CISO 50 & Future Security Awards 2025
CISO 50 Forum & Awards 2025
In today's digital landscape, the role of the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) has evolved dramatically. No longer confined to traditional security functions, the modern-day CISO must balance business and technology demands while navigating an ever-evolving threat landscape. Understanding the new responsibilities they must undertake and stepping up to ever-growing challenges are fundamental to their success.
Typically, a CISO oversees four key security pillars: security architecture and engineering, operations, cyber resilience, and regulatory and IT compliance. However, their role has expanded to include responsibilities such as risk and governance, business continuity, identity and access management (IAM), fraud prevention, and more. This broadening of scope underscores the fact that being a CISO isn't just about security—it's about integrating security within the fabric of business operations and strategy.
The CISO 50 Forum & Awards brings together top enterprise IT security leaders and decision makers to recognize and celebrate outstanding achievements in cybersecurity. The 2025 edition of this prestigious forum and awards ceremony will honour those who have not only demonstrated excellence in protecting their organizations but have also driven transformative security initiatives that shape the future of cybersecurity.
This is not just an event—it's a celebration of the efforts and achievements of the cybersecurity community. Join us at the CISO 50 Forum & Awards 2025 and be part of the shift towards a more secure digital world.
Future Security Awards 2025
Celebrating excellence and innovation in the security industry!
The security industry has always been in a never-ending race against its adversaries, but in the last few years in particular, the rate of change has accelerated. While companies continue to invest in emerging technologies such as AI and Automation to support digital transformation, adversaries have been leveraging powerful, integrated tools and capabilities with these very same technologies to cause irrevocable loss of critical data and information. The scope of the threat is growing, and no organisation is immune from catastrophic outcomes. In fact, the unfortunate reality is that even today's most sophisticated cyber controls, no matter how effective, will soon be obsolete.
The Future Security Awards have been introduced keeping in mind this dynamic threat-security scenario. These awards recognise individuals, businesses, vendors distributors and resellers that have risen above challenges and delivered ground-breaking business value through innovative application of security technologies. The 2025 edition is not just an awards ceremony; it is a celebration of the relentless pursuit of excellence in cybersecurity. As threats continue to evolve and become more sophisticated, it is crucial to recognize and support the innovators who are shaping the future of digital security.
Join us in celebrating the achievements and advancements that are paving the way for a safer, more secure world.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Tahawul Tech
an hour ago
- Tahawul Tech
Autonomous AI agents Archives
"We are making the largest private sector investment in state history, while collaborating with Talen Energy to help power our infrastructure with carbon-free energy". Learn more about @amazon's energy investment below. #Amazon #TalenEnergy #tahawultech
Tahawul Tech
2 hours ago
- Tahawul Tech
Will you love your AI twin?
Imagine discovering that somewhere in the expanded universe, a version of you solves problems faster, thinks clearer, and never needs coffee. In Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, alternate versions of one character collide in unexpected, often uncomfortable ways. As AI becomes more sophisticated, we may soon be working alongside digital twins of ourselves—replicas that mirror our skills and, sometimes, outshine them. In our workplaces, AI is rapidly evolving from a supportive assistant to an autonomous agent—and just over the horizon is the emerging concept of a digital AI twin. With today's agentic AI, systems can independently execute an entire workstream, such as project management, with little need for a human in the loop once the training phase is complete. Tomorrow, it is highly probable that an AI digital twin—an AI-powered replica of your human expertise—will work alongside you. What challenges and opportunities could we face as we are twinned with AI? What relationship will you have with your new work twin—love, hate, envy? What risks and opportunities lie ahead in this never-say-never moment? Drawing on human twin psychology, having a twin can be both a blessing and a burden. Just like a human twin can offer emotional support, your AI twin could act as a reliable workmate, reducing stress and enhancing capabilities such as super-fast logical thinking. On the darker side, it could start to feel like it's taking over—performing better, getting more recognition, even overshadowing you. But is this really possible? Let's dig into the tech side. Where are we now? Autonomous AI agents are already in use across the business world and in our personal lives. Think self-driving cars, advanced fraud detection, drug discovery, and