Across the GCC, cyber risk is accelerating as three forces converge: the explosion of connected devices, the rapid ascent of AI-generated cyberattacks, and the growing availability of plug-and-play hacking kits. The region’s infrastructure now leans heavily on xIoT — an extended network of devices that includes printers, displays, drones, robotics, and a broad spectrum of sensors. Enterprises in the Gulf now average about 13 xIoT devices for every traditional IT asset, with many devices never designed with security in mind. Generative AI has transformed the threat landscape, enabling even less skilled actors to unleash sophisticated offensives. Hackers are increasingly deploying AI-written malware that adapts in real time, crafting polymorphic code and customized exploits through natural language interfaces. This evolving capability lowers the technical barrier to entry and allows anyone with access to malware-as-a-service platforms to compromise endpoints—from a thermostat left online to a printer with outdated firmware or an unsecured smart camera. For CISOs and decision-makers across the region, the message is clear: xIoT represents the most vulnerable flank of our digital infrastructure. Without rapid adoption of intelligent, automated defenses tailored to this unique attack surface, we risk catastrophic disruption to our most vital systems.
The GCC’s xIoT Threat Landscape: Drivers, Exposure, and Consequences
The GCC faces a unique and growing threat surface driven by rapid digital transformation and pervasive device deployment. The explosion of xIoT devices spans critical sectors, including healthcare, energy, transportation, water management, manufacturing, and public safety. Hospitals use connected infusion pumps and imaging systems that must operate in real time; smart buildings depend on digital thermostats, lighting, access controls, and environmental sensors; critical infrastructure relies on embedded sensors to manage oil production, monitor water systems, and support industrial automation. These devices often run firmware rather than conventional operating systems, which means traditional IT security tooling—agents, scanners, and enterprise patch management—often cannot be deployed or is ineffective. The absence of standardization in firmware, protocols, and update cadences creates a heterogeneous environment that is resistant to one-size-fits-all defenses.
In practice, this landscape translates into a daunting operational reality. A single IT professional may oversee hundreds of traditional endpoints, yet applying the same resource model to xIoT would require dedicated teams several times larger. The global cybersecurity talent shortage compounds this problem, making it impossible to manage visibility, containment, and remediation at scale across the expanded attack surface. The risk is not theoretical: in recent years, breaches across the GCC have exploited outdated or misconfigured xIoT devices. Attackers have leveraged devices with old firmware and default credentials to move laterally within networks, turning seemingly innocuous endpoints such as printers, surveillance cameras, or HVAC panels into footholds for high-value targets. The consequences are severe—disruption of essential services, exposure of sensitive data, and erosion of trust in public and private sector digital systems.
The macrotrends fueling these risks are not going away. The region’s smart city initiatives, autonomous systems pilots, AI-driven healthcare projects, and hyper-connected business models all rely on an expanding universe of device types. Each new device adds a potential entry point for threat actors, increasing the need for governance, monitoring, and rapid remediation. The practical implication is that without a principled approach to xIoT security, the Gulf risks not merely slower innovation but visible, systemic vulnerability across critical national assets and economic lifelines.
Generative AI and the Attack Surface: Real-Time Adaptation and Escalating Risk
Generative AI has become a force multiplier for cyber adversaries, reshaping how malicious actors plan, execute, and adapt attacks. AI-written malware can autonomously modify its behavior in response to defenses, environments, and target configurations. Attackers can leverage natural language interfaces to generate novel exploits, customize payloads, and craft attack strategies that are tailored to specific devices and network contexts. This capability drastically reduces the time required to breach systems and expands the pool of potential targets.
The practical impact is broad. An unsecured thermostat in an office building can become a pivot, enabling lateral movement to more sensitive devices. A printer with outdated firmware may act as a gateway into a corporate network or a building automation system. A smart camera with exposed ports can become a foothold for surveillance and data exfiltration. In a landscape where millions of devices are connected across the GCC, AI-enabled threats magnify the risk by increasing automation, speed, and adaptability.
CISOs and policy makers face a pressing imperative: integrate defensive capabilities that can keep pace with AI-enabled offensives. This means shifting from reactive, signature-based protections to proactive, AI-powered defenses that can anticipate, detect, and neutralize evolving threats at machine speed. It also requires new considerations around data governance, model risk, and the potential for adversarial manipulation of AI systems themselves. The overarching conclusion is that AI-driven threat actors will continue to push the boundary of what is possible, and defenses must rise correspondingly to protect critical xIoT surfaces.
Why xIoT Security is Harder and More Urgent Than Traditional IT Security
Securely managing xIoT presents challenges that extend far beyond those of traditional IT environments. The core difficulties stem from fragmentation, scale, and the absence of universal standards. While traditional IT environments often revolve around a handful of major vendors with compatible update mechanisms, xIoT ecosystems can include devices from hundreds of manufacturers. Each device may run its own firmware, support different communication protocols, and follow a disparate update cadence. There is no universal standard, no single language for interoperability, and no margin for error when coordinating security across such a diverse landscape.
