Meriam ElOuazzani, Vice President, Middle East, Turkey and Africa( META) at Censys, discusses the growing importance of Internet intelligence, the challenge of unknown attack surfaces and why better data and context are becoming critical to modern security operations.

What conversations are you hoping to have with governments, CISOs and critical infrastructure operators at GISEC this year?

GISEC is valuable because it brings a concentration of decision-makers together in one place. You have governments, national infrastructure organisations, major enterprises, partners and systems integrators all participating in the same conversations. As we continue to build our presence across the Middle East, Turkey and Africa, having access to that wider security community is extremely important.

For Censys, those conversations have broadened significantly. We are no longer talking only about attack surface visibility or individual security use cases. We are helping security teams understand their own environments, the infrastructure being used against them and the organisations they depend on. Those organisations may, in turn, rely on third parties, creating another layer of potential exposure. Ultimately, your security is only as strong as the weakest link you depend on.

What I want to understand from leaders at GISEC is where they stand today. Are they still operating with blind spots? They may have a lot of security tools, but are they using the right tools and, more importantly, do they have the right data?

Everyone is talking about AI, but AI is only as effective as the data behind it. Better Internet intelligence can fundamentally improve how security teams operate and make decisions every day.

We want to discuss how Censys can help organisations build, automate and modernise their next-generation SOCs. We also expect questions about what we are doing differently, and GISEC gives us an opportunity to answer those questions and demonstrate how our solutions address the requirements of governments, critical infrastructure operators and enterprises.

How important has the Middle East become to Censys’ global growth strategy?

The Middle East is a core growth market for Censys. From the beginning, one of our key areas of investment has been understanding how we can provide governments and highly sensitive organisations with the data they need to build a strong security backbone.

The pace of transformation we are seeing in markets such as the UAE and Saudi Arabia is remarkable. There is significant investment in cloud, AI, Digital Transformation, digital government and smart infrastructure, alongside the emergence of entirely new economic sectors.

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