Dragos Continues Expansion in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to Meet Region’s Demands for Industrial Cybersecurity and Digital Transformation

Dragos CEO Robert M. Lee to present keynote at @Hack, region’s largest cyber event

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dragos, Inc., the global leader in cybersecurity for industrial control systems (ICS)/operational technology (OT) environments, today announced further expansion in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, where Dragos has its regional headquarters at the Saudi Information Technology Company (SITE) in Riyadh, in alignment with accelerated growth in the country.

The expansion supports priorities set by Saudi Arabia’s 2020 budget allocation of SAR102 billion ($27.2 billion) for security and regional administration including cybersecurity, as well as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Vision 2030 pillar on National Industrial Development and Logistics. Such initiatives are driving digital transformation and increased connectivity in critical systems including oil and gas, chemical, mining, industrial, logistics, and water. Dragos protects these organizations by providing specialized ICS/OT monitoring, threat detection, and response technology and services.

Growth in the KSA is central to Dragos’s expansion in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), and will allow Dragos to give more organizations direct access to its industrial cybersecurity technology and services so they can respond more quickly to threats, while also developing and training ICS/OT cybersecurity talent to ensure worldwide customer success.

The company’s expansion will bolster its local presence and support a growing roster of customers in KSA. Through the expansion, Dragos will continue to grow its worldwide operations to address the burgeoning global market for ICS/OT cybersecurity solutions and meet the cybersecurity needs of critical infrastructure organizations in all regions and of any size or complexity.

With Dragos, companies in the KSA can maintain comprehensive asset visibility, assess OT-specific threats and vulnerabilities, and respond to threats based on the latest threat intelligence. Their use of Dragos allows them to minimise risk to plant operations and improve security, while also meeting regulatory compliance requirements.

“Like organizations worldwide, companies in this region hold security and availability as top priority and seek a security partner that understands the unique challenges industrial environments present, while also having a strong understanding of the threats impacting operational technology,” said Bruce Niven, Chief Investment Officer, Aramco Ventures. “Dragos is that partner and as a testament to our trust in them, we have invested in the company. We are pleased that Dragos continues to expand its footprint to enable more organizations in the region to secure the critical infrastructure that serves our communities and contributes to the global economy.”

Due to its geopolitical prominence and prosperity, KSA is targeted by the full range of methods including ransomware, the preeminent threat to IT and OT environments in the region. The good news is that the KSA has made extraordinary advances in cybersecurity, with a global achievement ranking of 2 out of 193 countries in the world, according to the 2021 Global Cybersecurity Index, issued by the United Nations’s International Telecommunication Union. This represents an increase by 11 ranks since 2018, and by more than 40 ranks since the launch of Vision 2030, when it was ranked 46 globally in 2017. The KSA’s cybersecurity market is expected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16.59 percent between 2018 and 2023, representing the largest market in the Middle East according to a MarketsandMarkets report in June 2020.

Coinciding with Dragos’s expansion announcement in KSA, CEO Robert M. Lee will present a keynote at @Hack, the region’s largest cybersecurity event in Riyadh, attracting 14,000 visitors. He will join other leaders in the session, Cyber Enabled Journey: Successful Digital Transformation Recipe, on Monday, Nov. 29, to discuss the role of cybersecurity as an enabler in industrial digital transformation.

About Dragos, Inc.

Dragos has a global mission: to safeguard civilization from those trying to disrupt the industrial infrastructure we depend on every day. The practitioners who founded Dragos were drawn to this mission through decades of government and private sector experience.

Dragos codifies the knowledge of our cybersecurity experts into an integrated software platform that provides customers critical visibility into ICS and OT networks so that threats are identified and can be addressed before they become significant events. Our solutions protect organizations across a range of industries, including power and water utilities, energy, and manufacturing, and are optimized for emerging applications like the Industrial Internet of Things (IIOT).

Dragos is privately held and headquartered in the Baltimore-Washington, DC area with regional presence around the world, including Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Europe, and the Middle East.