The sheer number of devices compounds the problem. In critical sectors like healthcare, energy, and smart city infrastructure, devices do not run conventional operating systems. Firmware-level security governs their operation, and traditional endpoint security tools—agents, scanners, and centralized patch management—often cannot be deployed, or they are ineffective due to network isolation, embedded architectures, or vendor lock-in. The consequence is a widespread capability gap: security teams cannot instrument their networks at the same granularity they do with conventional IT assets, creating hidden attack surfaces and slow remediation cycles.
Operationally, the risk profile escalates dramatically. The number of devices to monitor expands from hundreds to millions, but skilled security staff and automated tooling do not scale linearly. A single administrator may manage dozens or hundreds of traditional endpoints; applying the same staffing model to xIoT would necessitate teams of hundreds or thousands. The global shortage of cybersecurity talent makes this unsustainable, creating a structural bottleneck in risk reduction and threat containment. In practice, this means that many organizations are left with partial visibility, delayed patching, and misconfigurations that persist for extended periods—precisely the situation that threat actors exploit.
The risk manifests across multiple layers. Devices such as infusion pumps, imaging systems, HVAC panels, lighting controls, doors and access readers, and industrial sensors all contribute to a tapestry of potential security gaps. These devices often run on firmware rather than robust operating systems, complicating patch management and vulnerability remediation. You cannot easily install an agent on every device, nor can you rely on conventional network scanners that assume standard endpoints. Unmanaged or forgotten devices can linger in networks for months or longer, creating silent corridors for attackers.
The practical implications are stark. In 2025, the GCC experienced breaches that leveraged outdated firmware and default credentials to move laterally across networks. Harmless-seeming devices—a printer here, a CCTV camera there, a smart HVAC control trying to be helpful—became gateways for attackers seeking access to more sensitive systems. The findings from multiple regional incidents underscored a common theme: when devices sit without proper governance, they become the soft underbelly of critical operations. The upshot is that securing xIoT requires not only more advanced tools but a fundamental rethinking of governance, policy enforcement, and continuous auditing across a wide and varied device landscape.
Intelligent Active Discovery and the Phosphorus Platform: A New Paradigm for xIoT Security
Phosphorus has developed a platform designed to address the distinctive challenges of xIoT security with a focus on simplicity, scalability, and surgical precision. The platform is agentless, requiring no additional hardware, no deployment of software agents, and no reliance on continuous mirrored traffic to monitor and protect the network. Instead, it uses Intelligent Active Discovery to safely scan millions of IP addresses in a matter of hours, identifying every connected device across the network with depth and speed that traditional approaches cannot match. For each endpoint, the system interrogates the protocol it uses and determines whether default credentials are in place. In a single sweep, it constructs comprehensive device profiles that capture vendor, model, firmware version, and exposed ports, delivering an accurate, real-time map of the extended IoT (xIoT) environment.
The next layer of value is operational: the platform enables scalable remediation across the entire xIoT ecosystem. It can patch firmware, rotate credentials, correct misconfigurations, and tighten security controls at machine scale. The approach emphasizes automated, non-disruptive interventions that protect operations while reducing risk. The idea is not to replace human expertise but to augment it—empowering security and IT teams to shift from reactive firefighting to proactive risk management. With precise device identification and contextual risk assessment, teams can prioritize vulnerability remediation, ensure that critical assets are patched before attackers can exploit them, and reduce the attack surface across millions of devices.
Phosphorus’ vision extends beyond detection and remediation. The platform is designed to support a governance-rich security model that aligns with nationwide ambitions for smart cities, AI-driven healthcare, and highly integrated commercial ecosystems. It acknowledges the scale of the challenge—the Gulf’s xIoT landscape includes more than one million device types—and delivers a governance framework that supports auditing, policy enforcement, and scalable risk reduction. The platform’s capabilities translate into tangible outcomes: full visibility into the device landscape, accelerated control and remediation, and measurable reductions in risk. For security leaders, this represents a shift from tactical, one-off patching to strategic, continuous posture management at scale.
From a workforce perspective, automated operations redefine roles and capabilities. When routine, repetitive tasks are automated, technicians can devote more time to strategic activities such as risk assessment, architecture planning, and proactive hardening. The result is a workforce that moves from overwhelmed to effective, with the capacity to manage millions of devices without becoming a bottleneck. This is particularly important for the GCC as nations accelerate their digital agendas and pursue resilient, cyber-physical infrastructures that can withstand escalating threats while sustaining public services and economic activity.
