Group-IB teams up with CyberKnight to boost threat detection, client-side fraud and attack prevention capabilities in the GCC region

Group-IB, a global threat hunting and intelligence company headquartered in Singapore, today announced that it has signed a partnership with CyberKnight Technologies, a cybersecurity focused value-added-distributor (VAD). Through the agreement, CyberKnight will provide local banking, government, and private sector customers a wider access to Group-IB’s suite of threat hunting, intelligence, and fraud prevention solutions to support the continuous success of the region’s digitization. The agreement marks another important milestone in Group-IB’s strategy to expand its footprint further in the GCC region.

According to the annual Hi-Tech Crime Trends report 2019/2020, the activity of at least 17 state-sponsored threat actors, including Lazarus, APT33, and MuddyWater, was discovered targeting the MEA region alone. The Middle East remains a testing ground for tools used in attacks on the energy sector from the times of Stuxnet up until now. Every day, the cyber resilience of local IT and OT systems, and the digital assets of banks are challenged by a myriad of threats ranging from fraudsters to state-sponsored adversaries.

To address these critical challenges for private and public sector companies, Group-IB has entered a distribution partnership with CyberKnight. The company will now be able to offer Group-IB’s award-winning fraud prevention solutions: Fraud Protection, its anti-APT Managed Extended Detection and Response, along with a wide range of digital forensics, security audit and cyber investigation services. The CyberKnight team will receive additional technical training from Group-IB threat hunters, and DFIR experts to ensure high-quality support on-the-ground with no delay, reflecting Group-IB’s customer-centric approach globally.

The financial and government sectors in the GCC region are especially prone to be primary targets for cybercriminals, therefore, such institutions must focus efforts on detecting complex threats and blended attacks that combine phishing, malware, and fraud across web and mobile channels. Group-IB’s Secure Bank and Secure Portal in particular are fully equipped to detect the threat of sophisticated fraud to protect online banking, government, and eCommerce portals. Unlike traditional anti-fraud solutions that analyze transactions, Group-IB platforms algorithms start working right from the sign-in stage to detect and prevent dangerous activity before fraud is executed. Where financial organizations have existing transactional anti-fraud solutions in place, Group-IB complements it with real-time detection of attacker logins, social engineering scams, bots, money laundering networks, and the possible infection of a user’s device.

Avinash Advani

Founder & CEO at CyberKnight

As Group-IB continues to reach more clients and partners in the region, the company has recently announced the appointment of Ashraf Koheil to the position of Regional Sales Director in charge of the Middle East, North Africa, and Turkey. Koheil most recently served as Regional Sales Director for Middle East & Africa at FireEye, and previously as Cloud Channel Sales lead in MEA at Microsoft. Mr. Koheil brings a wealth of experience in building partner and distribution ecosystems, as well as a profound understanding of business development strategies, and a phenomenal track of establishing new and growing existing businesses in the Middle East.

Getting relevant information about who or what exactly can impact your organization is a critical task for cybersecurity teams. Group-IB provides a comprehensive toolset to detect complex threats, client-side fraud across sessions, platforms and devices, attacks, and threat actors’ activity before they can harm an organization. We are thrilled to be represented by CyberKnight in the GCC. The company’s local market knowledge includes deep-rooted channel partnerships across the region, extensive enterprise and government customer relationships, and the strong cybersecurity expertise necessary to provide timely technical support on-the-ground. We look forward to CyberKnight’s contributions to elevate the delivery of Group-IB products and services to greater heights.

Ashraf Koheil

Regional Director MEA & Turkey at Group-IB

About Group-IB

Founded in 2003 and headquartered in Singapore, Group-IB is a leading creator of cybersecurity technologies to investigate, prevent, and fight digital crime. Combating cybercrime is in the company’s DNA, shaping its technological capabilities to defend businesses, citizens, and support law enforcement operations.

Group-IB’s Digital Crime Resistance Centers (DCRCs) are located in the Middle East, Europe, Central Asia, and Asia-Pacific to help critically analyze and promptly mitigate regional and country-specific threats. These mission-critical units help Group-IB strengthen its contribution to global cybercrime prevention and continually expand its threat-hunting capabilities.

Group-IB’s decentralized and autonomous operational structure helps it offer tailored, comprehensive support services with a high level of expertise. We map and mitigate adversaries’ tactics in each region, delivering customized cybersecurity solutions tailored to risk profiles and requirements of various industries, including retail, healthcare, gambling, financial services, manufacturing, crypto, and more.

The company’s global security leaders work in synergy with some of the industry’s most advanced technologies to offer detection and response capabilities that eliminate cyber disruptions agilely.

Group-IB’s Unified Risk Platform (URP) underpins its conviction to build a secure and trusted cyber environment by utilizing intelligence-driven technology and agile expertise that completely detects and defends against all nuances of digital crime. The platform proactively protects organizations’ critical infrastructure from sophisticated attacks while continuously analyzing potentially dangerous behavior all over their network.

The comprehensive suite includes the world’s most trusted Threat Intelligence, The most complete Fraud Protection, AI-powered Digital Risk Protection, Multi-layered protection with Managed Extended Detection and Response (XDR), All-infrastructure Business Email Protection, and External Attack Surface Management.

Furthermore, Group-IB’s full-cycle incident response and investigation capabilities have consistently elevated industry standards. This includes the 77,000+ hours of cybersecurity incident response completed by our sector-leading DFIR Laboratory, more than 1,400 successful investigations completed by the High-Tech Crime Investigations Department, and round-the-clock efforts of CERT-GIB.

Time and again, its solutions and services have been revered by leading advisory and analyst agencies such as Aite Novarica, Gartner®, Forrester, Frost & Sullivan, KuppingerCole Analysts AG, and more.

Being an active partner in global investigations, Group-IB collaborates with international law enforcement organizations such as INTERPOL, EUROPOL and AFRIPOL to create a safer cyberspace. Group-IB is also a member of the Europol European Cybercrime Centre’s (EC3) Advisory Group on Internet Security, which was created to foster closer cooperation between Europol and its leading non-law enforcement partners.