“Egypt is a high-growth market with huge potential for companies like Gigamon,” the CEO said.
He noted that the company already works closely with leading banks, government institutions, and service providers in the country.
“It’s a big market, an emerging powerhouse for the Middle East, and naturally a great place for us to operate,” he said.
Gigamon is a US-based cybersecurity solutions provider specializing in deep observability, enabling organizations to secure and manage hybrid cloud infrastructure. Its platform delivers network-derived telemetry to cloud, security, and monitoring tools.
The company works with more than 4,000 customers worldwide, including over 80 percent of Fortune 100 firms, nine of the world’s 10 largest mobile network providers, as well as government bodies and academic institutions.
Egypt targets increasing the share of AI in GDP to 7.7 percent by 2030.
The country also launched the second edition of its AI Strategy through 2030 that aims to accelerate the development of Digital Egypt, drive social and economic progress, and position Egypt as a regional leader in AI within Africa and the Arab world.
Moreover, Cairo took centre stage in the global technology world last week as international AI leaders, government officials, and startups gathered at Sultan Hussein Kamel Palace for the launch of the AI Everything Middle East & Africa Egypt 2026, which the country is scheduled to host in February.
Digital transformation and gov't priority
Buckley praised Egypt’s digital transformation drive over the past five years, citing “massive changes in the banking industry” that have been introduced in a thoughtful and well-structured way.
A key differentiator, he stressed, is the government’s active role in putting cybersecurity “front and centre,” with reviews reaching the presidential level.
“You don’t usually see cybersecurity treated as a head-of-state priority across the world, but here in Egypt, you do — and that cascades down to businesses, ensuring it is taken seriously across sectors,” he told Ahram Online.
He also highlighted Egypt’s strengths as a regional hub: a highly educated and multilingual workforce with strong English and French language skills; a strategic location bridging the Middle East and Africa; and its influence as a model for African markets, especially in financial services.
AI transforming cyber threats
Gigamon’s latest global Hybrid Cloud Security Report showed that cyberattacks increased by 53 percent in 2025 due to the misuse of AI tools.
Hackers, sometimes including state actors, are using AI to create advanced attack vectors, from deepfakes to sophisticated phishing campaigns, raising the bar for defence mechanisms.
“This is a global cat-and-mouse game, and unfortunately, the mouse — the hacker — is winning more than it should,” the CEO said. “The odds are stacked against organizations, because a hacker needs to find just one entry point, while companies have to defend them all.”
He stressed that prevention alone is no longer possible. Instead, the focus must be on rapid detection and containment.
“It’s like securing your home; you can’t make it impenetrable, but you can have alarms and fast response teams to catch intruders quickly. That’s our role in cybersecurity,” he noted.
Three-phase AI roadmap
To strengthen defences, Gigamon has rolled out a three-phase AI roadmap that will be utilized in the Egyptian market.
The first phase involves integrating AI Copilot into its management platforms, enabling customers to configure networks and enhance security through natural language queries, while also helping entry-level support analysts transition to more advanced roles.
The second phase concentrates on LLM protocol support, giving organizations visibility into how large language models operate within their networks and ensuring access to sensitive data is strictly controlled.
The third phase focuses on the company’s latest insights, which enable institutions to query petabytes of network data in real-time, such as PCI DSS 4.0 standards for banks or HIPAA 2.0 for healthcare.
Another key innovation is Gigamon’s ability to monitor encrypted traffic, according to Buckley, where 95 percent of hackers typically hide.
“It’s like turning on all the lights in a warehouse — you suddenly see everything, rather than just using a flashlight,” the CEO explained to Ahram Online.
Looking ahead, the Gigamon chief warned that the next five years will bring even greater challenges as AI accelerates the pace of both attack and defence. What once took years now takes months and soon will take days.
“Organizations will have to invest more heavily in cybersecurity infrastructure. Consumers, too, will become more discerning, likely choosing providers based on reputational scores that reflect how well their personal data is protected,” he said.
With cybercriminals targeting personally identifiable information, he cautioned, individuals could face risks ranging from stolen funds to destroyed credit ratings.
“The industry will have to rethink how it manages sensitive data and how it communicates trust to consumers,” he concluded.
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