META’s cybersecurity agenda is shaped by unprecedented digital acceleration, regulatory dynamism, and the proliferation of advanced threats across IT, OT, and cloud. As organizations embrace AI, platform-centric architectures, and hybrid environments, the attack surface expands and adversaries become more sophisticated—leveraging GenAI, identity compromise, and cyber-physical exploits. At the same time, regulatory mandates around data sovereignty and trust are intensifying. CISOs are challenged to orchestrate holistic defense strategies that unify technology, process, and people: integrating real-time detection, adaptive controls, and continuous compliance, while investing in workforce upskilling and AI augmentation. Achieving resilience in this environment demands a proactive, inclusive approach—balancing innovation, operational continuity, and regulatory alignment across the region’s diverse digital landscape.

Middle East organizations are embedding digital sovereignty into their transformation strategies by localizing talent, infrastructure, and AI systems. Sovereign security platforms ensure sensitive data is stored and governed within national borders, reducing exposure to foreign jurisdiction and geopolitical risks. This approach is central to national security, public sector modernization, and technological independence.

Security service providers in the Middle East are integrating large language models and behavioral analytics to deliver real-time, AI-powered threat detection and response. These systems accelerate threat hunting, automate incident classification, and enable proactive defense against advanced cyber threats, transforming SOC operations and improving regulatory compliance.

Zero trust security is gaining traction in government and BFSI sectors, driven by regulatory mandates and the need for robust data protection. Middle East governments are updating privacy laws and deploying zero trust frameworks to ensure continuous verification, minimize attack surfaces, and comply with evolving regulations.

Cloud security strategies in the region focus on regulatory compliance, data sovereignty, and operational resilience. Organizations are prioritizing local cloud regions, hybrid architectures, and sovereign controls to meet data residency requirements, reduce latency, and ensure visibility across distributed environments.

Cybersecurity leaders are increasingly challenged to demonstrate how security investment translates into measurable business outcomes. This session explores how organizations can operationalize cybersecurity through outcome-based delivery, quantified cyber risk, and resilience-first prioritization. Moving beyond fragmented tools and isolated initiatives, the discussion will focus on building security models aligned with operational continuity, faster recovery, and measurable risk reduction. Attendees will gain practical perspectives on prioritizing investments based on business impact and strengthening resilience through repeatable, outcome-driven cyber operations.

Attackers use AI to strike in minutes. To adapt, we must shift our perspective from manual reaction to automated mobilization. This session demonstrates how to utilize a ‘virtual crew’ of AI agents to ingest intelligence, build attack playbooks, simulate threats to find gaps, and mobilize fixes.

Strategies for securing multi-cloud and hybrid environments globally, balancing agility, scalability, and compliance across diverse jurisdictions and partners. 

As organizations rapidly adopt Large Language Models (LLMs) and generative AI technologies, a new cybersecurity threat is emerging through prompt-based attacks and AI manipulation techniques. These threats can compromise AI behavior, expose sensitive information, disrupt business operations, and erode organizational trust. This session explores the evolving risks associated with prompt injection attacks, jailbreak techniques, and malicious AI interactions, while highlighting their impact on enterprise security and business continuity. The discussion will focus on how organizations can strengthen AI resilience through proactive detection, secure AI design, governance, and risk management strategies.

Attendees will gain practical insights into building resilient AI systems that can withstand emerging threats while enabling innovation, operational stability, and trusted adoption of generative AI technologies.

How adversaries worldwide are using GenAI toscale and accelerate attacks, and how organizations are countering with AI-driven detection, response,and governance strategies

MDR platforms are enabling rapid, automated incident response, reducing manual intervention and improving operational efficiency. AI-driven orchestration integrates threat intelligence, behavioral analytics, and playbook automation for scalable security operations.​