The Middle East, with its investment in smart cities and infrastructure, has fueled Milestone’s growth. The company has achieved growth rates higher than the average 8-9% in the VMS sector, meeting the demand for robust surveillance solutions.

“We are proud to participate for the 15th time in Intersec 2025, as a security leader in the transformation of the Middle East towards smart cities.” said Louise Bou Rached, Regional Director of META at Milestone Systems “Our strategy is to strengthen partnerships with integrators, resellers, and end-users to drive growth and innovation and simultaneously expand our presence in the MENA region.”

Milestone’s flagship product, XProtect Video Management Software, and the AI-driven BriefCam Video Analytics platform took centre stage. Integrations with technology partners, including Conexao Technology and CIAS, highlighted the open-platform flexibility of XProtect.

BriefCam’s analytics capabilities allow organizations to analyze hours of video quickly, aiding in emergency response, forensics, and operational efficiency. Milestone aims to meet the rising demand for hybrid and cloud-based VMS solutions, contributing to safer public spaces and smarter business operations.

The thought paper underscores the urgency of prioritising cybersecurity and provides a roadmap for technology decision-makers to navigate this evolving landscape effectively. It also dives into crucial aspects of cybersecurity precautions, providing insights into essential concepts for companies to ensure robust protection against cyber threats.

Below are some key takeaways from the thought paper:
Understanding the Cyber Kill Chain: Identifying the Cyber Kill Chain offers organisations a systematic approach to understanding and mitigating cyber threats. Breaking down attacks into seven stages makes it clear where proactive defences can be deployed to minimise the risk of breaches.

Protecting IP-Network Video Cameras: The paper recognises vulnerabilities in IP-network video cameras and emphasises the importance of implementing strong security measures. Measures such as robust authentication protocols and regular firmware updates are vital in fortifying defences against potential risks.

Securing Video Management Software (VMS): Highlighting the significance of securing Video Management Software (VMS), the paper advocates for proactive strategies like penetration testing and engaging ethical hackers. These measures bolster security and ensure resilience against potential threats.

Responsibility for Cybersecurity: The paper distinguishes between the responsibilities of on-premises and cloud solutions and underscores the necessity of technical proficiency and transparent communication. By understanding their roles, organisations can effectively manage cybersecurity risks.

Openness and Transparency: The paper stresses the importance of openness and transparency in addressing cybersecurity vulnerabilities. By openly acknowledging weaknesses, vendors empower customers to take proactive measures, foster collaboration, and enhance the overall cybersecurity posture.

Addressing the Human Factor: Acknowledging the human element as a potential weak link in security, the paper emphasises the importance of education, training, and balancing security and usability. Prioritising human-centric security practices enhances overall cybersecurity resilience.

Commenting on the release of the thought paper, Jos Beernink, VP of EMEA at Milestone Systems, stated, “In an era where cyber threats loom large, safeguarding your video technology against potential breaches is paramount. Our thought paper is a useful guide for organisations to navigate the complex cybersecurity landscape effectively. By implementing the strategies outlined in the paper, organisations can strengthen their defences and mitigate the risk of cyberattacks.”

Please tell us about your efforts to ensure a sustainable and equitable digital future.
At Milestone Systems, we are dedicated to fostering a sustainable and equitable digital future. Our commitment extends beyond compliance with environmental directives to actively drive positive change. Through innovative data-driven video technology, we empower users to optimise resource allocation, enhancing operational efficiency while minimising environmental impact. By leveraging AI to deliver actionable insights, we enable more innovative traffic management in cities, efficient building utilisation, and reduced energy consumption.

Embracing this sustainable trajectory curtails carbon emissions and fortifies organisational resilience, offering tangible cost savings. As the security industry evolves as a catalyst for sustainability, our relentless pursuit remains focused on shaping a future where technology promotes environmental stewardship and societal equity.

What is your commitment to combat climate change?
We prioritise sustainable practices across our operations, sourcing a significant portion of our electricity from renewable sources. Beyond compliance, we continually innovate our products to minimise environmental impact.

We aim to reduce hardware reliance and optimise energy consumption by integrating energy-efficient designs and promoting data-driven solutions. Additionally, our technology empowers users with insights to manage resources effectively, curbing emissions. We foster partnerships, advocate for eco-conscious policies, and champion a future where our contributions to mitigating climate change extend beyond business, aligning with global sustainability goals.

