According to the recent Kaspersky IT Security Economics report, the majority of companies globally find the loss of productivity, securing complex tech environments, and enabling data protection to be the most concerning business issues, driven by growing IT security needs and requirements. In Saudi Arabia, organizations also mention issues with cloud infrastructure adoption as their major concern.

“Saudi Arabia has made significant advancements in its digital economy — positioning itself as one of the most advanced countries in the region and an increasingly important player on the global stage,” Eugene Kaspersky, cybersecurity expert and CEO of Kaspersky, told Arab News.

“This transformation underscores the rising demand for advanced security solutions: a need that grows as the country’s digital economy expands. Kaspersky views Saudi Arabia as a crucial market, and this is reflected in our investment in local talent and capacity building. I always look forward to my regular visits to Saudi Arabia — where I get to witness first-hand the incredible progress the country is making and the impact of our growing operations.”

The Kaspersky IT Security Economics report is released every year to analyze the changes in budgets, breaches and business challenges affecting IT security decision-makers. This report is compiled from interviews with IT and IT security professionals from organizations of different sizes and industries. The survey was carried out in 27 countries across Europe, the Asia-Pacific region, Latin America, North America, the Middle East, Turkiye and the Africa region, including Saudi Arabia.

According to the report, downtime and lost productivity are the most concerning business problems caused by ineffective IT security, an opinion expressed by 34 percent of companies in the Kingdom. They encounter this problem mainly because of long time taken to detect and remediate threats.

Data protection is another important concern that was expressed by 73 percent of companies in Saudi Arabia. Respondents were worried about this because they regularly encountered the physical loss of devices by employees and experienced leakage of data from corporate systems caused by both external and internal reasons.

Securing complex technology environments and ensuring data connectivity were also on the list of key concerns, according to 21 percent of respondents in the Kingdom. Among the main IT issues that cause this challenge, respondents pointed to the rising number of incidents involving non-computing connected devices and incorrect operations of cybersecurity solutions that leave systems exposed. Additionally, difficulties in managing security across different computing platforms play a crucial role in their inability to build a reliable all-encompassing cybersecurity system. About 25 percent of businesses in Saudi Arabia also mention cloud infrastructure adoption as their major concern.

“It is crucial for organizations to safeguard every aspect of their operations from potential breaches. Attackers no longer solely rely on zero-day exploits, as a simple click on a malicious link or a vulnerability in a contractor’s infrastructure can lead to devastating consequences. This underscores the idea that information security should be based on a comprehensive and systematic approach, rather than being limited to the implementation of individual point-specific measures,” said Alexey Vovk, information security director at Kaspersky. 

To protect companies against a wide range of cyberthreats, Kaspersky recommends:

• Use all-encompassing solutions such as from the Kaspersky Next product line, which provide real-time protection, threat visibility, advanced investigation and response capabilities for companies of any size and industry. Depending on their current needs and available resources, organizations can choose the most relevant product tier and easily migrate to another one if their cybersecurity requirements are changing.
• Provide your infosec professionals with in-depth visibility into the cyberthreats targeting your organization. For example, the latest Kaspersky Threat Intelligence will supply them with rich and meaningful context across the entire incident management cycle and help to identify cyber risks on time. 
• If companies lack qualified infosec professionals, adopt a managed security service such as Kaspersky Managed Detection and Response. It will provide the necessary expertise and give them the best possible advanced automated security services. Thanks to its analysis of corporate data gathered every day, in real time, 24/7, it can shield businesses against sophisticated cyberattacks.