Cybersecurity Assurance
Security your regulator can trust.
For regulated firms, security is a licence condition, not an afterthought — we test, harden and evidence the controls that protect client assets and satisfy your obligations.
What it covers
Protection that stands up to scrutiny.
Regulators across the UAE tie authorisation to demonstrable security — especially for firms holding client assets or sensitive data.
We provide the assurance layer: penetration testing, secure architecture review, vulnerability management and the security policies and evidence your regulator expects — so a security question in your application becomes a strength, not a risk.
How we help
Test, harden, evidence.
Penetration testing
We probe your applications and infrastructure the way an attacker would, then give you a prioritised remediation plan.
Secure architecture
We review and harden how your systems, keys and client assets are protected — by design, not by patch.
Assurance & evidence
We produce the security policies, test reports and evidence your regulator and auditors want to see.
FAQ
Cybersecurity questions.
Is security really part of licensing?
Yes — especially for firms holding client assets or data. Regulators expect evidenced controls, and weak security can stall an application.
Do you do the testing in-house?
Our security work is delivered by experienced testers and mapped to the standards your regulator recognises.
How often should we test?
At minimum annually and after major changes. We help you set a cadence that meets obligations and keeps risk low.
Does this connect to the licence work?
Directly. The evidence we produce plugs straight into the application and ongoing compliance our advisory team manages.
Model risk sits alongside security risk once a firm is licensed. See AI governance in UAE regulated activities for how supervisors treat explainability, accountability and the data a model touches.
Why a licensing adviser runs a security practice
Most firms discover the gap late. The application promises controls; the supervisor later asks you to demonstrate them. Between those two moments sits work that licensing advisers do not do and security vendors do not understand the regulatory context for.
The commitments you make in an application are testable
Every UAE authority that licenses financial or virtual-asset activity expects technology risk to be governed, not merely described. When you tell a regulator how client assets are protected, how keys are managed, how access is controlled and how you would detect and respond to an incident, you are creating a standard you will be held to — at authorisation, at renewal, and whenever something goes wrong.
KOLL Group is a wholly owned subsidiary of ITSEC L.L.C FZ, a working cybersecurity practice. That means the controls described in your submission are designed by people who will also help you operate them, rather than drafted to sound convincing and left for someone else to deliver.
What we cover for licensed and applicant firms
- Penetration testing and vulnerability assessment against the applications, APIs and infrastructure your licence depends on
- Custody and key-management architecture review — segregation, signing thresholds, recovery, and the evidence trail behind each
- Identity and access governance: privileged access, joiners and leavers, and who can move value
- Logging, monitoring and detection tuned to the events a supervisor will ask about, not just the ones a SOC finds interesting
- Incident response planning and rehearsal, including regulatory notification paths
- Third-party and supply-chain risk across your custodians, payment providers and infrastructure vendors
- Business continuity and disaster recovery tested against realistic failure, not a document review
- Security awareness for the people whose mistakes cause most incidents
Where this fits in the engagement
Security work runs alongside the licensing work rather than after it. During the application we make sure what you commit to is achievable; after authorisation we help you keep it true. It connects directly to RegTech implementation, where the monitoring and reporting systems live, and to post-licence support, where the obligations continue.
Specific control expectations differ by authority and by activity, and they change. We confirm the current position against the official framework for your licence before anything is committed. See how this plays out across VARA, ADGM and GCGRA.
Secure by design
Turn security into a licensing strength.
Tell us your goals. In one confidential call we'll scope the testing and controls your licence needs and the exact next steps.