GISEC Global 2026, the Middle East and Africa’s flagship cybersecurity gathering, concluded its 15th edition at the Dubai Exhibition Centre, Expo City Dubai. Organized under the theme Cyber First: The New Digital Order, the three-day event closed with an urgent message for regional enterprises and IT channel partners: preparing for the next wave of disruption requires immediate investments in post-quantum cryptography (PQC), AI-driven operational defense, and industrial security.
Preparing the Channel for Post-Quantum Migration
The dedicated Quantum Security Summit anchored the closing day, pushing the conversation beyond theoretical risks toward commercial and operational execution. Enterprise technology leaders, critical infrastructure operators, and hyperscalers including IBM and Google Cloud examined how regional organizations must approach cryptographic migration ahead of “Q-Day.”
Speakers emphasized that crypto-agility will soon become a critical service line for regional systems integrators and security advisors. Dr. Bushra Al Blooshi, Executive Director of Cybersecurity Governance and Risk Management at the Dubai Electronic Security Center (DESC), detailed emerging frameworks for PQC implementation timelines.
Highlighting the urgency for early market action, Dr. Saeed Aldhaheri, Chairman of the Robotics & Automation Society (RAS), noted, “Quantum computing is bringing the need for post-quantum readiness into sharper focus. The UAE must begin migrating to quantum-safe cryptography now, strengthening crypto agility, national capabilities and talent to protect sensitive data before quantum threats become a practical reality.”
Panels featuring specialists from the Technology Innovation Institute (TII), Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (ENEC), and CPX examined real-world deployment barriers across critical entities, underscoring the demand for specialized consulting and integration expertise.
AI Defense and Machine-Speed Response
Artificial intelligence remained a dominant commercial focal point. With cybercriminals deploying automated tooling to accelerate financial fraud and breach networks, enterprise security operations must scale accordingly. During discussions on modern threat response, Prashant Haldankar, Managing Director and Group CISO at Sekuro, stressed the balance between automation and oversight: “Attackers are already moving at machine speed, and that’s reshaping how we think about defence. At Sekuro, we’re exploring how AI can help our teams and our clients keep pace, while making sure human judgement stays at the centre of every decision that matters,” he said.
In the financial crime track, Yashasvi Yadav, Additional Director General of Police at the Maharashtra State Cyber Department, and Major Khalid Tahlak, Deputy Director of Cyber & AI Crimes at Dubai Police, illustrated how law enforcement is utilizing AI to trace money-mule networks and counter deepfake-driven fraud, warning that organizational speed is the primary factor in asset recovery.
Securing Industrial Environments and Expanding Talent
The final day also tackled operational technology (OT) vulnerabilities through hands-on simulations. In the Inside the Compromise tabletop session led by Captain John Ballentine and Thomas Plank, attendees worked through an active critical-infrastructure incident, underscoring that operational resilience depends as heavily on vendor coordination and rapid decision-making as on deployed tooling.
Concurrently, on the Dark Stage, young security researchers Bandana Kaur and Ryen Agil demonstrated how emerging practitioners are uncovering zero-day vulnerabilities, signaling a shift in how the industry identifies technical talent. Aysha Ahmed BinHaji, Cybersecurity Advisor at Bahrain’s National Cyber Security Center, closed out the human element discussions by urging organizations to move away from task-based compliance toward mission-driven defense across legacy and cloud environments.
As GISEC Global 2026 concluded, the takeaway for the regional ecosystem was clear: securing the digital economy requires joint public-private coordination, early adoption of post-quantum standards, and resilient channel architecture capable of withstanding autonomous threats.
