CQR and sirar by stc Sign Agreement to Strengthen OT Cybersecurity and Critical Infrastructure Protection in Saudi Arabia Partnership leverages the Saudi‑developed FENNEC platform to advance cybersecurity solutions for OT, IoT and IIoT environments

September 3, 2026
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Riyadh, Saudi Arabia – September 2026 – CQR (Absolute Solution for Cybersecurity Co.), Saudi Arabia’s first company specializing in operational technology (OT) cybersecurity and critical infrastructure protection, has signed a Master Services Agreement (MSA) with sirar by stc, establishing a strategic framework to deliver advanced cybersecurity solutions and services for OT, Internet of Things (IoT) and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) environments across the Kingdom.

The partnership combines CQR’s Saudi‑developed technologies and deep industrial cybersecurity expertise with sirar by stc’s managed cybersecurity capabilities, creating an integrated model designed to help organizations safeguard critical assets, maintain operational resilience and address the rising cyber risks facing industrial and operational environments.

FENNEC: Saudi‑Developed Platform for Industrial Cyber Resilience

Central to the collaboration is FENNEC, CQR’s Saudi‑designed platform built specifically to protect critical infrastructure and complex industrial environments. FENNEC delivers:

  • Comprehensive, real‑time visibility into critical OT and IoT assets
  • Process‑aware security monitoring
  • Continuous compliance tracking
  • Dynamic risk intelligence

These capabilities enable organizations to gain an accurate understanding of cyber risks that could impact safety, production and business continuity.

Toward a Sovereign OT & IoT Cybersecurity Monitoring and Assurance Center

The agreement supports the shared ambition of CQR and sirar by stc to establish a sovereign, AI‑enabled OT and IoT Cybersecurity Monitoring and Assurance Center. The proposed center will combine CQR’s industrial expertise with sirar by stc’s managed cybersecurity services to strengthen national capabilities in protecting operational environments and critical infrastructure across Saudi Arabia.

Executive Commentary

Naser Al‑Dossary, CEO of CQR, stated:

“Cyber sovereignty begins with owning the technology, knowledge and capabilities required to protect our most critical environments. With this in mind, we designed and developed FENNEC in Saudi Arabia to meet the specialized requirements of industrial and operational environments. We believe that local technology development and localization are fundamental to strengthening national capabilities and building a more independent and sustainable cybersecurity ecosystem, in line with the objectives of Saudi Vision 2030. Through our collaboration with sirar by stc, we look forward to extending the impact of these capabilities, enabling organizations to better understand and manage cyber risk, and strengthening the protection of their critical infrastructure and operations.”

Al‑Dossary added that FENNEC leverages artificial intelligence to support analysts in interpreting alerts, prioritizing risks, guiding investigations and assessing operational impacts—while ensuring that decisions affecting production remain under expert human oversight. He noted that the platform also enables organizations to classify assets by criticality, operational function and potential impact, linking security alerts to process context to help teams prioritize responses based on actual operational risk.

Yaser Al‑Swailem, CEO of sirar by stc, commented:

“This agreement represents an important step toward strengthening Saudi Arabia’s sovereign cybersecurity capabilities. By combining sirar by stc’s managed cybersecurity capabilities with CQR’s Saudi‑developed technologies and specialized industrial expertise, we aim to provide organizations with an integrated and scalable model for protecting their critical OT and IoT environments.”

Expanded Scope of Collaboration

The potential scope of collaboration, to be agreed separately, may include specialized services such as:

  • OT and IoT cybersecurity maturity assessments
  • Regulatory gap analysis
  • Critical asset identification
  • Secure architecture design
  • FENNEC deployment and technology integration
  • Managed security monitoring and threat hunting
  • Incident response
  • Continuous compliance and risk assessment
  • Training and knowledge transfer

FENNEC is also compatible with the Kingdom’s move toward dedicated 450 MHz industrial communications networks, enabling discovery, monitoring and protection of OT, IoT and IIoT assets operating across these networks, including industrial smart radio devices.

Future Direction: Hardware & Firmware Security Lab

As part of the long‑term collaboration, CQR and sirar by stc plan to establish an OT and IoT Hardware, Firmware and Connected‑Device Security Assessment Lab. The facility will conduct specialized assessments of industrial equipment, embedded systems and connected devices in a controlled environment, with findings feeding directly into FENNEC’s monitoring, compliance and risk‑management capabilities.