Security Assessments for UAE Businesses
CyberQuell helps UAE businesses identify security gaps before they become audit findings or active threats. Our assessments cover NESA IAS gap analysis, Microsoft 365 security posture review, and VAPT, with findings that can feed directly into Microsoft Sentinel detection rules.
Gap Analysis
Posture Review
Security Testing
Dubai + Abu Dhabi
Find Security Gaps Before They Become Audit Findings
Many UAE businesses only discover control gaps during an audit, after a failed assessment, or when an incident exposes a weak point. A proper security assessment helps you find and prioritise those gaps earlier.
CyberQuell’s assessments give you practical findings mapped to business risk and compliance needs, so your team knows what to fix, why it matters, and how to move forward.
NESA Audits Need Evidence
Policies are not enough. Auditors may ask for proof that controls are active, reviewed, and properly documented.
Microsoft Misconfigurations Are Easy to Miss
Gaps in MFA, Conditional Access, Defender coverage, logging, or legacy authentication can create security and compliance risk.
Traditional Reports Go Stale
A point-in-time assessment loses value if findings are not tracked, remediated, or monitored over time.
Prioritisation Matters
Not every finding carries the same risk. CyberQuell helps you separate urgent control gaps from lower-priority improvements.
Three Security Assessments, One Clear Remediation Plan
CyberQuell combines NESA gap analysis, Microsoft 365 posture review, and VAPT to help your team find security gaps, understand risk, and know what to fix first.
NESA IAS Gap Analysis
We review your current controls against relevant NESA IAS requirements and identify gaps across logging, access control, vulnerability management, incident response, and audit evidence.
Microsoft 365 Security Posture Review
We review your Microsoft 365, Entra ID, Defender XDR, Conditional Access, MFA, and logging setup to find configuration gaps that could increase risk or affect compliance readiness.
Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing
We assess exposed systems, applications, networks, and in-scope assets to identify vulnerabilities, validate risk, and provide clear remediation guidance.
From Assessment Findings to Action
CyberQuell turns assessment findings into clear remediation steps and, where relevant, Sentinel detection recommendations for ongoing monitoring.
Prioritised Findings
Each issue is ranked by severity, business risk, and compliance impact, so your team knows what to fix first.
Practical Remediation Steps
Reports include specific next steps instead of vague recommendations that leave your team guessing.
Sentinel Detection Recommendations
High-risk Microsoft findings can be converted into Sentinel detection logic for ongoing monitoring.
Retest Support
Critical and high findings can be reviewed again after remediation, giving your team evidence of closure.
NESA IAS Domains Covered in the Assessment
CyberQuell reviews key technical and management areas that commonly create NESA audit gaps, especially around logging, access control, vulnerability management, and incident response.
| NESA IAS Domain | What CyberQuell Reviews | Common Gap Found |
|---|---|---|
| T3: IT Operations and Log Management | Log collection, retention, SIEM coverage, alerting rules, and monitoring evidence | Logs are collected inconsistently or not retained for the required period |
| T4: Threat and Vulnerability Management | Vulnerability scanning, patching records, threat visibility, and remediation tracking | Vulnerabilities are found, but patching and closure evidence is missing |
| T6: Access Control | MFA, Conditional Access, privileged access, legacy authentication, and identity controls | MFA or admin access policies are incomplete or inconsistently enforced |
| T8: Incident Management | Incident response plans, monitoring workflows, incident records, and root cause documentation | Incident records exist, but investigation notes and root cause evidence are weak |
| M2: Human Resource Security | Access provisioning, deprovisioning, joiner-mover-leaver processes, and access review evidence | User access is not removed on time, role changes are not tracked, or access reviews are not documented |
Hear from our clients
Ready to Find Your Security Gaps Before They Become Audit Issues?
CyberQuell helps UAE businesses assess NESA readiness, Microsoft 365 security posture, and technical vulnerabilities with clear findings your team can act on.
How a CyberQuell Security Assessment Works
A clear assessment process from scoping to findings, remediation guidance, and retesting where needed.
Step 1: Scoping Call
We confirm the assessment type, business goals, in-scope systems, compliance needs, and any testing boundaries before work begins.
Step 2: Assessment Execution
CyberQuell reviews your environment based on the agreed scope, whether it includes NESA gap analysis, Microsoft 365 posture review, VAPT, or a combined assessment.
Step 3: Findings Report
You receive a clear report with key findings, risk priority, compliance relevance, and practical remediation steps.
Step 4: Findings Debrief
We walk your team through the results, explain what matters most, and help prioritise what should be fixed first.
Step 5: Remediation and Retest
Critical and high findings can be retested after remediation, so your team has evidence that the issue has been addressed.
