{"id":107578,"date":"2026-09-28T11:50:59","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T07:50:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/techxmedia.com\/en\/?p=107578"},"modified":"2026-09-28T11:51:00","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T07:51:00","slug":"why-cyber-and-fraud-teams-must-now-merge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/techxmedia.com\/en\/why-cyber-and-fraud-teams-must-now-merge\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Cyber and Fraud Teams Must Now Merge"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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Every year, GISEC<\/a> gets a little busier, and a little more urgent. This year, the conversation is dominated by one theme: artificial intelligence, both as a tool for defenders and a weapon for attackers. TECHx Media<\/a> spoke with Ashraf Koheil, Vice President of Sales for META and ANZ at Group IB<\/a>, about the company’s latest cybersecurity innovations, the rise of cyber fraud fusion, and how organizations can build real resilience in an AI driven threat landscape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How has GISEC been for you, in terms of client meetings and the cybersecurity issues coming up most?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

GISEC gets busier every year, and this year is no exception. Interactions with clients are much wider, especially around AI weaponization. Everyone wants to understand how to secure their infrastructure. Partners are flying in from across the region specifically to exchange ideas with vendors and each other. So overall, it’s been a strong year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is Group-IB highlighting at GISEC this year?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A major focus for us this year is our Prediction-First approach to cybersecurity, helping organizations move beyond reacting to attacks and toward anticipating threats earlier. We\u2019re showcasing how our Unified Risk Platform brings together cybersecurity and fraud intelligence, combining capabilities such as threat intelligence, digital risk protection, attack surface management, cloud security, fraud protection and cyber fraud intelligence. This is powered by our global intelligence and strengthened by the local expertise of our Digital Crime Resistance Centers, including here in the UAE. The objective is to give organizations greater visibility into the threats targeting their business and industry, so they can identify risks earlier and act before impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cybercrime and fraud have traditionally sat with separate teams. Why is Group-IB pushing to fuse them?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Think about it this way. Fraud teams usually only find out after the transaction has already happened. But the fraud itself often started six months earlier, through phishing, scam scripts, or specific targeting schemes. That earlier stage is where intelligence becomes critical. By bringing cyber and fraud intelligence together, teams gain visibility across more of the fraud lifecycle, helping them identify suspicious patterns earlier and take preventive action before financial loss occurs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How is Group-IB supporting the regional threat landscape specifically?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In two main ways. First, through localization. Many vendors run one centralized global hub. We do things differently; our research teams build threat intelligence specific to each country. In the UAE, for example, we look at who is targeting the UAE specifically, not just the global picture. That matters because countries can be targeted for their critical infrastructure or unique data sets. Second, we’re a trusted partner of law enforcement agencies worldwide. We do joint research on high tech crime investigations; in 2025 alone Group-IB<\/a> supported 52 law-enforcement agencies globally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many vendors claim to offer threat intelligence, but actionable insight is rare. What makes Group-IB’s approach different?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Open-source intelligence provides an important baseline, but organizations need to go further. Our approach is adversary-centric: understanding who is targeting you, why they are targeting you, how they operate, and what they may do next. We combine intelligence from multiple sources with insights from our investigations and regional expertise to give organizations a clearer picture of the threats relevant to them. From there, they can assess their readiness, identify gaps and take action earlier. Ultimately, resilience is only as strong as the weakest link, so having intelligence that is relevant and actionable is critical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What’s your core message to security leaders about long term resilience?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Resilience comes down to a few consistent steps. First, know your full threat profile, every channel, from mobile apps to supply chains to social media exposure. Since COVID, organizations are exposed through remote access, contractors, digital footprints, and more. If you don’t know your 360-degree threat picture, you can’t plan a proper defense. Second, run fire drills to test your readiness against smaller, medium, and larger attacks. Third, have a clear roadmap to close any gaps fast, whether that’s technology, process, or people. And finally, keep testing. No vendor can honestly promise 100% security. Cybercriminals are creative, and they’re always trying to stay ahead of technology. The goal is to continuously reduce the time between identifying a threat and being able to respond to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How are cybersecurity priorities shifting across the Middle East, and where are the biggest gaps?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I see three major shifts. First is consolidation. Many fast-growing organizations have accumulated dozens of point solutions from different vendors, creating complexity in terms of cost, skills, training and accountability. We are seeing a move toward more consolidated platforms that provide greater visibility across the organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second is skills and awareness. Technology alone cannot solve cybersecurity. Organizations need to continuously invest in their people, build cybersecurity awareness and ensure teams have the skills to respond as threats evolve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Third is AI adoption. Organizations are embracing AI quickly, but they also need clear governance around how employees use it, particularly when sensitive corporate or customer data is involved. At the same time, AI is enabling increasingly sophisticated social engineering and fake identities. Organizations therefore need to think about both sides of AI: how to use it securely and how to defend against adversaries using it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking ahead, how will AI reshape the threat landscape, and how should organizations prepare?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It starts with user education and clear governance. Before employees use AI for productivity, organizations need clear guardrails, particularly around data privacy. Employees may unintentionally expose sensitive corporate or customer information by entering it into unauthorized or improperly configured AI tools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second, organizations and individuals need to be increasingly vigilant about AI-enabled social engineering. AI is making it easier to create convincing fake identities using voice, video and personal information, and the more information people share publicly, the more material fraudsters have to work with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Third, organizations need to use AI on the defensive side as well. When AI is combined with high-quality adversary intelligence, it can help identify patterns and emerging threats earlier, understand how threat actors operate, and give defenders more time to act before impact. AI alone isn’t the answer,the intelligence and human expertise behind it are what make the difference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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