Avinash Advani: Egypt is a regional hub for CyberKnight in the Levant and Africa

In an exclusive interview with Alalam Alyoum, Avinash Advani, CEO of CyberKnight, discussed the company’s expansion plans in the Egyptian market and its vision of Egypt as a regional hub for innovation and cybersecurity services. He also highlighted CyberKnight’s investments, its strategy to support secure digital transformation, and how the company is keeping pace with the growing challenges of protecting critical infrastructure amid the rapid adoption of cloud and AI technologies. 

 To begin with, could you tell us about the added value of CyberKnight’s presence in Egypt? And what value does your company expect to gain from operating in a market like Egypt?

Our presence in Egypt adds tremendous value to our regional operations. Over the past few years, Egypt has transformed into one of CyberKnight’s top-performing markets, and this exponential growth is a testament to the talent, energy, and opportunity here. For us, having a representative office in Egypt isn’t just about market access, it’s about building a long-term foundation in a strategic location that connects the Levant and Africa. We see Egypt as the regional hub for innovation, service excellence, and talent development that will support our customers and partners across multiple geographies.

Which countries will be managed through the company’s branch in Egypt?

The Egypt office is technically not a full-fledged branch yet, but instead a representative office, that primarily supports Levant, Egypt, and Africa, what we internally refer to as the LEA region. In Cairo, we’re creating a strong nucleus to drive efficiency, growth, and deeper customer engagement across these territories.

Global companies often perceive emerging markets as outlets for their products. Certainly, this is not the case with the Egyptian market. Could you elaborate on CyberKnight’s direct and indirect investments in Egypt?

We view Egypt not as a product outlet, but as a strategic partner in our mission to secure digital transformation, cloud adoption and remote working. Our investments here are both deep and wide-ranging. Directly, we’ve built a fast-growing local team that spans market development, engineering and technical support. Indirectly, we’ve invested heavily in partner enablement, knowledge transfer, and ecosystem building. We’re committed to long-term value creation in Egypt by developing local cybersecurity talent, supporting national initiatives, and co-creating solutions with our customers and partners.

What is the current number of employees in Egypt? And what is the expected headcount in the near future?

We will soon have 16 employees in Egypt, and I anticipate that we will reach 20 by the end of 2025. As Egypt is a regional hub and Center of Excellence for CyberKnight, I expect this number to double in 2026 as we build out our advisory capacity.

What is CyberKnight’s overall strategy for the Egyptian market?

Our strategy is centered on maximizing value to our partners, customers and vendors in Egypt. That means building deep technical capabilities locally into the channel to help resellers remain differentiated and profitable, while fostering strong partnerships with our vendors by becoming an extension of their teams on-the-ground. We’re here to stay, and through long-term investment, our focus is on being a trusted security advisor to enterprise and government organizations by ensuring our portfolio aligns with Egypt’s digital and regulatory evolution.

What are the key cybersecurity solutions and services that CyberKnight offers to support Egypt and the region?

CyberKnight offers a curated, Zero Trust Security framework that spans data, devices, networks, people, workloads, visibility & analytics, automation & orchestration, and governance. Through our strong vendor ecosystem, we deliver best-of-breed solutions that address today’s most critical security challenges. The full portfolio can be seen here: https://cyberknight.tech/vendors/

Our local team in Egypt also provides additional value-added offerings such as technical presentations, demos, POCs, technical documentation, RFP responses, advisory/consulting, assessments, and technical support to ensure successful deployments.

What role does the company play in helping organizations and governments address evolving digital threats?

We serve as a trusted cybersecurity advisor to organizations and government entities, helping them strengthen their Zero Trust Security postures as they navigate digital transformation. This includes not just technology solutions, but guiding strategy, ensuring readiness against advanced threats, compliance with data regulations, and resilience across hybrid environments.

What solutions does CyberKnight offer that align with generative AI and cloud transformation trends?