Our Certifications
We pride ourselves on having a highly certified team, with each member continuously upgrading their skills to stay at the forefront of cybersecurity.
Case Study
Multi-Phase BEC Attack | Professional Services | $150,000+ Fraud Prevented
A sophisticated threat actor maintained persistent access to a bookkeeper's Microsoft 365 mailbox for four months, survived multiple remediation attempts, and orchestrated fraudulent payment requests to multiple clients totalling over $150,000.
CyberQuell's forensic investigation uncovered session token theft and malicious Outlook rules that had survived credential resets. Full threat eradication. Zero financial loss.
Attack duration: 4 months | Fraud attempted: $150,000+ | Financial loss: £0 | Previous remediation attempts failed: Yes
Ready to Find Your Security Gaps Before They Become Audit Issues?
CyberQuell helps UAE businesses assess NESA readiness, Microsoft 365 security posture, and technical vulnerabilities with clear findings your team can act on.
Frequently Asked Questions About Security Assessments UAE
Answers to common questions about NESA gap analysis, Microsoft 365 posture reviews, VAPT, remediation support, and how CyberQuell helps UAE businesses assess security risk.
A NESA IAS gap analysis is a structured review of your current security controls against the 188 requirements of the UAE National Electronic Security Authority Information Assurance Standard. It identifies which controls you meet, which you fail, and at which priority tier (P1 to P4) each gap sits. Any UAE organisation subject to NESA accreditation needs one, and most organisations benefit from completing one before a formal audit to avoid non-conformances that could delay accreditation.
A vulnerability assessment scans your environment to identify known weaknesses, misconfigurations, and unpatched software. It is broad and systematic. A penetration test uses a human tester to actively attempt to exploit identified weaknesses, simulating the actions of a real attacker. CyberQuell offers both as part of VAPT engagements, and the combined output gives you a fuller picture: the scale of exposure from a scan plus proof of exploitability from manual testing.
A standard pen test focuses on exploiting weaknesses: finding a path through your perimeter, escalating privileges, exfiltrating data. A Microsoft 365 posture review is a configuration audit: it checks whether your Entra ID, Conditional Access policies, Defender deployment, and M365 settings meet security benchmarks and NESA IAS requirements. Both are valuable. The posture review finds the misconfigurations that a pen test might not surface because they do not create an exploitable vulnerability in isolation but do constitute a NESA control failure.
The most common M365 configuration failures map to T6 (access control: legacy auth enabled, MFA gaps, Conditional Access scope failures), T3.6 (log management: Entra ID sign-in logs not ingested into a SIEM, retention below 12 months), and T8.2 (centralised monitoring: no active SIEM watching M365 signals). CyberQuell's posture review identifies which of your current configurations breach which specific control IDs, not which general categories they affect.
NESA IAS does not mandate CREST-accredited providers specifically. It requires that vulnerability assessments and penetration tests are conducted by qualified individuals using documented methodologies. CyberQuell assessors hold OSCP and CEH certifications and use OWASP, PTES, and MITRE ATT&CK methodologies. If your organisation's internal procurement policy or a specific contract mandates CREST accreditation, inform us at scoping and we will advise accordingly.
For a mid-market UAE organisation with 200-1,000 users, a NESA IAS gap analysis typically takes 5-8 business days from scoping call to report delivery. Larger environments with multiple business units or complex IT estates take longer. CyberQuell confirms the timeline at the scoping call based on your environment and priority tier focus.
The free summary covers your current Microsoft Secure Score percentage, your top five scoring gaps by severity, the specific NESA IAS control IDs each gap affects, and recommended first remediation steps for each gap. It is delivered as a one-page document within 48 hours of the two-hour assessment session. No credentials are required from your team beyond delegated read-only access to your M365 tenant.
Yes. Remediation guidance is included in every assessment report, not treated as a separate billable engagement. For Microsoft-specific findings (Entra ID configuration, Conditional Access, Defender settings), CyberQuell can assist directly with configuration changes. For NESA gap analysis findings that require process or policy work, CyberQuell provides the specification and your team implements. A free retest of critical and high findings is included within 30 days.
For organisations that proceed to a CyberQuell managed service engagement following an assessment, every critical and high finding is translated into a Microsoft Sentinel analytic rule before go-live. The rule monitors for re-introduction or exploitation of the same weakness while remediation is in progress or ongoing. This means your assessment findings generate permanent detection coverage, not a static report.
Yes. CyberQuell conducts assessments across the UAE. Abu Dhabi engagements include NESA IAS gap analysis, ADHICS alignment review for healthcare organisations, Microsoft 365 posture review, and VAPT. Remote assessment is available for all UAE locations. On-site assessment in Abu Dhabi is available by arrangement.