NCA Saudi Arabia
NCA ECC Checklist: Score Your Readiness, No Sign-Up
NCA ECC Compliance Checklist
Babar Khan Akhunzada
Babar Khan Akhunzada leads security strategy, offensive operations. Babar has been featured in 25-Under-25 and has been to BlackHat, OWASP, BSides premiere conferences as a speaker.
SOC 2
Best Free SOC 2 Tools in 2026
Most companies evaluating SOC 2 readiness tools are about to make an expensive decision. A SOC 2 programme between audit fees, tooling, and remediation routinely runs $30,000 to $100,000 in the first year, and the people researching free tools want to know where they stand before committing a
Penetration Testing for SOC 2, ISO 27001 and PCI DSS (2026)
Modern SaaS, cloud, and fintech company will commission penetration tests this year. The question is no longer whether it is how many separate tests, against how many separate frameworks, and how much of the work can be consolidated. SOC 2 expects penetration testing under Common Criteria 4.1 and 7.
SOC 2
SOC 2 Type 1 vs Type 2 in 2026: What's the Difference
There are two SOC 2 reports. One takes 4 to 8 weeks and gives your customer a snapshot. The other takes a year and gives them a track record. The choice between them shapes your timeline, your audit cost, and most importantly whether your enterprise prospects accept the report or
PCI DSS Penetration Testing Requirements in 2026
Penetration testing has been a PCI DSS requirement since version 1.0, but with the transition to PCI DSS v4.0 now fully enforced since March 31, 2025 the requirements have become significantly more prescriptive about what constitutes an acceptable penetration test. The days of running an automated vulnerability scanner,
PCI DSS
PCI DSS Gap Assessment: What It Covers and How to Prepare in 2026
If your acquiring bank has flagged you for compliance validation, your enterprise customer has asked for an Attestation of Compliance, or you are migrating a legacy v3.2.1 programme to PCI DSS v4.0.1 and not sure how far behind you are a gap assessment is almost certainly
PCI DSS
PCI DSS v4.0 & v4.0.1: Everything That Changed and What You Must Do by 2026
PCI DSS v4.0 is now fully in effect and as of March 31, 2025, every requirement is mandatory. The 51 "future-dated" requirements that were optional best practices when v4.0 was first published in March 2022 are now enforceable across all PCI DSS assessments. If your organisation
PCI DSS
What Is PCI DSS Compliance? A Plain-Language Guide for 2026
If your bank, payment processor, or enterprise client has told you that you need PCI DSS compliance, and you have no idea what that means or whether it applies to you this guide is the starting point. PCI DSS is not a government regulation. It is not optional. It is
SAMA Compliance Checklist - Gap Assessment & Audit Readiness Guide
Most SAMA compliance failures are not technical. They happen because governance is undocumented, evidence is incomplete, or institutions discover during supervisory review that controls they believed were at Level 3 cannot be demonstrated to a regulator's standard. This SAMA compliance checklist is designed for CISOs, compliance managers, and
Penetration Testing
How Much Penetration Test Cost? 2026 Pricing Guide for SaaS & Enterprises
The most common question we get before a scoping call is some version of: "just tell me what a penetration test costs." The honest answer is that it depends on what you're testing and how deeply but the ranges are predictable, the variables are well-understood, and
SAMA
SAMA Cybersecurity Guide for Saudi Financial Institutions (2026)
Most financial institutions in Saudi Arabia know they need to comply with SAMA. Fewer understand what compliance actually requires, how maturity is measured, how long it takes, and critically how it differs from other frameworks like ISO 27001 or NESA. This guide answers those questions directly. It covers what the
Red Teaming
Red Teaming vs Penetration Testing: What's the Difference? (2026)
The question comes up constantly when a CISO has done several rounds of penetration testing and starts wondering whether they're getting diminishing returns. The answer is that penetration testing and red teaming are not competing services they measure different things, serve different purposes, and the data on when