Latest news with #RajSandhu
Khaleej Times
12 hours ago
- Business
- Khaleej Times
UAE: Everything is manipulated; AI social engineering is a real threat, experts warn
Cybersecurity professionals should focus on behavioural patterns, as AI-driven social engineering is becoming a real threat, industry executives said at a cybersecurity conference organised by Khaleej Times on Wednesday. "AI social engineering is real. Anyone who has any form of social media, be it Facebook, TikTok, or even LinkedIn, I'm sure we've all seen a video that looks very real. Something wasn't quite right about. We dig a bit deeper and look into the comments, and we see it's deepfake video content, deepfake audio, impersonating something that's deemed to be real. That is tremendously scary," Raj Sandhu, Regional Lead MEA- Principal Solutions Architect, SecurityHQ, said at the FutureSec 2025 conference. "I speak to government entities, enterprise customers, almost every single day, and the one thing CISOs tell me is they're getting pressure from their board to deal with and counter AI social engineering. Now, traditional email content filtering is not going to cut it these days. We need to focus on behaviour — something that my team and I are focusing on. "It is thinking about behaviours – how are users interacting with devices, and how are entities interacting with devices? What is the attack pattern? Because everything is being manipulated, it's hard to see what is real and what is just strange behaviour. So it's important to have that declassification," he said during the conference. Stay up to date with the latest news. Follow KT on WhatsApp Channels. Involving cybersecurity teams early on A large number of public and private sector professionals and officials attended the one-day conference in Dubai. Dr Tim Nedyalkov, Global Cybersecurity and AI Security Expert called for the early involvement of cybersecurity members during automation or when incorporating new artificial intelligence (AI) technology to make the processes faster and better. "When I'm engaged with executive teams, one of my first questions is, how often do you talk to your cybersecurity teams? And then, normally they say, they invite them to board meetings, maybe once every quarter. On average, they spend between four to six hours per year in direct contact with their cybersecurity teams. Why don't you just double or triple the time that you spend with your security teams?" said Nedyalkov, Global Cybersecurity and AI Security Expert. "Cybersecurity is often on the tail end of the equation, which is not ideal. There are many situations where cybersecurity can be involved much earlier in the journey, whether it is in work, automation, or when incorporating the latest and greatest piece of AI technology. When cybersecurity is involved early in the journey, things will always move a lot faster and better," he said during the FutureSec 2025 conference. Dr Nedyalkov said that every single organisation wants to do more and faster with AI, but one of the biggest challenges is the lack of governance or the actual foundations for doing things safely and securely with AI. "I've seen organisations deploying models, for example, with hiring. In some situations, the models cannot explain their decisions. I've seen software engineers deploying models with trained on data that cannot be traced back, and it makes a big difference," he added.
Sharjah 24
3 days ago
- Business
- Sharjah 24
Techies highlight AI-driven innovations at SRTI Park event
Techies and experts from companies like Al Hathboor Bikal, Nvidia, HP and Qamia shared insights into the world of AI and quantum computing, and referred to the pioneering innovations being created at SRTI Park. The speakers shared insights into AI Factory, a structured system for end-to-end lifecycle management of AI deployment and development. It serves as an AI-centered decision-making engine that optimizes operations by utilizing machine learning algorithms. Speaking at the event, Hussain Al Mahmoudi, CEO, SRTI Park, referred to UAE's ambitions to be a leader in AI, and stressed the need for more investment in this field. He said, 'This event is a platform to demonstrate how far Sharjah has come to create innovations for the world. Our aim is to connect these great companies with investors. We are constantly fine-tuning our strategy, and attracting startups in our focus areas, which include healthcare, sustainability, advanced manufacturing, mobility, and transport.' The panel speakers included Ahmed Mustafa, Regional AI Adoption and Development Lead, NVIDIA; Mujahid Khaled, Sales Lead, AI and HPC, MEA, Hewlett Packard Enterprise; Dr. Raouf Dridi, CEO, Qamia; and Raj Sandhu, CEO, Al Hathboor Bikal AHB). The panelists highlighted three elements of building an AI factory: people, technology, and economy. They emphasized the importance of partnerships with data scientists, product managers, and CXOs. They pointed out that the technology stack required for an AI factory includes data centers, intelligent compute stacks, orchestration platforms, and machine learning operations. A particular reference was made to the startups and how they could expand beyond their local markets, reaching global audiences, using these advanced technologies. Among the products in the limelight was AHB's Dialog XR, an LLM-Based Chatbot built entirely at SRTI Park. In a presentation, CEO Raj Sandhu explained that the domain knowledge-based LLM creates a conversational interaction platform that can be used as a multi-disciplinary tool for internal as well as external purposes to elevate organizational performance. He provided insights into how AI factories could drive regional innovation and contribute to globally scalable solutions. Sandhu explained the concept of the AI factory and its focus on data centers, HPC, and accelerated compute. He said the Park's proximity to universities allows for collaboration with global institutions, offering HPC as a service and rentable GPUs. As part of the event, SRTI Park officials introduced the attendees to the ecosystem's infrastructure and offering, and took them on a tour of the facilities, including the SoiLab (Sharjah Open Innovation Lab). SRTI Park is one of the fastest growing technology parks in the Middle East, innovatively and dynamically shaping the future of research and technology. SRTI Park is driving an innovation ecosystem that promotes research & development and supports enterprise activity through the triple helix collaboration of industry, government and academia. It provides an environment conducive to creativity and innovation by creating a sustainable park with world-class infrastructure and services.