The Gulf’s Smart Cities and xIoT: A Digital Backbone for a Modern Nation
Over the past decade, the Gulf region has established itself as a global leader in smart services and city-scale digital innovation. Airports in particular have emerged as showcase ecosystems for xIoT synergy—more than transit hubs, they are living labs of biometric check-ins, AI-powered immigration gates, real-time baggage tracking, autonomous kiosks, and integrated security and operations platforms. The dense network of devices powers a frictionless travel experience, demonstrating how xIoT can be orchestrated to support national ambition and international competitiveness. The airport ecosystem thus serves as a microcosm of broader smart city ambitions: when devices, data, and people are connected in a coordinated way, cities can deliver faster services, improved safety, and more efficient operations.
The Gulf’s smart city landscape extends far beyond airports. Across Riyadh, Jeddah, Dubai, Doha, and Abu Dhabi, IoT and xIoT devices form the digital backbone that enables adaptive traffic systems, predictive energy management, waste collection optimization, water conservation, environmental sensing, and digital public safety networks. Connected streetlights respond to activity, smart parking systems guide drivers to available spaces, and sensors monitor energy grids and water systems in real time. AI systems coordinate municipal services dynamically, aligning with a new standard for digital living that is resilient, responsive, and ready for future challenges.
This evolution did not happen by accident. It has been driven by strategic investments, public-private partnerships, and visionary leadership that view digital infrastructure not merely as a utility but as a national asset. The Gulf’s approach to smart cities emphasizes interoperability, data-driven decision-making, and the deployment of secure, scalable solutions that can adapt to changing conditions. The result is a connected environment where public services, transportation, utilities, and emergency response can operate more efficiently, securely, and transparently. It is a blueprint for how xIoT can underpin economic diversification, enhance quality of life, and support a competitive regional position in a rapidly changing global landscape.
Governance and the Critical Imperative to Secure xIoT
Regional leaders have demonstrated a proactive stance on cybersecurity, recognizing that governance, auditing, and enforceable policies are essential to protecting national digital infrastructures. Saudi Arabia’s National Cybersecurity Authority has issued guidelines and controls for IoT security, including IoT-specific cybersecurity guidelines, essential cybersecurity controls, and OT cybersecurity controls. In parallel, the UAE’s Cybersecurity Council is leading initiatives to protect digital services and critical infrastructure, underscoring a regional emphasis on aligning security practices with national priorities. These regulatory and governance efforts set a foundation for consistent security expectations across sectors and jurisdictions, helping to raise the baseline for xIoT security.
However, the threat landscape continues to evolve. With smart cities, autonomous systems, AI-enhanced healthcare, and ultra-connected businesses increasingly powered by xIoT, every new device becomes a potential vulnerability. This reality calls for more robust governance, including continuous auditing, enforceable policies, and comprehensive regulatory frameworks that can scale alongside rapid technology adoption. To be effective, governance must address the entire lifecycle of devices—from procurement and onboarding to maintenance, firmware updates, and end-of-life disposal. It must account for supply chain risk, vendor diversity, and the realities of field deployments where devices may be deployed by third parties and forgotten by operators.
A new era of cybersecurity resilience is emerging from this governance framework. The region seeks to harmonize standards, promote cross-border cooperation, and incentivize investment in technologies that can keep pace with AI-enabled threats. The aim is to elevate not only the security of individual devices but the integrity of entire digital ecosystems that support critical services, economic activity, and national security. In this context, a robust xIoT security strategy requires governance that is forward-looking, auditable, and enforceable—one that can safeguard millions of device types while enabling agile innovation.
AI-Driven Cyber Resilience: Redefining Security in an Era of Ubiquitous xIoT
The scale and diversity of IoT and xIoT devices make human-centric security operations impractical. Devices come in myriad form factors, often with limited computing power, proprietary communication protocols, long device lifespans, and frequent deployment by third parties who may not prioritize security. Ownership of devices and monitoring responsibilities can be unclear, and traditional security hygiene has historically been inconsistent. This is precisely why AI-driven, automated security models are becoming indispensable.
Phosphorus’ xIoT Security and Management Platform demonstrates a new approach: an AI-powered, agentless solution that defends xIoT, OT, IIoT, and IoMT environments with proactive, scalable protection. The core concept is simple in vision but transformative in practice: imagine if every device on your network could be discovered, assessed, and remediated automatically, at scale, with minimal manual effort. AI-driven device discovery identifies devices, classifies them with rich context, and surfaces vulnerabilities and misconfigurations in real time. Policies defined by humans are interpreted and enacted by AI-driven insights and automated enforcement, ensuring consistent security postures across millions of devices.
