Qualys has announced the expansion of its invite-only managed Risk Operations Center (mROC) Partner Alliance with seven new global partners, including Teksalah from the Middle East. This marks a significant step forward in Qualys’ mission to build a robust Risk Operations Center (ROC) ecosystem—making business-aligned cyber risk management more accessible, actionable, and measurable for organizations worldwide.

Built on the Qualys Enterprise TruRisk™ Management Platform, the ROC framework consolidates risk signals across an organization’s digital footprint into a single pane of glass. It enables Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM), cyber risk quantification, and risk remediation, empowering CISOs to translate cyber risk into business terms, ensure audit readiness, and build long-term resilience.

The mROC Partner Alliance equips partners to drive growth by delivering enhanced Qualys-powered ROC services that transform how enterprises measure, manage, and reduce cyber risk. The expanded roster of partners brings world-class expertise to help organizations overcome common cybersecurity challenges such as fragmented tools, disjointed risk response, and limited visibility—enabling a proactive approach to managing cyber risk at scale.

“When we introduced the concept of the Risk Operations Center, we knew it had the potential to redefine how organizations manage cyber risk,” said Sumedh Thakar, president and CEO of Qualys. “Today, with the launch of our inaugural global mROC partners, we’re delivering on that vision. This is a major milestone in building a thriving ROC ecosystem—one that helps businesses around the world take control of cyber risk with clarity, speed, and measurable impact.”

mROC Partners, through a comprehensive suite of risk service offerings, play a critical role in Qualys’ mission to make cyber risk management easier to adopt, more practical to implement, and more impactful for organizations globally. This innovative group of mROC partners has been thoroughly trained and enabled to operate a ROC powered by Qualys Enterprise TruRisk Management (ETM), delivering comprehensive managed risk services. By aggregating and analyzing risk signals from both Qualys and third-party tools, they offer their clients a holistic, business-aligned view of their risk exposure.

“The Teksalah and Qualys partnership is built on a shared vision — to embed a holistic risk-based, proactive approach at the core of enterprise cybersecurity. Through our powerful platforms, intelligent tools, and proven services—covering real-time risk monitoring to effective remediation—we are enabling organizations to manage risk with precision and drive secure innovation. Together, we are transforming our client’s cybersecurity from a control function into a catalyst for business growth and resilience,” commented Murali Konasani, CEO, Teksalah.

The automated penetration testing market was valued at roughly $3.1 billion in 2023 and is projected to grow rapidly, with forecasts estimating a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) between 21% and 25%. By 2030, the sector is expected to reach approximately $9 to $10 billion. The broader penetration testing industry is also expanding, with projections indicating it will surpass $5.3 billion by 2027, according to MarketandMarket.

To support enterprises and government entities across the Middle East, Turkey and Africa (META) with identifying and validating vulnerabilities and reducing security gaps in real-time, CyberKnight has partnered with Ridge Security, the World’s First Al-powered Offensive Security Validation Platform. Ridge Security’s products incorporate advanced artificial intelligence to deliver security validation through automated penetration testing and breach and attack simulations.

RidgeBot uses advanced AI to autonomously perform multi-vector iterative attacks, conduct continuous penetration testing, and validate vulnerabilities with zero false positives. RidgeBot has been deployed by customers worldwide as a key element of their journey to evolve from traditional vulnerability management to Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM).

“Ridge Security’s core strength lies in delivering holistic, AI-driven security validation that enables organizations to proactively manage risk and improve operational performance,” said Hom Bahmanyar, Chief Enablement Officer at Ridge Security. “We are delighted to partner with CyberKnight to leverage their network of strategic partners, deep-rooted customer relations, and security expertise to accelerate our expansion plans in the region.”

“Our partnership with Ridge Security is a timely and strategic step, as 69% of organizations are now adopting AI-driven security for threat detection and prevention,” added Wael Jaber, Chief Strategy Officer at CyberKnight. “By joining forces, we enhance our ability to deliver automated, intelligent security validation solutions, reaffirming our commitment to empowering customers with resilient, future-ready cybersecurity across the region.”

The Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) market is projected to surge from $7 billion in 2022 to $25 billion by 2027, reflecting a robust 29% CAGR, according to Gartner. This remarkable growth highlights the urgent need for integrated, cloud-native, AI-ready security solutions as organizations across the Middle East and Africa accelerate digital transformation and embrace hybrid work models. In response, advanced protection against evolving cyber threats, seamless, high-performance access for users and devices, and security for the use of AI tools have all become critical business priorities.

CyberKnight and Netskope have officially signed a strategic value-added distribution partnership at the CyberKnight stand during GISEC 2025. Leveraging CyberKnight’s proven expertise and coverage, this collaboration aims to empower regional entities to modernize security and safeguard data across all sectors. The partnership ensures enteprise and government organizations can benefit from Netskope’s global innovation and local infrastructure to accelerate performance and get unprecedented visibility into any cloud, AI, web, and private application activity while reducing risks.

As a modern SASE and SSE solution, the Netskope One platform delivers unified data security and adaptive threat protection, combining CASB, SWG, ZTNA, DLP, DSPM and other capabilities with patented AI innovations that detect anomalies, block zero-day threats, and prevent data exfiltration across cloud and AI apps, endpoints, and IoT. With 70% of enterprises in the region now prioritizing AI-driven threat detection and zero-trust frameworks, Netskope’s cloud-native, AI-ready architecture and expansive NewEdge network provide the speed, resilience, and performance required for today’s digital enterprises.

“Netskope goes to market through a network of strategic partnerships and alliances across the region. We work closely with our channel partners who over many years have built strong relationships with enterprise customers and government, who rely on them to recommend and deliver modern cybersecurity solutions, essential to stay ahead of an ever-evolving threat landscape”. “Netskope was founded on the belief that continuous innovation is essential to help organizations modernize networks and security,” said Michael Herman, Vice President Channel Sales, EMEA & LATAM at Netskope”.

“Our partnership with CyberKnight, announced at GISEC 2025, will help expand our regional coverage, help our partners deliver modern cybersecurity solutions and better serve organizations in the region to protect data, securely enable AI usage and build cyber resilience for the future. Cyberknight is committed to building a comprehensive set of skills and services to help partners and customers deploy and deliver Netskope technology at scale. This will enable enterprises and governments to embrace digital transformation with confidence, knowing their users, data, and applications are protected by industry- leading, AI-centric security.”

“Partnering with Netskope marks a pivotal step in our mission to bring the world’s most advanced cloud and AI security to the region,” added Avinash Advani, Founder & CEO, at CyberKnight. “With our focus on technical excellence and Netskope’s cutting-edge platform, we will enable our customers to confidently navigate digital transformation, protect critical assets, and achieve compliance in an increasingly complex threat environment. This collaboration will ensure that organizations across the region have access to market-leading, best-of-breed technology to defend against cyber threats as they accelerate the journey to the cloud.”