Saudi to invest heavily in DLP Solutions over next five years

Confidential data protection and overall information security has become ever more important in the Kingdom with an estimated 80% companies of companies without internal data security systems in place, according to recent data from InfoWatch. Without such solutions in place, the risk of data loss continues to grow in line with data volumes which are growing exponentially.

Sectors most vulnerable to data security threats include government bodies and financial institutions, followed by the utilities, oil and gas, telecom, constructing and manufacturing industries. During 2011 to 2012, uptake in the adoption of DLP solutions was highest across the financial institutions, government and telecom sectors, as the market continues to shifts from a resource-based economy towards manufacturing.

Alexander Zarovsky, Head of International Business Development, InfoWatch, said: "As the Arab world's biggest economy and with the Saudi Government's plans for even faster economic growth, there is an obvious need for adopting DLP solutions across businesses in the Kingdom."

"InfoWatch has operated in the Saudi market since 2012 and since then, we have witnessed a growing number of companies deploying DLP solutions - a result of the Government's tightening regulations on IT compliance as well as the increasing number of recent political data leaks. We hope to increase awareness of the need for such solutions, particularly in this market."

During 2012, InfoWatch hosted a Security Summit in Riyadh in collaboration with the Gulf Bureau for Research and Economic Consultations, a Saudi Arabian research and consulting company. The Summit was attended by IT decision makers in the public and private sectors in Saudi Arabia, where they had the chance to discuss the latest trends in the IT security industry, including data leakage prevention (DLP), Governance, Risk Management and Compliance (GRC), Social Media Monitoring (SMM), and the increasing number of solution implementation needs in the Kingdom.