At GITEX 2025 Dubai, Maher Jadallah of Tenable discusses unified visibility, AI integration, and the evolution of cybersecurity leadership in the age of digital complexity.
At the 2025 edition of GITEX Global in Dubai, Enterprise IT World sat down with Maher Jadallah, Vice President for the Middle East & North Africa at Tenable, to discuss how the cybersecurity leader is reshaping enterprise defense through exposure management, AI integration, and business-aligned cyber resilience.
Widely recognized as a pioneer in vulnerability management, Tenable has evolved its approach to address the full spectrum of modern attack surfaces — from networks and cloud platforms to OT and identity systems. In this candid conversation, Jadallah shares Tenable’s strategic vision and offers practical insights for CISOs, CXOs, and board members navigating today’s escalating digital threats.
Tenable has long been known for vulnerability management. How has your strategy evolved with the rise of complex attack surfaces?
Tenable has indeed been a market leader in vulnerability management for years, but a few years ago, we decided to take a broader view. We’re now focused on exposure management — helping organizations see and understand their entire attack surface.
You cannot protect what you cannot see. Today’s threats don’t just come from internal networks; they extend to the cloud, identity layers, and OT infrastructure. CISOs and CXOs want visibility across everything that matters. Our goal is to help them prioritize what’s critical and make informed, business-driven decisions based on risk exposure, not just technical metrics.
“You cannot protect what you cannot see — visibility is the foundation of cyber resilience.”
— Maher Jadallah, Vice President – Middle East & North Africa, Tenable
Artificial Intelligence is everywhere — and cybersecurity is no exception. How is Tenable leveraging AI and machine learning to improve risk prioritization and threat prediction?
AI is a double-edged sword. It’s a powerful tool for both defenders and attackers. We use AI and machine learning to enhance our detection, automate vulnerability discovery, and prioritize threats based on real-world risk.
At the same time, we’re also helping organizations understand which AI applications their employees are using and how those might introduce new risks. Some companies, for instance, restrict certain AI tools or only allow approved ones.
So, our AI capabilities serve two purposes: to enrich visibility and discovery, and to defend organizations from AI-driven threats. Ultimately, it’s about staying one step ahead of attackers who are also using AI to refine their tactics.
Many countries, especially in the Middle East, are introducing new cybersecurity mandates. How is Tenable aligning its solutions with these regional compliance frameworks?
Compliance is essential, but it’s just the foundation. Frameworks give companies a baseline for security — the minimum controls they need to have in place.
However, each organization must go beyond compliance. Businesses know their own critical assets and operational priorities, and these vary across industries — oil and gas, finance, government, etc.
At Tenable, we ensure our solutions map to global and regional frameworks, but we also help organizations customize controls that fit their business model. Compliance helps you check the boxes, but true cyber resilience requires contextual, adaptive defense aligned to business needs.
Security discussions have now reached the boardroom, but CISOs still struggle to communicate cybersecurity’s value in business terms. What’s your advice to them?
This is one of the most important shifts happening in cybersecurity today. The language of security must evolve into the language of business.
If you tell a CEO, “You have a critical vulnerability on Asset X,” that might not resonate. But if you say, “If this system fails, your Q4 earnings announcement could be delayed by three weeks,” that’s a message the board understands.
CISOs must translate technical risk into business impact — how vulnerabilities affect operations, reputation, and revenue. At Tenable, our exposure management approach helps CISOs do exactly that: quantify cyber risk in business terms so that decision-makers can act faster and more effectively.
As digital ecosystems expand across cloud, identity, and OT environments, the attack surface grows exponentially. Tenable’s mission, according to Jadallah, is to make that complexity visible — and actionable.
The company’s Exposure Management Platform continuously monitors the full attack surface, correlates vulnerabilities with asset criticality, and provides clear, prioritized insights. This empowers security teams and executives alike to focus on what truly matters — safeguarding critical business assets and maintaining operational continuity.
The Road Ahead: From Visibility to Action
As cybersecurity continues to evolve in the AI-driven era, Tenable is investing in technologies that deliver contextual, real-time intelligence across hybrid environments. By integrating AI, automation, and risk analytics, Tenable aims to give enterprises the confidence to innovate securely. For organizations across the Middle East — from critical infrastructure to financial institutions — this approach is particularly relevant. The region’s accelerated digital transformation requires proactive, unified visibility to safeguard assets, data, and identity systems from rapidly evolving threats.
