Maher Jadallah, Senior Director Middle East & North Africa at Tenable, in a conversation with Techitup ME, highlights their unified cyber exposure platform, proactive risk management and AI-driven threat prioritization to help Middle East enterprises secure critical infrastructure from OT to cloud.
Tell us about your GISEC participation what was the highlight this year?
At Tenable, we participate in GISEC every year because we believe the region urgently needs more awareness around cyberattacks. Over the past decade, cybersecurity has gained significant attention, which aligns perfectly with our mission.
Tenable is focused on vulnerability and exposure management. What matters most to end users is understanding how exposed they are to cyber threats whether it’s through modern IT assets, legacy infrastructure, cloud environments, or OT systems. Our role is to provide that visibility, helping them make timely and informed decisions. We identify vulnerabilities and expose the attack surface to empower proactive protection.
GISEC serves as a perfect platform to meet our customers and partners and help them in their cybersecurity journey.
How is Tenable helping organizations in the Middle East shift from reactive cybersecurity to proactive exposure management?
We use a context-aware security approach. Tenable integrates threat intelligence and AI to provide insight into vulnerabilities before an attack occurs. Whether it’s cloud-based or on-premise, we show customers where their critical assets and vulnerabilities lie, and help them prioritize remediation.
Instead of a reactive approach, we guide them on what to fix first based on risk, helping them address the most significant threats before attackers can exploit them.
What notable enhancements have you made to Tenable Security Center?
Tenable has evolved significantly. What was once just a vulnerability scanner for on-premise assets has grown into a comprehensive exposure management platform.
Today, our platform covers IT, OT, cloud, and web application vulnerabilities, including cloud misconfigurations. Customers now want an integrated solution that they can continuously build upon, rather than relying on isolated, point-in-time technologies. Our platform offers that flexibility and scalability, a single interface that gives them a unified view of their entire risk landscape.
What trends are you observing in OT cybersecurity, and how is Tenable addressing them?
Previously, geopolitical conflict was about physical attacks with destructive weapons. Today, the same disruption is possible through cyber means. If you take down an oil refinery or a power grid, the consequences can be far more catastrophic.
Whether it’s a hospital, a smart city, or a utility provider, shutting them down even briefly can have devastating effects. We’ve recognized this shift and focused heavily on securing mission-critical infrastructure. At Tenable, we detect vulnerabilities and misconfigurations within operational technology environments, which are often overlooked yet crucial.
Our platform integrates IT, OT, and cloud visibility into a single pane of glass, giving organizations the control they need to protect vital infrastructure.
How is Tenable addressing cloud-specific threats and misconfigurations?
The cloud offers flexibility, scalability, and accessibility, which is why nearly every organization is migrating. But once assets are in the cloud, they become less visible, and that’s when the risks grow.
Cloud environments are often layered, service over service, and even a single misconfiguration can open a door to attackers. It’s essential not just to adopt cloud for convenience, but to secure it as rigorously as any on-premise infrastructure.
At Tenable, we help organizations identify and address those misconfigurations to prevent silent, hard-to-detect attacks and ensure a secure cloud journey.