What are the challenges in combatting global environmental issues?
Tackling global environmental issues presents multifaceted challenges. Political inertia and inadequate policy frameworks hinder concerted global action. Economic dependencies on fossil fuels and reluctance to adopt sustainable practices impede progress. Balancing immediate financial needs with long-term environmental goals poses a persistent challenge.
Moreover, disparities in access to resources and technology limit universal participation.

Climate change is complex and demands collaborative, cross-border solutions, often constrained by geopolitical tensions. Overcoming these challenges necessitates cohesive international cooperation, innovative technologies, widespread education, and equitable resource distribution to forge a sustainable path forward for our planet.

What sort of trends do you foresee in the areas of sustainability and technology?
Anticipate a convergence of sustainability and technology where data-driven video technology will flourish. AI-driven insights from video data will revolutionise resource management, aiding in efficient traffic flow, optimised building utilisation, and reduced energy consumption. Circular economy models will rise, emphasising resource efficiency and waste reduction.

Eco-design in tech products will surge, aligning with consumer preferences for sustainability. This transformative landscape will witness collaborations between tech leaders and environmentalists, driving innovative solutions for a more sustainable future.

How do you envision your role in shaping a more sustainable future in 2024 and beyond?
In 2024 and beyond, we intend to remain at the forefront of catalysing a sustainable future. We will keep developing innovative video technology, which, among others, can help optimise resource usage. Our commitment extends to empowering users with data-driven insights, enabling informed decisions for reduced environmental impact.

Collaborations will amplify, fostering partnerships aimed at advancing sustainability practices globally. We will advocate for policies promoting green technology adoption and continue sourcing renewable energy for our operations. As a driving force, we aim to inspire industry-wide change, steering towards a future where our technological advancements harmonise with environmental stewardship.

How are you aligning your sustainability initiatives with the themes of COP28?
Our sustainability initiatives align closely with COP28’s themes by focusing on actionable steps for climate resilience. We emphasise innovation, developing technologies that mitigate climate risks and empower efficient resource management. Collaborations within and beyond our industry amplify our impact, fostering partnerships to scale sustainable solutions globally. We advocate for policy frameworks supporting green technology adoption, aligning our efforts with COP28’s goals to promote a resilient, low-carbon future.

“Milestone Kite is the ideal choice for single or distributed organizations that need an easy way to centrally manage all their sites in one unified system. Providing continuous access to new features with little or no maintenance effort, it is designed for businesses and enterprises with high value, less complexity, and multiple geographic locations such as banks, retail chains, schools, and residential buildings. Powered by the Arcules cloud platform, Milestone Kite is a simple, secure, scalable, and cost-effective cloud video management solution with integrated video analytics and access control functions. It will be available in early 2023,” the company added.

“Milestone understands and recognizes the importance of offering a range of hybrid-cloud solutions to address different segments of the security market. We have been making investments in VSaaS offerings for many years to prepare for the future. As more small- to mid-sized organizations search for a cloud-based video technology solution that is easy to deploy, simple to use, has low bandwidth requirements, is scalable across locations, and is secure — Milestone Kite becomes the most logical choice. Milestone and Arcules have now joined forces to help serve this segment of the market,” said Thomas Jensen, CEO of Milestone Systems.

“Arcules was created to be at the forefront of innovation with a focus on building a powerful, easy-to-use new cloud offering for smaller organizations or larger organizations geographically dispersed with satellite or remote locations. What we’ve achieved is a cloud-native solution that is future-proof, scalable, and characterized by simplicity. Milestone customers no longer need to physically visit multiple sites or spend time on maintenance, they can simply install the gateway and be done. Kite will automatically integrate access control data with the incoming video data to enable access-based video verification, view camera feeds, and obtain immediate situational awareness,” said Andreas Pettersson, CEO of Arcules.

XProtect Incident Manager
The new XProtect Incident Manager enables users to capture any live feed with a single click. When the incident is over, users can stop the capture and start filling in incident details. Incident types are fully configurable, allowing users to define incident types and details for reporting. Configuration options include free text, drop-down lists, dates and time fields, and several other options. Previously recorded footage can also be added to an incident to strengthen the evidence.

Milestone XProtect Essential+ on AWS
With the new release of Milestone XProtect 2022 R2, the Essential+ version of XProtect will replace the previous version in AWS Marketplace. Users will now be able to have all XProtect 2022 R2 product variants on AWS for optimized storage and transmission. The 2022 R2 version will be added to the previous version in AWS Marketplace, beginning July 5.

