Bahraini Startup Boosts IT Security in Saudi Arabia
As a tech-savvy 15-year old with a dial-up
internet connection in the late 90s in Bahrain, Ahmed Husain didn’t
expect to make a career out of his hacking skills.
The founder of Reload Consulting
Services W.L.L. tells me, “I would use my pocket money to buy
internet cards, and then I’d come home to connect to the internet
and do mischievous things to my friends!”
Although Husain, who has a B.Sc. in Computer Engineering from King
Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals in
Saudi Arabia, admits his friends suffered from his antics, he says
good-humoredly, “I was always nice enough to give them their
accounts back!”
After working in the field of Network and Security in both local
and international companies, he began to notice a shortage of local
information security expertise.
“Most organizations hired overseas companies—and ended up
paying higher prices because of the lack of talent in the local
market. So I spoke to many colleagues in the industry, and realized
there was a huge market opportunity.”
After a month or so of deliberation, he launch started Reload
during his 5-week annual vacation at the end of 2010.
Initially self-funded, Reload secured BD 20,000 (approx. US
$53,000) in investment from Angel Investor company Tenmou in 2011, in exchange for a 20%
stake in the business.
After undergoing months of incubation at Tenmou, Reload is growing
today by offering ‘ethical hacking’ services that identify security
holes in clients’ information systems. One point of differentiation
is that the company offers an assessment along with testing and
reporting in two days instead of the typical five.
Expanding to the Saudi Market
Despite the merits and fundamental importance of data
and information security, the initial market response in Bahrain
has been slow.
“One of the biggest challenges we faced has been convincing
non-tech management of the importance of our services. Most of them
have seen the service as a box-ticking exercise that fulfills IT
audits rather than a way to prevent weaknesses in their systems
that could have serious negative impacts on business,” explains
Husain.
“Neighboring countries on the other hand have been very
generous to us,” he says, “especially Saudi Arabia.The company is
now looking to secure a US$500,000 round of funding to expand
further into the Saudi market.
The startup has also faced competition from companies in Southeast
Asia that offer cheaper but lower quality services, yet Husain
found a way to make his services affordable. Reload also partners
with other specialized firms such as Qualys, Lumension, and
AlienVault
Currently, most of Husain’s customers come from the financial
services industry, yet government and industrial sectors in
particular should care more about security issues—especially as
they usually lack the internal capacity to deal with such
incidents.
“When a government website is hacked, it takes days to identify the
violation and correct it. Every hour costs critical reputational
damage,” Ahmed explains.
“Similarly, for the industrial sector, when security is
compromised, that can cause major infrastructural disruptions.
Ultimately, in this day and age, when so much of our data and
information is stored online, it’s just not worth risking
unauthorized data access, disruption, or destruction.”