customer service chatbots that actually help. Here's how an agentic AI Help Desk Assistant might work: it could personalize support based on what your company knows about your setup. Say your Teams app crashes every time you try to join a meeting. You submit a help desk ticket before a crucial early morning call. An AI agent receives it, reviews your computer's hardware and software update status, researches recent Microsoft bug fixes, identifies the issue from the IT-approved list, and installs the update. Voila! You no longer have to wait for an IT agent to become available—and the AI could fix the problem faster than a human could. Where could we go in the future? In the next 5–10 years, we're likely to see more sophisticated and general-purpose agentic AI systems that can: · Manage more long-term goals, such as planning and executing projects over weeks or months · Integrate deeply with healthcare providers · Oversee smart home systems with advanced control · Support the broader adoption of self-driving cars. Back to Twinning AI agents will also become more capable collaborators, especially in complex fields such as research, healthcare, and engineering. For instance, scientists could soon rely on agentic AI to autonomously explore datasets, generate hypotheses, and suggest experiments. Google is already experimenting with this via AI co-scientist, a virtual collaborator built with Gemini 2.0. So the question remains—will you love your AI twin? As human twins grow up, they learn values, guardrails, and decision-making frameworks from their families. Who will teach your AI twin what matters to you? Will you consent to share the personal information needed to learn from you? Will our privacy standards expand again? And when you leave your job, will your AI twin come with you, or stay behind? As agentic AI becomes more autonomous, it raises serious questions about accountability, transparency, and ethics. We'll need robust ethical frameworks, explainable AI models, and governance systems to match the technology's growing capability. Agentic AI represents a leap forward—unlocking systems that can operate with greater autonomy, adaptability, and judgment. While today's systems are still relatively narrow in scope, the next decade is likely to bring broader, more general-purpose agents that redefine how we think about and interact with machines and how machines can behave on their own. The time to grapple with these questions is now, so we can balance innovation with ethics and ensure that agentic AI aligns with our values and delivers real benefits to humanity. Authored by Tim Walmsley, Head of Transformation and Change Management, APCO MENA, and Kristy Lapidus, Senior Director AI & Digital Transformation, APCO Gagen MacDonald.
Khaleej Times
2 hours ago
- Khaleej Times
UAE: How a new wave of cost-conscious collectors is reshaping art investment market
Some exciting new trends are emerging among collectors and investors in art. Investing in art has become increasingly attractive as a long-term strategy, and billions of dollars are pouring into the sector from private individuals. Last year, the global art market was valued at approximately $57.5 billion (Dh211 billion), although this was a 12 per cent decline on the previous year, according to the Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report 2025. However, while the value of the art market dropped, the number of transactions actually rose, which signifies a shift in the market. It means that more art is changing hands at a lower price point, driven by a more cost-conscious art buyer. The report also found that almost half of online art sales last year were made by first-time collectors. Could we be seeing a new kind of art buyer emerging? While art is considered an 'alternative investment', behind more traditional assets like stocks and shares and property, art investment has an extremely long track record. Auction houses Christie's and Sotheby's were set up in the mid-1700s to value, sell and resell artworks for collectors, investors and sponsors. 'There's growing global interest in alternative investments, especially among younger investors seeking portfolio diversification,' says Matt Sutherland, who heads communications at Masterworks, which offers fractional ownership of iconic, multi-million-dollar artworks. 'Art is gaining traction as a stable, uncorrelated asset — and investors are increasingly drawn to its cultural significance as well as its financial potential.' Artists The first step of art investing is understanding why you want to do it — is it strong returns, personal interest, or both? Like all financial decisions, research is vital. What kind of artist and style do you like, how much does their work cost to buy and does it sell well on the market? Maddox Advisory, an art investment specialist, groups artists into three broad categories. These include 'blue-chip' artists (think Monet or Picasso) who have well-known styles, constant interest from buyers but come with extremely high prices. Next are 'established' or 'mid-career' artists who are still producing art and have a strong reputation in the art world. Then there are 'emerging' artists. Natascha Reihl is the head of business development and private sales at Artemundi, a boutique art investment firm. 