Etisalat UAE and Telefónica, leading companies in the telecommunications sector, today announced the signing of an extensive information security agreement. This alliance will see the two companies collaborate on the development and implementation of a state-of-the-art Security Operations Centre (SOC) in the UAE. The Centre will offer a wide range of cyber security services to organizations of all sizes and is part of Etisalat’s SMART strategy to secure the nation’s public and private IT infrastructure.

As part of this agreement, Etisalat will boost its ‘managed’ security services portfolio through some of the world’s most advanced technology platforms powered by Telefónica. Telefónica services such as Cyber Threats Detection & Intelligence, Persistent Vulnerability Management, Industrial Security and Antifraud will help to tackle threats in UAE’s shifting cyber-threat landscape and close the security skills gap that currently exists in the country.

This agreement builds on existing collaboration between Etisalat and Telefónica, following the signing of a Strategic Partnership Agreement in 2011.

Abdullah Hashim, Senior Vice President, Digital Services at Etisalat, said, “Etisalat is devoted to meet the ever growing security needs of organizations in the UAE and helping them transform to a SMART environment. This partnership with Telefónica will help deliver more reliable and intelligent managed security services and cutting-edge cyber security solutions to our customers.”

He added that, “the advanced Security Operations Centre built under this partnership will offer 24/7 security, monitoring and access to advanced threat intelligence correlations.”



“We are very proud of this agreement”, said Oliver Martinez, Director of Security for businesses in the Telefónica Group. “The collaboration with Etisalat, interconnecting our respective SOCs between Dubai and Madrid, will improve the effectiveness of security services and the successful identification of new threats and vulnerabilities which affect our customers. The agreement highlights the critical role that telecoms companies play when it comes to comprehensively managing the security and integrity of customers' data and operations”.

The executive concluded that the agreement is “recognition of Telefónica’s advanced capabilities and technologies in digital security intelligence, reaffirming our mission to become a digital telco.”