The awards evening, held in Dubai, recognised the leaders, organisations and women advancing cybersecurity as a foundation for business confidence and the UAE’s digital ambitions.
Cybersecurity leadership has become integral to the UAE’s economic ambitions. Growing reliance on digital services, artificial intelligence and connected infrastructure places CISOs at the centre of decisions that influence business confidence, operational resilience and sustainable growth. The role extends beyond protecting systems to helping organisations innovate securely, safeguard critical information and build the trust that underpins a digital economy.
Recognising this expanding contribution, TahawulTech.com hosted the CISO50 & Future Security Awards 2026 on 15 October at The Westin Dubai Mina Seyahi Beach Resort & Marina. Sandhya D’Mello, Technology Editor at CPI Media Group, delivered the welcome note, opening an evening that brought together cybersecurity executives, enterprise practitioners and technology providers for discussion and recognition.
The event connected the challenges facing security leaders with a celebration of professional achievement across the Middle East. Its programme combined keynote addresses, a panel discussion and a fireside chat before the awards ceremony and gala dinner.
Following the welcome address, the keynote programme featured Simon Pamplin, Chief Technology Officer at Certes, where he urged CISOs to prioritise protecting sensitive data while preparing for quantum-related risks.
Pamplin highlighted “harvest now, decrypt later”, where attackers collect encrypted information with the intention of decrypting it when more powerful computing capabilities become available.
Pamplin argued that organisations should consider the lifetime and business value of their information alongside the time required to modernise applications and infrastructure. Cryptographic inventories and assessments remain important, he said, but lengthy remediation programmes should run alongside measures to protect valuable data today.
“Think in a data-centric approach,” he told delegates, advocating crypto-agility, the separation of cryptographic controls from underlying infrastructure, and organisational control over encryption keys. His central message was to reduce the value of stolen information to an attacker, making data protection an additional layer alongside identity and perimeter security.
Protecting data also demands control over the systems that access it, bringing identity, permissions and accountability into focus as enterprises adopt greater autonomy. The panel discussion, “Securing the autonomous enterprise”, brought enterprise security practitioners and technology industry leaders together around a pressing consideration for businesses adopting AI and automation: maintaining effective security and oversight as systems gain greater autonomy.
Participating in the panel were Owen Connolly, Chief Information Security Officer at Talabat; Amit Bhatia, Chief Information Security Officer at Henry Harvin; Ahmad Halabi, Managing Director at Resecurity Inc.; and Wasif Ahmed, Chief Transformation Officer at CYBERAIQ AG.
The panel’s theme reflected the changing environment in which CISOs operate.
Greater automation introduces opportunities to improve productivity and accelerate decisions, alongside questions about access, accountability, and control.
For security leaders, supporting this transition requires a clear understanding of how emerging technologies affect business risk and the ability to make security part of enterprise planning.
Such considerations carry particular relevance for the UAE’s digital development. Secure adoption depends on organisations being able to protect information, sustain essential services and maintain customer confidence. CISOs help create those conditions by connecting technical safeguards with governance, operational priorities and leadership decisions.
Following the panel discussion, Noel Mouwannes, Regional Sales Director at BeyondTrust, joined Sandhya D’Mello for a fireside conversation on the changing demands of identity security. Mouwannes identified evolving compliance requirements, increasingly automated threats and rapid technological change as interconnected pressures reshaping the CISO’s agenda.
Mouwannes urged organisations to maintain clear visibility over human and non-human identities, the systems they can access and the privileges they hold. Agentic AI adds urgency to these fundamentals, he explained, because an assistant authorised to perform a limited task could create wider exposure if its permissions are poorly defined. Replicated across thousands of agents, that exposure could affect operations, profitability and computing resource consumption.
Describing BeyondTrust’s focus on securing paths to privilege, Mouwannes emphasised the importance of identifying excessive access and giving security teams clear remediation priorities. His advice was to keep security practices grounded in the basics: know which identities exist, understand their authority, maintain patches and updates, and retain meaningful human oversight as automation expands.
Recognition at the event spanned three complementary areas: individual security leadership, organisational achievement and women’s contributions to cybersecurity.
The CISO 50 Forum & Awards 2026 celebrated influential cybersecurity leaders whose vision, leadership and execution are strengthening resilience across the Middle East. The recognition underscored the growing importance of executives who can translate complex security challenges into clear business priorities while helping their organisations navigate technological change.
The Future Security Awards 2026 honoured cybersecurity organisations, solutions, projects and partnerships delivering measurable business value. The awards acknowledged the wider ecosystem supporting enterprise security, where technology, specialist expertise and collaboration combine to improve protection and operational readiness.
The Women in Cybersecurity Awards 2026 celebrated female professionals advancing the industry through leadership, innovation and technical excellence. The recognition highlighted the expertise and achievements of women contributing to the sector’s development and reinforced the importance of a broader talent pipeline.
Together, the awards recognised the range of capabilities required to strengthen cybersecurity, from strategic direction and enterprise execution to technical innovation and partnership. The evening also provided a setting for professionals to exchange perspectives, build relationships and celebrate the achievements of their peers.
For the UAE’s cybersecurity community, the occasion reflected a profession gaining greater influence over the direction of business. CISOs are helping organisations make the decisions that allow digital investment to translate into trusted services, resilient operations and lasting economic value.
Source: Tahawul Tech