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According to a study by Global Market Insights, the cyber-security industry is expected to be worth $300bn by 2024 – more than double today’s figure. The industry is growing rapidly, and new players are continually looking to topple established cyber-security brands. While this growth is an indicator of the industry’s health, greater competition also makes it more important than ever for brands to communicate and distinguish themselves.
The cybersecurity market in the Middle East & Africa is expected to reach USD 2893.40 million by 2026 and register a CAGR of 7.92% during the forecast period of 2021-2026. The value of the Saudi cybersecurity market on the regional level is predicted to increase to more than 21 billion riyals by 2023. The Middle East region is moving fast in adopting transformative digital technologies, through the increasing penetration of the internet, adoption of IoT, and cloud, among others, to enable economic diversification.
“Whist the cyber-security sector has always been competitive, demand intensely accelerated since the onset of the pandemic amidst the shift to remote working. Cyber-security communications is therefore evolving at a rapid rate as the industry becomes more crowded,” explains Abdulrahman Inayat, Co-Founder and Director of W7Worldwide Communications. “PR practitioners in the sector need to be able to adapt and innovate to stay ahead of the curve. The move to virtual industry events and fewer face-to-face trade shows, means cyber-security brands have had to leverage new communications tactics and digital channels.”
Having worked in the cyber-security sector, along with leading regional and global brands, such as Kaspersky, VirtuPort, Dragos and others, W7Worldwide produced a 7-Step guide for formulating a winning communications strategy to rise above the competition.
The first priority is knowing your audience, which means research is key. There are many businesses trying to lead the way, so you need to stay on top of the topics of conversation in your industry, you need to monitor awareness through several channels, such as industry blogs, social media, newsletters, search engines, and the media.
Every cyber-security brand looking to communicate with their external stakeholders needs to look at their digital content. For maximum reach, focus on the digital platforms where your audience is active and engaged. If you are a cyber-security company, you need to bring the user experience into your core communication strategy. Remove unnecessary details, focussing instead on how you are removing complication and threats for them in the post Covid-19 era.
Reach out with educational insights, industry perspectives and informed market predictions to establish thought leadership. Just as other organizations, media and news outlets have had to adapt to remote working. The technology exists to be creative and reach out to the media with virtual press conferences, CEO podcast interviews, webinars and video streaming for effective media relations.
Many cyber-security companies produce communications messages that promote fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD). Instead focus on how your company addresses the current realities in a way that is solution orientated and educational. Humanize your brand and remember that behind every purchasing decision is a human being that a cyber-security brand must reach. These decision-makers are people with real concerns. Cyber-security is now a top priority for businesses, as a breach can have major financial and reputational ramifications. Consumers are also becoming more cyber-security conscious, as conversations around breaches and data privacy regularly hit mainstream headlines.
In a related context and to uplift the cybersecurity industry, The Middle East and North Africa Information Security Conference #MENAISC2022 by VirtuPort, themed “Cyber Fusion - Converging Cyber Intel: Critical Network Infrastructure IT, OT, and IoT” will be held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Sept. 6-7, 2022, which coincides with an unprecedented surge in cyberattacks targeting the infrastructure of many countries posing a threat to 12 vital infrastructure sectors.
Twhe 10th edition of the MENAISC2022 addresses important topics aligned with Vision 2030 including enabling secure digital transformation and a focus on the human capital development of nationals as well as the women empowerment in Cybersecurity. It will focus on supporting companies and government agencies tasked with the protection of critical network infrastructure to reduce the risks of cyberattacks.
The conference will tackle a wide range of topics under the main theme, including Artificial intelligence for a flexible and efficient energy industry, digital transformation, smart cities, threats and risks facing the supply chain and how to confront them, cyber resilience, business continuity, disaster recovery, and safe artificial intelligence in public safety, healthcare, cloud security, and third-party risk analysis in addition to, cyber security integration of critical IT infrastructure, Operational Technologies (OT), and the Internet of Things (IoT).
