Cybersecurity Services in Saudi Arabia — NCA Licensed, ISO 27001 Certified
About This Solution
SNTech is an NCA-licensed, ISO/IEC 27001-certified cybersecurity provider headquartered in Dhahran. We help Saudi government entities, critical-infrastructure operators and enterprises meet the National Cybersecurity Authority's Essential Cybersecurity Controls (NCA ECC), secure industrial control systems to IEC 62443, and find weaknesses through penetration testing before attackers do — with managed monitoring delivered together with a small group of specialist security partners.
Industries That Use This Solution
Complete Feature Set
- 1 NCA ECC gap assessment, remediation roadmap and compliance reporting
- 2 SAMA Cyber Security Framework alignment for financial-sector clients
- 3 ISO/IEC 27001 readiness — ISMS design ahead of your certification audit
- 4 IEC 62443 and NCA OTCC security for industrial control systems (SCADA, DCS, PLC networks)
- 5 OT asset discovery, network segmentation and IT/OT DMZ design
- 6 Penetration testing of IT and OT networks and web applications; red-team exercises
- 7 Vulnerability assessment and remediation tracking
- 8 Managed detection and response — SIEM deployment, monitoring and incident response with specialist partners
- 9 Endpoint detection & response (EDR), identity & access management and zero-trust design
- 10 Cloud security posture assessment and hardening
- 11 Security awareness training and phishing simulations
- 12 Incident response, digital forensics and business-continuity planning
What does a cybersecurity provider actually do for a Saudi organisation?
For most organisations in the Kingdom, cybersecurity is no longer only an IT decision — it is a regulatory one. Government entities and operators of critical national infrastructure must comply with the National Cybersecurity Authority's Essential Cybersecurity Controls (ECC). SAMA-regulated banks and insurers answer to the SAMA Cyber Security Framework. And companies running industrial plants have to protect control systems that were never designed to be connected to a network at all.
SNTech's job is to close the gap between where your security is today and where your regulator — or your largest customer — expects it to be. In practice that is three kinds of work: assessing and documenting your controls against the framework that applies to you; fixing the technical gaps (network segmentation, access control, monitoring, hardening); and testing the result through penetration testing, so you know the controls actually hold rather than only existing on paper.
Why industrial control systems need a different approach from office IT
Office IT and operational technology (OT) fail in different ways. An IT breach usually means stolen or encrypted data; an OT compromise can stop a production line, trip a pumping station or create a safety incident. Control systems also can't be treated like laptops: many PLCs and SCADA servers can't be patched on demand, can't run standard endpoint agents, and may only be taken offline during a planned shutdown.
That is why SNTech secures industrial environments against IEC 62443 — the international standard series for the security of industrial automation and control systems — and the NCA's Operational Technology Cybersecurity Controls (OTCC), which extend ECC to OT for critical-infrastructure operators. The core technique is dividing a site into zones and conduits: grouping assets by criticality, controlling exactly which traffic may cross between them, and placing a DMZ between the corporate network and the control network so that a compromised office PC cannot reach a PLC.
This connects directly to the rest of SNTech's portfolio. The industrial routers and gateways we deploy for remote sites support IPsec and OpenVPN tunnels, and the same segmentation principles apply to the networks we design under our Industrial Networking solution.
How SNTech delivers: licensed, certified, and partnered where it counts
SNTech holds a National Cybersecurity Authority licence to provide cybersecurity services in the Kingdom, and is itself certified to ISO/IEC 27001, the international standard for information security management systems. That matters for a practical reason: a provider that asks you to document and evidence your controls should be able to show you its own.
For managed monitoring and specialised disciplines, SNTech works with a small group of specialist cybersecurity partners rather than claiming to do everything in-house. SNTech remains your single point of accountability — scoping, compliance mapping, on-site work from our Dhahran base, and reporting — while each engagement draws on the partner whose tooling and expertise fit it best.
When SNTech is not the right fit
Being clear about this saves both sides time:
- Issuing your ISO 27001 certificate. Certification audits are performed by an accredited certification body that is independent of whoever helped you prepare. SNTech prepares you for the audit; it does not issue the certificate — and a consultant that offers to do both is a red flag.
- Declaring you ECC-compliant. ECC compliance is something your organisation evidences to the NCA; no vendor can grant it. SNTech builds the controls and prepares the evidence and compliance reporting.
- A one-off test of a single application when you already run a mature in-house security team. A specialist testing firm may be the leaner choice. SNTech fits best when testing is part of a wider compliance or OT-security programme.
