CNME Editor Mark Forker spoke to Rami Nehme, Regional Sales Director, South Gulf, Levant & Pakistan at GISEC 2024, to find out more about the significance of their new partnership with CPX. 
Rami Nehme has been an integral part of OPSWAT’s phenomenal growth in the Middle East over the last few years.
OPSWAT appear to be going from strength-to-strength, and that was further evidenced by the recent signing of an MoU with CPX.
CNME Editor Mark Forker managed to catch-up with Nehme on Day 1 of GISEC, which is being held at Dubai World Trade Centre from April 23-25th, who outlined what the details of their new partnership with CPX will entail – and how OPSWAT are much, much more than a cybersecurity company.
Nehme declared that their new partnership with CPX would drive huge value for both entities – and reinforced how OPSWAT are fully focused on protecting critical infrastructure in the UAE.
“Our strategic alignment with CPX is designed to empower our cybersecurity ecosystem. CPX has been in the cybersecurity business for years in the UAE, and we discovered that there was a lot of alignment we could do together in terms of enhancing the cybersecurity ecosystem across the UAE. Our partnership with CPX will also add huge value in terms of our strategic alignment with the UAE government. Our mission statement is to protect the critical infrastructure in the UAE, and by doing that we can enhance the public sector propositions around critical infrastructure within the cybersecurity ecosystem,” said Nehme.
Nehme also declared that OPSWAT was much, much more than just a cybersecurity vendor.
“OPSWAT is not just a cybersecurity company, we’re much more than that. We are focused on critical infrastructure protection, and we are one of the leaders in terms of protecting critical assets for our customers, whether that is IT, or OT. There has been a merge of IT and OT, and the introduction of digital infrastructure and the sheer volume of digital transformation means there is a lot for us to look at, and in many respects has been ignored for years,” said Nehme.
As Nehme pointed out the nuanced threat actors in the current cybersecurity landscape mean you simply need to have a full end-to-end platform that is both compatible with other vendors and empowers you to protect your most critical assets.
“It’s not about anti-virus, or about plugging in your firewall, it’s about having a full platform that has the value of different engines that provides you with intelligence from multiple vendors. You can then introduce new products like CDR, which empowers and enables businesses to protect their critical assets, whether that be data, or your physical assets and whether that is provisioned in a DMC area, or an Air Gap network. OPSWAT provides a full end-to-end platform for protecting critical infrastructure, and again that’s why we are aligning with CPX to enhance the services we provide,” said Nehme.
Nehme pointed out how OPSWAT’s suite of solutions help protect the critical infrastructure of major industry verticals like Banking and Oil & Gas, who typically used Air Gap networks for protection.
“Traditionally, OT products were protected by an Air Gap network, but then following the introduction of AI and the evolution of cyberthreats, hackers became smarter, and discovered that they can penetrate the OT business, and the OT business is where the critical infrastructure is. For example, the Banking, Oil & Gas and Government entities all had Air Gap networks where their critical infrastructure was being managed. This is where we play a key role, because we are introducing our solutions to protect both the IT and OT,” said Nehme.
Nehme concluded our conversation by reemphasizing how their partnership with CPX is beneficial for both parties.
“The MoU with CPX is just the start of our strategic partnership with CPX. CPX is already playing a key role in terms of helping their customers protect their critical infrastructure, so by collaborating with them makes a lot of business sense for us as we can combine our strengths to really enhance the offering we provide when it comes to protecting the critical infrastructure across the UAE,” said Nehme.