At the heart of this approach is the patented Intelligent Active Discovery engine. It delivers precision in device identification and deep contextual classification at unprecedented scale. This enables real-time visibility into the xIoT posture and continuous monitoring of risk. Phosphorus’ engines quantify risk from outdated firmware, default credentials, insecure configurations, and gaps in digital certificates. Automated remediation capabilities extend to rotating credentials, patching firmware, and quarantining vulnerable assets, all without disrupting business operations. The goal is to close critical gaps quickly and maintain a resilient posture as the digital landscape evolves.
The broader narrative envisions a future where security teams are not overwhelmed by volume but empowered to operate with clarity and efficiency. When routine tasks are automated, technicians can focus on strategic priorities such as risk assessment, system architecture, and long-term resilience planning. This shift enables organizations to inventory, assess, remediate, monitor, and manage millions of devices with confidence. It turns overwhelming scale into a managed, workable process. For governments and enterprises across the GCC and MENA region, this translates into tangible improvements in cyber-physical resilience as digital infrastructure expands to support smart city programs, AI-enhanced healthcare, and highly interconnected enterprises.
Real-World Impacts: Case Illustrations at Scale, with Minimal Disruption
Real-world deployments illustrate how a modern xIoT security platform can deliver meaningful outcomes without interrupting critical operations. Consider a leading healthcare network that faced tensions around untracked infusion pumps, weak passwords, and firmware that had not been updated. The Phosphorus platform conducted a comprehensive discovery of all devices, assessed their risk profiles, and applied fixes across the environment while care delivery remained uninterrupted. The result was improved patient safety, reduced risk exposure, and maintained continuity of care—an essential demonstration of how automated, non-disruptive remediation can operate in a high-stakes setting.
In the financial sector, a large institution with tens of thousands of connected endpoints previously had little visibility into its xIoT footprint. After deploying the platform, the environment was scanned, every device mapped, and critical gaps closed. The outcome was not merely compliance but enhanced confidence in the organization’s ability to defend its assets and maintain trust with customers and partners.
Another example involves a major Gulf smart city where devices proliferated faster than security teams could keep pace. The platform delivered live asset mapping, change alerts, and real-time control, enabling the city to shift from a reactive posture to proactive risk management. The city now benefits from continuous visibility, rapid remediation, and ongoing protection of its sprawling digital infrastructure. These case studies illustrate a concrete pattern: when xIoT security is integrated into daily operations, organizations can defend complex environments at scale without sacrificing service delivery or user experience.
Strategic Partnerships: Building a Collaborative Gulf for Secure Digital Growth
Phosphorus emphasizes that it is more than a vendor; it seeks to be a trusted partner across the Gulf. The company highlights long-term, confidential engagements with government entities, investment ministries, and leading enterprises, spanning healthcare, finance, logistics, and smart infrastructure. The guiding principle is partnerships that focus on outcomes rather than optics, with a commitment to helping organizations secure what matters most. In this collaborative model, public sector bodies and private sector enterprises co-create resilience strategies, align innovation with national priorities, and accelerate the adoption of technologies that enhance security and performance across critical sectors.
Strategic collaborations in the Gulf are not merely about technology deployment; they involve engaging with policymakers, regulators, and industry stakeholders to ensure that security requirements keep pace with innovation. Effective partnerships establish a shared language around risk, governance, and accountability, enabling secure scale as smart city programs, AI-driven health solutions, and automated industrial processes expand. The emphasis is on building ecosystems where security is embedded into the design of digital infrastructure, rather than retrofitted after deployment.
Conclusion: Seizing the Moment to Build a Secure xIoT Future for the Gulf
The GCC stands at a pivotal moment in its digital evolution. The convergence of xIoT expansion, AI-enabled threats, and the availability of plug-and-play hacking capabilities demands a reimagined cybersecurity posture that can operate at machine speed, scale, and precision. The era of traditional perimeter-based defenses is giving way to an intelligent, automated security paradigm tailored to the unique realities of xIoT. The Gulf’s smart city initiatives, autonomous systems, AI-enabled healthcare, and hyper-connected enterprises all rely on a secure, resilient digital backbone to realize their transformative potential.
Phosphorus is positioned as a catalyst for this transformation—delivering speed, scale, and effectiveness to defend against rapidly evolving threats while enabling ongoing modernization. Its Intelligent Active Discovery approach provides deep visibility into millions of devices, enabling precise remediation and continuous posture optimization without disruption to critical services. In a region where strategic investments, governance, and cross-sector collaboration are shaping the future of digital infrastructure, the path forward is clear: deploy intelligent, automated xIoT security at scale, strengthen governance and auditing, and empower security teams to operate strategically rather than merely reactively. The time for action is now: as the Gulf and broader MENA region accelerate their digital journeys, securing the xIoT frontier will define not only resilience but also the region’s ability to sustain growth, protect national assets, and deliver safer futures for citizens and businesses alike.