faisal is a very motivated and passionate entrepreneur, with all the features you would like to see in entrepreneurs. He likes to see things and has a very long-term vision.

Sabbagh became CEO of the company last year after a stint at SES, a Luxembourg-based company that provides satellite communications services to the United States and other Western governments.

Previously, Sabbagh, of Lebanese origin, worked for many years in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia as a partner of Booz & Co., a consulting firm specializing in telecommunications and media.

He has a global vision of the digital communications sector in the five business areas served by DarkMatter.

"How can I find technologies, devices and applications that can reassure me that communication on these devices is secure? As we work on these issues, we have also begun to engage in areas of digital transformation and ask ourselves how the government is providing new digital services to all its citizens and residents, "he said.

The interaction of humans with technology is a key element of DarkMatter's work. Sabbagh cites a recent cyber-attack in Singapore, in which the country's medical records were consulted and compromised.

After a long audit, the authorities discovered that there were two main reasons. One was that on the network there were patches and fixes that were not made. So there was something that belonged to the area of ​​known vulnerability that was not supported, "he said.

"The second was human capital. Thanks to human intervention, this attack was made possible, not intentionally but by accident. It boils down to technology and humans, the history of humanity since we invented fire. "

Why is the threat of cyber attacks so high on the list of concerns for the Middle East? Sabbagh examined this issue in a book he had co-authored in 2008 titled "Oasis Economies," which examined the social tensions created in traditional Arab societies undergoing modernization. He feels that the lessons still apply today.

"My conclusion is that when you try to liberalize economies while preserving the social safety net, trying to liberalize the way people live their daily lives while preserving culture, you are constantly trying to manage these tensions." 39 said.

Highly digitized and progressive young Arabs coexist with more conservative forces, he added.

Smart nations and smart companies can only be really smart if they secure their communications.

Karim Sabbagh, CEO of DarkMatter

"In a family, or even a household, you go from a very traditional way of life to that of children astrophysicists: you build probes to land on the moon. I do not exaggerate, "he said.

"We have a highly digitized young population, unlike the aging population of the West. These digital tools are at their disposal and can be very productive, but if they are not used properly, they can be very harmful. So, it does not surprise me that awareness of cyber threats in the region is very strong, and rightly so. "

These problems are particularly acute in Saudi Arabia, which is going through the process of rapidly transforming its Vision 2030 reform plan.

The modernization strategy involves the creation of a series of high-technology hubs such as NEOM, the $ 500 billion megaproject for a highly automated agglomeration in the north-west of the Kingdom.

"In the old world, industrial technology and information technology worked in two different environments, but today there is a big intersection between them," Sabbagh said.

"The bigger the intersection, the more efficient these companies are, but the disadvantage is that there is a bigger attack surface from a cybersecurity standpoint. Thus, the more countries like Saudi Arabia advance in their digitization process, the more advanced they will become, but the disadvantage is that the attack surface is getting bigger. "

The solution, he believes, is "defense, defense, defense" against cyberattacks. "The best attack is defense," he added.

The expansion of DarkMatter in Saudi Arabia is one of the priorities of the end of the year. It involves moving the company out of its headquarters in the UAE and completing existing business centers in Canada, Finland and India. "Saudi Arabia is probably one of the markets we will be looking at very closely," he said.

One of Sabbagh's lines of defense at IDEX was the new version of DarkMatter's Katim phone, an ultra-secure and virtually indestructible mobile device that the company targets in the defense, energy and state sectors. .

The first version of the device has been a great commercial success, but the second is designed to work in even more hostile environments, with the promise of complete data security.

"It is designed to military standards in terms of robustness. Our engineers ran it in a truck and I was not amused until they showed me a video of the phone that would be ready for use later, "he said.

"You can immerse him in the water for 30 minutes and it still works. If the phone detects an attempt at physical interference or via software, the data it contains will be automatically destroyed. It's a step forward for us, "he added, highlighting the" quantum-resistant cryptography protocols "used by DarkMatter.

What do governments, always protective of data security, think about the new device? "The government is one of the users, as well as the companies where critical infrastructure is deployed," he said.

Sabbagh summed up DarkMatter's core business philosophy: "Smart nations and smart companies can only be really smart if they can secure their communications. If they are not safe, I can access their communications, hack them and interrupt their operations. People can give me all the smart slogans they want, but if I can hack you and interrupt your information, it's not a very smart proposition. "