Karim Sabbagh is the chief executive officer of DarkMatter Group, bringing more than 30 years of experience running technology-centric global organisations. Buzz talks to Karim about why Cybersecurity is the big theme of this year, and maybe for many years to come.
How much of a threat do cyber criminals pose today?
It is a phenomenon that we describe as techtension. The more that you drive digitalization, and the more that you expect government and businesses to harness the full benefits of digitalization, then the broader the threat landscape becomes. It is a by-product of digitalization. The threat surface expands. The vulnerability increases.
The other potential accelerator is the digitalization of mobility. These are no longer digital assets sitting in offices: they are mobile. Mobile digital assets tend to be more vulnerable than the ones that are fixed.
At DarkMatter, we believe that you cannot achieve smart and safe digitalization unless you can secure all your data and communications. In today’s environment, organizations are exposed to numerous distinct threat vectors. There could be people who will come in and try to physically access your site. Another threat is phishing: sending an email to trigger something in your system. More threats come from malware, or the exploitation of a vulnerability in your system, or mobile device exploitation. Another threat comes from social networks. The threats are proliferating.
What are the main cybersecurity challenges facing organizations today? How is the threat evolving?
In our recent Cyber Security Report we screened around 800,000 of public hosts in the UAE and discovered that out of these between 270,000 and 280,000 have known vulnerabilities. Of these, 40% of these are severe vulnerabilities. This means that someone could exploit these vulnerabilities to take control of these hosts and domains. They could take control of the entire content of a website.
“You are only as strong as your weakest link Karim Sabbagh.”
Chief Executive Officer, DarkMatter Group
When we perform cybersecurity assessments for clients from the private sector and government, we have also discovered that 93% of the vulnerabilities are due to the fact there was a known software vulnerability that hasn’t been addressed. 83% are the result obsolete and unsupported software. No-one attended to these. Then 77% were associated with weak credentials, e.g., keeping the password as “password” or “1234.” These are basic cybersecurity risks, but captains of industry and organizations are not addressing them. They need to be taken more seriously. It is fundamental to the future.
How can DarkMatter help?
We do two things. We work with clients to provide them with an assessment of their cybersecurity posture, whether it is related to physical deployment on the premises or in the Cloud. That baseline is essential. It helps you understand your current status and where you need to improve.
Then we work with our clients over a period of 12 to 18 months to transform their cybersecurity posture into something that is resilient. I use the word resilient and not secure because there is no such thing as absolute security. The journey is never over. Resilience is your ability to adjust. Resilience is the state of readiness you want these institutions to achieve. They need to be prepared for a constantly evolving landscape.
What services will you be deploying at Expo 2020?
It is a privilege for us to be the cybersecurity provider for Expo 2020. Our role is to secure this event in terms and make sure that we have an understanding of all the digital assets that are being deployed – the entire digital footprint of Expo 2020.
You are only as strong as your weakest link. If something digital is put on the grid and is not secure, there could be a Trojan horse attack. We need to understand what every element is doing in terms of data sharing and operation. We need to be able to intervene immediately.
Expo 2020 will create some unique experiences for visitors where digitally enabled enhancements are going to be central to every visit. Its success depends on the security of that digital experience.
As CEO, how do you plan to grow DarkMatter in the future?
We are a young and ambitious company. We were founded in 2015. We are still considered a start-up, We are not willing to accept the status quo.
We are not bound by legacy technology models. We have our own unique technologies, with a team of 60 nationalities and four different bases in Canada, Finland, India and the UAE. We want to be a global player. We are a young company in a vibrant part of the world and we have the energy and the ambition to innovate and push the boundaries.
We also do not want to be very generic cybersecurity firm. We want to be known for each and every practice that we are going to build. We are already thinking five years ahead: for instance, we are now deploying a crypto protocol that is resistant to quantum computing.
Faisal Al Bannai founded this company four years ago. We are profitable and I don’t have to worry about raising capital. Every dollar that has been generated in terms of profit has been reinvested in the business. As CEO, I can’t ask for more than that 