We’re actively addressing the new risks introduced by generative AI and the widespread adoption of cloud. Our portfolio also includes AI-powered threat detection and response, data loss prevention for generative AI platforms, cloud security posture management, and zero trust network access. Some relevant example vendors are:

– Accuknox provides cloud infrastructure security and microservices as well as AI security posture management to secure LLMs and GenAI models.

– Min.io supports s3 object storage for AI projects and initiatives

– Netskope helps with the transformation to hybrid environments through their SASE offering.

All these solutions are designed to secure modern, AI-driven and cloud environments while maintaining performance and agility.

– Crowdstrike’s Charlotte AI elevates the analyst experience with a purpose-built security assistant to accelerate cybersecurity and IT with generative AI and agentic workflows that save time while stopping breaches.

– Elastic automates anomaly detection and accelerates root cause analysis with AI for SOC and AIOps, context-aware generative AI and advanced machine learning to reduce labor-intensive troubleshooting and streamline triage activities so teams can focus on innovation and future transformation.

– Ridge Security and Shinobi Security both provide agentic AI bots for penetration testing across network infrastructure and cloud applications respectively.

– Arista provides AI powered network detection and response solution stands out from traditional NDR because it is designed to mimic the human brain. It recognizes malicious intent and learns over time, giving defenders greater visibility and insight into what threats exist and how to respond to them.

Who are your official distributors or partners in Egypt?

We are open to work with all resellers in Egypt that are cybersecurity focused. But, as we do in all countries in the region, in Egypt too, we have a network of Strategic Partners, from where we see the lion’s share of opportunities. These highly capable organizations share our commitment to customer success and cybersecurity excellence. We invest heavily in their enablement to ensure our technologies are delivered with the highest level of expertise and service quality.

Does CyberKnight provide solutions tailored to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), or do you focus solely on large corporations?

We primarily work with organizations that already have foundational security in place and are looking for advanced security to achieve compliance and protect against next generation cyberthreats. Therefore, our portfolio of vendors focuses more on enterprise and government entities, although some of our vendors do scale downstream because cyberthreats don’t discriminate by size, and SMEs often lack the in-house expertise to defend themselves.

How do you evaluate the current cybersecurity landscape in Egypt and the wider region compared to global markets?

Egypt and the broader Middle East are evolving rapidly in terms of cybersecurity maturity. While there are still gaps, we’re seeing strong momentum, especially in government-led digital transformation and national cybersecurity initiatives. Compared to more mature markets, the region presents unique opportunities for leapfrogging legacy systems and adopting modern, zero trust architectures from the outset.

What are the most prominent cyber threats currently targeting organizations in the Middle East?

The region is seeing a sharp rise in ransomware attacks, nation-state espionage, phishing campaigns, and supply chain threats. With geopolitical tensions, rapid digitization and the acceleration of AI usage, attackers are becoming more sophisticated. Critical infrastructure and government entities are particularly targeted, which is why robust threat detection and incident response capabilities are more crucial than ever.

How is CyberKnight keeping pace with the growing challenges of protecting critical infrastructure amid rapid digital transformation?

Protecting critical infrastructure is a top priority for us. We provide solutions specifically designed for OT/IoT environments, such as Phosphorous, Nozomi, txOne and Replil, with more coming soon, but also those that focus on the convergence of IT and OT including Forescout, Xage and Netwitness. Our experts work closely with operators in sectors like energy, utilities, and healthcare to strengthen resilience while supporting modernization goals with best-of-breed OT services. Also, it is important to note that our portfolio has been purpose-built to secure digital transformation across each of pillars of Zero Trust Security.

How does CyberKnight ensure data privacy through its cybersecurity solutions, especially with the implementation of new data protection laws in Egypt and across the region?

Data privacy is central to our Zero Trust philosophy. Our solutions help organizations implement data classification, encryption, access control, and auditing, ensuring compliance with local data protection laws like Egypt’s Data Protection Law. We also provide advisory services to help customers map regulatory requirements to technical controls, so they’re not only compliant but also secure by design. We have a vendor in our portfolio, Ardent Security, that is a full-fledged data security posture management (DSPM) solution that addresses data privacy comprehensively.