Interview with Rashed Al Momani, Head of Enterprise for Qatar, Kuwait, Turkey and Africa at Kaspersky

Qatar:

1. How is Kaspersky business doing in the region and in Qatar?

   The Middle East is an important market for Kaspersky as the region continues to digitally transform and embrace new technologies such as 5G, IoT and Artificial Intelligence. Such new technologies expand the attack surface and and provide new avenues for targeted attacks and cyberthreats and we’re well positioned to help governments and businesses embrace the digital change without worrying about cyberthreats.

    

   We have had steady growth in our META businesses throughout the past years, our Q1 of 2022, among other things, shows a 42% YOY growth in our Enterprise segment. Kaspersky has been operating worldwide for 25 years and for more than 10 years in Qatar specifically, and our team continues to grow as our business expands in the country.

    

2. Where does Kaspersky process users' data?

   Within our Global Transparency Initiative (GTI), Kaspersky has relocated part of its data-processing infrastructure to Switzerland. Thus, malicious and suspicious files shared by users of our products in the Middle East, as well as a number of other regions, are stored and processed in two datacenters in Zurich, Switzerland. These are world-class facilities that comply with industry standards and ensure the highest levels of security. Beyond our cyberthreat-related data processing facilities in Switzerland, statistics provided by users to Kaspersky are processed on our servers located in various countries around the world.

    

3. Tell us more about the APTs targeting Qatar?

   Kaspersky researchers have kept a close eye on Qatar for Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) groups and are currently monitoring at least 7 cyber gangs actively targeting the country in recent years. Kaspersky researchers issued over 14 threat intelligence reports as a result of investigations associated with these groups that are primarily targeting governmental and diplomatic entities as well as companies in the telecommunications sector. Kaspersky works closely with local reinforcement agencies internationally such as the INTERPOL as well as with law enforcement agencies in Qatar to provide them with information to track down and prosecute the groups responsible for such attacks.

   Our Global Research & Analysis Team (GReAT) operates at the very heart of Kaspersky, uncovering APTs, cyber-espionage campaigns, major malware, ransomware, and underground cyber-criminal trends across the world issuing more than a 150 threat intelligence reports yearly. Today GReAT experts cover Europe, Russia, Americas, Asia, Africa and the Middle East – which gives us heightened visibility from east to west.

    

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