'Contemporary/emerging art often promises higher returns but also comes at greater risk: many contemporary/emerging artists have yet to stand the test of time and many will remain a shortlived trend rather than establish a stable mid- and long-term market for themselves,' she says. Established and blue chip artists come with decades of recognition that adds to their long-term market value. However, as Philip Hoffman, the founder and CEO of The Fine Art Group, contends that paying a lot of money for an established name doesn't guarantee a financial return. 'Aside from intricacies surrounding the condition and authenticity of an artwork, values can move in both directions. I tend to ask myself: 'What will tomorrow's generation collect and who, among the established figures, is still undervalued?'' he says. Last year was a tough time for high-end art, with sales of artworks priced between $10 million and $100 million dropping 45 per cent. Whereas works under $1 million saw a smaller decline of 13 per cent, highlighting resilience in the lower-priced segments. But blue chip artists continue to dominate collector interest due to their stable market performance. 'We've observed particularly strong demand for surrealist works in the post-pandemic era — perhaps reflecting a broader cultural desire for escapism and imaginative expression. Post-Impressionist masterpieces, especially select works by Claude Monet, have demonstrated remarkable resilience, maintaining steady price appreciation despite economic headwinds like rising interest rates and market volatility,' adds Hoffman. While established artists remain the cornerstone of art investment, emerging talent is an exciting area that gains a lot of interest as investors bet on the next big star of the art world. Lorenzo Amos, a New York-based painter, has caught the attention of art collectors with works that blend Lucian Freud's psychological depth with Cy Twombly's expressive energy. Some up-and-coming artists adopt sales strategies to attract early investors. John Russo, CEO at Maddox, explained: 'Certain artists use tiered pricing, whereby the cost of an artwork increases as the edition approaches its sell-out, resulting in greater returns for early investors.' Time frame The Fine Art Group, which caters to collectors and investors across the US, UK, Asia, the Middle East and Australia, clearly explains to its clients the time frames associated with different types of artists. 'Ultra-contemporary works can be volatile, often tied to short-term trends (2-3 years),' says Hoffman. 'For stable, long-term growth, we recommend blue-chip artists, where a 5-10 year horizon allows the market to mature.' Surprisingly, art is not considered a very liquid asset – it can be hard to sell. However, this is changing as the blockchain makes it easier to buy and sell fractions of art works rather than whole paintings. The Fine Art Group has a different approach and has introduced art-backed lending solutions that allow collectors to unlock liquidity from their collections within days — without needing to sell. You can buy and sell art in several ways — directly with a dealer or gallery or at one of the many art fairs taking place around the world. Events like Art Basel, Frieze, or TEFAF are popular ones to network directly with dealers and advisors. Art Basel will make its Middle East debut with a new art fair in Doha in February next year. It's the event's first foray into the MENA region and joins its established fairs in Switzerland, Hong Kong and Miami. Another popular route is art auctions, although these are not recommended for first-time investors. Auction prices can be influenced by various factors, and you need a deep understanding of an artist's body of work, along with rigorous evaluation of provenance and condition, to be able to make an accurate valuation. Breaking it up Technological advancements, predominantly the development of the blockchain and tokenisation, have paved the way for investors to invest in fractions of artworks. This allows them to sell their fractions and exit the investment any time, and no longer ties investors to the artwork until its eventual sale. This not only makes art more accessible and affordable for retail investors, but also makes it easier to diversify a portfolio by spreading investment across multiple works and artists. Masterworks, which offers fractional ownership of artworks, acquires blue-chip paintings, files them with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the US and then allows individuals to invest in shares. When the artwork is sold, investors receive their share of the proceeds. 'Every individual who wants to invest first meets with one of our advisors to discuss their portfolios and break down the right amount to invest in the platform based on a number of factors, including liquid assets and tolerance,' says Sutherland. Having an interest and appreciation of art is strongly recommended by experts. This will help you both evaluate artwork and to enjoy the art while it's in your possession. 'I always emphasise that collecting emerging art should be driven by passion: the thrill of witnessing an artist's journey unfold and the opportunity to support the broader art ecosystem. While it can be deeply rewarding, I never recommend emerging art purely as a financial investment,' adds Hoffman.