NCA ECC vs SAMA CSF vs ISO 27001 vs IEC 62443: which one applies to you?
Buyers often ask for "NCA compliance" or "an ISO certificate" when what they actually need is a different framework — or two of them. These are the frameworks that come up most often for Saudi organisations, and how they differ:
| Framework | Issued by | Who it applies to | Mandatory? | What it covers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NCA ECC | National Cybersecurity Authority | Government entities, their companies, and private organisations that own, operate or host critical national infrastructure | Yes, for organisations in scope | Baseline controls for governance, defence, resilience, third-party & cloud security, and industrial control systems |
| NCA OTCC | National Cybersecurity Authority | Organisations in ECC scope that operate OT / industrial control systems | Yes, for organisations in scope | OT-specific controls extending ECC to plants, utilities and pipelines |
| SAMA CSF | Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) | Banks, insurers, finance companies and other SAMA-regulated entities | Yes, for regulated entities | Cybersecurity governance and maturity for the financial sector |
| ISO/IEC 27001 | ISO & IEC (international) | Any organisation | Voluntary — often required by customers and tenders | A certifiable information security management system (ISMS), audited by an accredited certification body |
| IEC 62443 | IEC (international) | Asset owners, system integrators and product suppliers of industrial automation & control systems | Voluntary — increasingly written into industrial contracts | Industrial control system security: zones & conduits, security levels, secure product development |
They overlap more than they conflict. An ISO 27001 management system provides much of the governance evidence ECC asks for, and IEC 62443's zone model is a practical way to implement OTCC's network controls. A single gap assessment can map your existing controls to every framework that applies to you at once.
Which rules apply in your sector
Government
Government entities are directly in scope of NCA ECC. Engagements typically start with a gap assessment against the ECC domains, followed by remediation and preparation of compliance reporting. Government sector →
Oil, gas & energy
Critical-infrastructure operators with control systems fall under both ECC and OTCC. The work centres on SCADA/DCS network segmentation to IEC 62443, OT asset discovery and secure remote access to field sites. Oil & gas sector →
Healthcare
Public hospitals are in ECC scope as government entities, and every provider handles health data that Saudi Arabia's Personal Data Protection Law treats as sensitive. Healthcare sector →
Banking & finance
SAMA-regulated banks, insurers and finance companies are assessed against the SAMA Cyber Security Framework. SNTech maps controls and evidence to SAMA CSF alongside any ISO 27001 programme.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does NCA ECC-aligned cybersecurity mean for Saudi businesses?
NCA ECC is the Essential Cybersecurity Controls framework issued by Saudi Arabia's National Cybersecurity Authority. It is mandatory for government entities and for private organisations that own, operate or host critical national infrastructure, and it sets the baseline for governance, network defence, resilience, third-party and cloud security, and industrial control systems. Being aligned to it means your controls are documented and evidenced against those requirements — increasingly a condition of government and critical-infrastructure contracts.
Is SNTech licensed by the National Cybersecurity Authority?
Yes. SNTech holds an NCA licence to provide cybersecurity services in Saudi Arabia, and the company is certified to ISO/IEC 27001 for its own information security management.
What is the difference between NCA ECC and ISO 27001?
ECC is a Saudi regulatory requirement for government and critical-infrastructure organisations; ISO/IEC 27001 is a voluntary international standard that any organisation can be certified against. ECC tells you which controls you must have; ISO 27001 gives you a management system to run, review and improve them. Many organisations use an ISO 27001 ISMS as the backbone of their ECC evidence.
Why can't industrial control systems be secured the same way as office IT?
Because the priorities are reversed. In IT, protecting data usually comes first; in OT, availability and safety do. PLCs and SCADA servers often cannot be patched or rebooted on demand and cannot run standard security agents. IEC 62443 and the NCA OTCC address this with network zones, tightly controlled conduits between them, and monitoring that does not interfere with the process.
Can SNTech certify us or declare us compliant?
No — and no consultant should. ISO 27001 certificates are issued by accredited certification bodies independent of your consultant, and ECC compliance is evidenced by your own organisation to the NCA. SNTech's role is to put the controls in place, prepare the evidence, and test that it holds.
Find out where you stand against NCA ECC
Book a scoping call with SNTech's Dhahran team. We'll identify which frameworks apply to your organisation and what a gap assessment would cover.
Book a Cybersecurity Assessment →