IT Security Audit Dubai

What a Security Audit Covers

Our audits are scope-driven, and we agree the boundaries with you before starting, so the report is relevant to your actual risk profile rather than generic. A standard SME audit covers all the controls that regulators, insurers and enterprise clients are most likely to ask about.

• IT policy and procedure review: acceptable-use, password, incident-response policies
• User access rights and privilege audit: who has admin, who should not
• Password policy and MFA enforcement: verified, not assumed
• Firewall configuration review: rules, zones, open ports and outbound filtering
• Endpoint protection status: every device, not a sample
• Backup and disaster recovery verification: restoration tested, not just scheduled
• Email security: SPF, DKIM, DMARC and anti-phishing configuration
• Physical security: server room access, clean-desk policy, visitor log

Compliance Gap Analysis

We map audit findings to the controls required by the frameworks most relevant to Dubai businesses. The gap analysis identifies which controls you already satisfy, which are partially implemented and which are missing entirely, with a remediation roadmap that prioritises by risk and implementation effort.

• NESA (UAE National Electronic Security Authority): mandatory for critical infrastructure
• ISO 27001:2022: international information security management standard
• PCI-DSS v4.0: required for businesses processing card payments
• GDPR and UAE PDPL: data-protection obligations for EU data subjects
• ADHICS: Abu Dhabi Health Information and Cyber Security Standard

The Audit Report

The deliverable is a written report, not a spreadsheet of scanner output. It has three layers: an executive summary (one page, suitable for board presentation and insurance renewal), a technical findings section (each finding with severity, evidence, business impact and remediation steps), and a roadmap (findings ranked by risk-reduction value and implementation effort, with a suggested 90-day action plan). All findings are assigned a severity (Critical / High / Medium / Low) using the CVSS framework for technical issues and an equivalent scoring for policy and process gaps.

Penetration Testing vs Security Audit

A penetration test actively attempts to exploit vulnerabilities to demonstrate impact. A security audit reviews configurations, policies and access controls without active exploitation. Both are useful; they answer different questions. An audit tells you whether the controls are in place and correctly configured. A penetration test tells you what an attacker can actually achieve given the gaps the audit finds. We offer both; for most Dubai SMEs, an audit is the right starting point, especially when the goal is compliance documentation rather than red-team simulation.

How Often Should You Audit?

NESA and ISO 27001 both mandate periodic review, annually at minimum for most scopes. Organisations that process payment cards (PCI-DSS) or health data (ADHICS) typically require semi-annual reviews. Beyond compliance, a security audit is warranted after any significant infrastructure change (cloud migration, new office, acquisition), after a security incident, or before a large client due-diligence exercise where they will ask for evidence of your security posture.