Improved License Plate Recognition (LPR)
XProtect 2022 R2 features enhanced license plate-style recognition. Different countries have distinct license plate types and formats for various types of vehicles. The updated LPR feature enables users to recognize, sort, and bundle license plate types by analyzing motor vehicles more efficiently. Depending on the country’s plate style, users will be able to distinguish trucks from private cars, or even police cars, limousines, trucks, and buses from each other. Similarly, some countries have separate plates for gas-driven or electric cars that will now be readily identified.

“To continue Milestone’s strategic journey and to meet Milestone’s massive growth ambition, I’m pleased to welcome Ilijana to our executive leadership team,” said Thomas Jensen, CEO of Milestone Systems. “Ilijana comes with vast experience as a senior industry professional with a strong background in sales strategy and leadership. I’m confident she will be a great asset to Milestone and will lead the go-to-market organization to the next level.”

Vavan has expertise in commercial sales strategy and has worked in senior sales and management roles as well as technical roles. She joins Milestone from UiPath, where she worked as their regional vice president. At Milestone, she will take a hands-on approach to managing the day-to-day business and will help the company scale its sales operation, achieve business excellence, and strengthen the structure for the channel business, according to the company.

Milestone adds that Vavan has a solid reputation in the security and software industry for surpassing sales goals. “I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to join Milestone. The market is rapidly growing, and video management software is not only being used for security surveillance, but also for many new business applications like regulating smart cities as well as the healthcare industry, among others. I’m looking forward to joining a team that is preparing for the future and to embark on the strategic journey with them,” Vavan said.

How has the need for data security and compliance changed over the past year?
Technology has been changing rapidly over the past few years. Digital transformation has fueled the rapid acceleration of new technologies like cloud computing, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications, Internet-of-Things (IoT), and computing by Smartphone apps. Over the last year, the pandemic led to organizations rushing to enable their staff to work from home or remotely where possible. This meant investing in Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) and Desktop as a Service (DaaS) applications.

We also have a lot of people working from home on their personal devices. With the lack of movement, online shopping and eCommerce increased. All these activities heightened the security risks. You can see that, unlike earlier, the digital touchpoints of accessing data have suddenly exploded. Earlier staff were accessing only from the office, and now, there are multiple points. The sudden move to a virtual office has led to inadequate security practices and a lack of awareness and costs of securing devices leading to data security risks. Companies have had shortfalls in implementing adequate security measures and compliance policies.

According to the UAE Government Cyber Security, the UAE saw a 250% increase in cyberattacks in the first year of the pandemic. Online marketplaces expanded with an annual growth of 12 percent. They naturally became the targets of sophisticated cyberattacks in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. A report by Mimecast found an increase of 75 percent in phishing or impersonation attacks in the UAE – with 77 percent of those organizations having taken a direct hit in the form of loss of customers, financial loss, and data loss.

According to an IBM report, a data breach in the Middle East costs an average of $6.52 million. We can clearly see the need to ramp up Data security and compliance measures with accelerating cyber attacks over the past year.

What are the best-practice standards and frameworks that can help companies achieve and maintain data security and compliance?
We would recommend the following measures for organizations to keep their data secure. Awareness plays a significant role. Employees need to undergo security training to avoid lapses from their part. Some of the tips would be:

• Organisations must ensure security awareness training periodically for all the staff about various threats
• Organisations must mandatorily implement policies so users will be forced to change their passwords
• Use and update antivirus and anti-malware software when needed
• Ensure your operating systems are always up to date and update with newer security patches and updates from manufacturers
• Employees must avoid oversharing their screens. During online meetings, they should be extra cautious when sharing their screen
• Beware of phishing
• Do not acquire or use work-related IT equipment without an agreement with your own organisation.

