GISEC 2025

GISEC 2025 Insights: How Data Sovereignty and Smart Cities are Shaping the Middle East’s Cybersecurity Future 

Penta Security has successfully concluded its participation at GISEC 2025, the Middle East and Africa’s largest cybersecurity exhibition, offering a firsthand look into one of the world’s most dynamic digital markets. The event in Dubai underscored the region’s rapid transformation and highlighted the critical security challenges and opportunities emerging as a result.

The Middle East’s cybersecurity market is experiencing explosive growth, projected at 9.6% annually. Our engagement at GISEC revealed two primary drivers behind this surge: a new regulatory imperative for data sovereignty and the immense security demands of ambitious smart city projects.

The New Regulatory Imperative: Data Encryption as a Mandate A key takeaway from our discussions with regional banks, government agencies, and enterprises was the profound impact of new data protection laws. With regulations like the UAE’s Personal Data Protection Law (PDPL) now in full force, organizations are moving beyond basic security and prioritizing comprehensive data protection. This has created an urgent, compliance-driven demand for robust data encryption. The significant interest shown in our D.AMO cryptographic platform confirmed that securing data at its core is no longer a “nice-to-have”—it’s a foundational requirement for doing business in the region.

Securing the Smart City Vision The region’s ambitious digital transformation and smart city initiatives are creating a vast new ecosystem of interconnected services, applications, and APIs. While these projects drive innovation, they also dramatically expand the digital attack surface. We observed a strong understanding among attendees that these new public and financial sector services require robust, specialized protection from day one. This validated the need for comprehensive Web Application and API Protection (WAAP) solutions like our intelligent WAPPLES platform, as well as agile, easy-to-deploy security like our Cloudbric WAF+ SaaS solution.

A Strategic Partner for a Digital Future The insights from GISEC 2025 confirm that Penta Security’s focus on foundational security—data encryption and application protection—is perfectly aligned with the strategic needs of the Middle East and Africa. Following highly productive meetings with promising partners and clients, we are more committed than ever to expanding our presence and serving as a key partner in securing the region’s digital ambitions.

About Penta Security

Penta Security takes a holistic approach to cover all the bases for information security. The company has worked and is constantly working to ensure the safety of its customers behind the scenes through the wide range of IT-security offerings. As a result, with its headquarters in Korea, the company has expanded globally as a market share leader in the Asia-Pacific region.

As one of the first to make headway into information security in Korea, Penta Security has developed a wide range of fundamental technologies. Linking science, engineering, and management together to expand our technological capacity, we then make our critical decisions from a technological standpoint.

About Version 2

Version 2 Digital is one of the most dynamic IT companies in Asia. The company distributes a wide range of IT products across various areas including cyber security, cloud, data protection, end points, infrastructures, system monitoring, storage, networking, business productivity and communication products.
Through an extensive network of channels, point of sales, resellers, and partnership companies, Version 2 offers quality products and services which are highly acclaimed in the market. Its customers cover a wide spectrum which include Global 1000 enterprises, regional listed companies, different vertical industries, public utilities, Government, a vast number of successful SMEs, and consumers in various Asian cities.