Alexey Andreev, CTO at Positive Technologies outlines offensive security focus, regional partnerships, and plans to empower SMBs/SMEs and government agencies through education and hands-on cyber defense initiatives
1. Can you walk us through Positive Technologies’ offerings across the Middle East and Central Asia? How does your strategy differ in these regions?
Our strategy and offerings in the Middle East and Central Asia are quite different from those in Russia. In Russia, we’re known for our extensive product line covering nearly every aspect of corporate cybersecurity. Internationally, however, we’ve focused on areas where we can provide the most immediate value, given our brand is still gaining recognition abroad.
Our core strength lies in delivering high-quality offensive security services. These are powered by the deep integration between our expert analysts and engineering teams, ensuring our products are not only well-designed but also backed by practical expertise to detect real-world attacks.
In addition to offensive security services, we emphasize network security analytics. One of our flagship solutions in this domain is a mature product designed to monitor network infrastructure and detect lateral movement—spotting hackers already inside a network as they navigate between systems.
Application security is another key focus area. We offer a dedicated platform for organizations with in-house development teams, helping them secure their applications more effectively and manage their threat landscape proactively.
Lastly, we have a unique offering known as Standoff. It’s more than just a cyberdrill or a cyberrange, it’s a set of immersive services that simulate real-world cyberattacks in a virtual cityscape. It allows blue teams to test their skills against ethical hackers in a realistic environment, enabling defenders to sharpen their capabilities under pressure. This hands-on approach is a major differentiator in the industry and fosters real-time collaboration and learning between offensive security and defensive security teams.
2. What co-operations do you have with governments across Middle East, any plans of hosting a PHDays Middle East version?
We are actively working to expand our presence and build strong relationships across the Middle East. Participating in major regional events like GISEC and GITEX is part of this strategy. We’re also building partnerships with national cybersecurity authorities and have become a partner of OIC-CERT, which we see as a significant milestone in our regional engagement.
Establishing trust with governments and large organizations is a priority. We’re signing MoUs and agreements with institutions including universities, most recently in Indonesia, as part of our educational outreach. Knowledge-sharing is a core pillar of our approach, and we believe education is essential to improving resilience against real-world cyber threats.
As for Positive Hack Days Cyberfestival, bringing a version of the event to the Middle East is certainly on our radar. Events like Standoff could offer tremendous value to the region by enabling hands-on training and testing of defense strategies in controlled, high-pressure scenarios.
3. How are you addressing the cybersecurity needs of SMBs and SMEs in the Middle East, which form the majority of businesses?
That’s a great question. Unlike Russia, where large enterprises dominate, the Middle East has a significant proportion of SMBs. We’re adapting both our technologies and strategies to meet their unique needs.
A major part of this involves making our products MSP/MSSP-friendly. Smaller companies often rely on managed service providers, so we’re ensuring our technologies are effective and easy for partners to deploy and manage on behalf of clients.
We’re also tailoring our solutions to cloud environments, which are widely adopted in the region. Our products are being optimized to work seamlessly with public cloud platforms, so SMBs using these services can benefit from robust security without complexity.
4. Can you tell us about your partner ecosystem and how are you enabling your partners in the region?
We see our partners as an extension of our mission. It’s not just about handing over products, it’s about empowering partners with the right knowledge, processes, and training to deliver cybersecurity effectively.
While many vendors provide tools and leave integration up to the partner, we go a step further. We equip partners with deep insight into our technologies and help them tailor implementations to meet the real-world needs of their customers. This approach ensures that cybersecurity is not only deployed but also fully operational and aligned with each client’s risk profile and infrastructure.
5. While there is no Silver Bullet in Cybersecurity, what advise do you have for businesses to strengthen their defence & offence strategies?
The first and most critical step is for businesses to clearly understand the outcomes they expect from cybersecurity. They need to define the risks they cannot afford, we call it non-tolerable events, and build their security strategies around those insights.
Once the objectives are clear, the focus should shift to implementing the right technologies and processes. However, this isn’t enough. Organizations must continually test their infrastructure in practice, not just through audits or certifications, but through real, simulated attacks.
If you’re not rigorously testing your defences, you risk being caught unprepared. So, either test, adapt, and evolve, or accept the reality that you may not be resilient against today’s sophisticated threats.