In the case of Video Management Systems (VMS), it needs a few extra measures as follows:

• Awareness: Ensure broader awareness of the need for a secure VMS
• Hardening: Tighten up your Video Management Systems (VMS) as part of an ongoing and dynamic process designed to ensure robustness
• Training: Educate users and colleagues on Best Practice in system set-up, installation, and use
• Privacy: Maintain a ‘culture of privacy’ by ensuring that the system is compliant with local data privacy regulations.
• Regular updates: Keep systems up to date with the latest drivers, patches, and fixes to stay ahead of any hacks

Are there any regional data compliance regulations and frameworks, which companies that handle large amounts of public data need to follow?
There are no specific laws governing the processing of personal data by public sector institutions in the UAE. However, we take personal data very seriously and handle it in the same manner that we would with other countries with laws. In Europe, GDPR is playing a leading role. European Union initiatives protect data in cloud scenarios, e.g., Screms II, which we follow closely to sense early impact for Milestone, our customers, and partners. Another example is GDPR Guidelines and local implementation of rules for storage of video feed.

What, according to you, are the five tips that companies need to follow to comply with data security regulations?
Companies need to understand that data is a sensitive matter and data privacy matters. There can be legal damages in case of non-compliance. We would advise customers to look at data in the following ways that will help them become compliant with data security regulations.

• Data Analysis: Organizations need to understand the kind of data processed. Depending on the type of personal data, there are different principles to follow. In short, the more sensitive the data is for the data subject, the better you need to protect it, and the more specific you need to be about what you are using it for.
• Data Storage: Where is the processed personal data stored? Different regulations may apply depending on which country the data is stored in. For example, when you store data in the US, you are under very different obligations to disclose such data to the authorities than storing data in the EU. Organizations must understand the laws and comply accordingly. Some countries have regulations that their citizen’s data cannot get stored outside their country.
• Legal Requirements: What is the legal permission to process the personal data? This can be either consent from the data subject, the legitimate interest of the data controller, or the fulfillment of a contract with the data subject, etc. To give an example, typically, it would be in your company’s legitimate interest to use such an employee’s photo on an ID card, while you would need consent to publish it on your public website.
• Data Boundaries: Is the personal data being transferred somewhere else? E.g., if the personal information is transferred outside of EU/EEA there must be a legal basis for this. Essentially one must make sure that the transmitted data is under the same level of protection, regardless of where it is stored. It is not necessarily logical which countries are considered secure and which are not. For instance, the EU Commission considers Uruguay and Argentina as secure third countries, while the US is not.
• User Rights: What are the rights of the data subjects? E.g., under GDPR, the data subject has certain rights, e.g., deletion of their personal data and insight in their personal data, and you need to have procedures in place to handle this. We recommend customers seek legal advice to comply with their local data protection and privacy laws or policies for any processing of personal data.

Do you believe the line between data security and data privacy has started to blur?
I would say Data Security protects data from compromise by external attackers and malicious insiders. Data Privacy governs how data is collected, shared, and used. There are data encryption techniques in place that protect data at rest and data in motion. For example, your credit card data is stored securely and is not visible to your e-commerce stores. In the field of video technology, there are also plenty of solutions with the ability to anonymize data through metadata aggregation, privacy masking, data purging, and much more, and thereby video tech can help keep people safe without compromising data privacy.

Continuously, newer techniques are being developed to strengthen data privacy further. Data security techniques are also advancing against new threats, and it is an ongoing process. We can minimize breaches with user awareness and advanced data security techniques. I believe data security and privacy complement each other to mitigate risks and build a strong foundation of trust in the accelerating digitalisation of society.

This will be instrumental to help create the next generation of video software technology that will not only be innovative but for the greater societal good. “Milestone Systems has high ambitions for the future. We need to understand and predict future technologies and megatrends to help accelerate Milestone Systems’ ambitious growth journey. Increasing our focus on research will gear this journey,” said Bjørn Skou Eilertsen, Chief Technology Officer, Milestone Systems.

“Barry is always more than one step ahead when it comes to applying future technologies because of his profound knowledge and ingenuity. I’m confident that Barry will play a key role in taking Milestone’s video software technology to the next level,” Bjørn Skou Eilertsen continued.

Dr. Barry Norton, Vice President of Research, Milestone Systems, said, “Milestone’s ‘Make the World See’ mission is a clarion call to bring together the latest achievements in artificial intelligence from the lab to deliver true situational understanding in the real world. The commitment to deliver such technology in a responsible manner makes Milestone the ideal environment to deliver on this vision.”

Over the years, Milestone Systems has gradually increased investment in research capability and expertise. With the newly created VP role, Milestone Systems will further develop its business and core strategic initiatives to accelerate the company’s ambitious growth journey with more cutting-edge, high-quality product features. The VP of Research will report directly to the Chief Technology Officer at Milestone Systems.