Tell us about AccuSights
Sam Khan: AccuSights is a U.S.-based Cybersecurity platform. It was unearthed with the belief that world-class protection should not be a privilege for Fortune 100 companies, but a right for every business, whether small or big. I founded AccuSights in Chicago and expanded into the UAE cybersecurity this year, officially launching in October. Inspired by the UAE’s ambition to lead globally in cyber resilience, we introduced a pilot program to secure 1,000 SMEs with complimentary cyber assessments; a project that opened the door to meaningful discussions with the UAE Cybersecurity Council.
AccuSights offers compliance automation, protection, and intelligent risk assessment, combined in a single ecosystem. It is working to make enterprise-grade security accessible and affordable for everyone. So, in a nutshell, it is an enterprise-grade Cybersecurity and Compliance platform built for every business, irrespective of size or industry.
What features make your platform unique?
Sam Khan: At our core, we focus on one mission: making cybersecurity and compliance seamless, automated, and continuous. Our unified platform brings assessment, compliance, and protection together in an intelligent system built for organizations of every scale, including regulated entities like Healthcare cybersecurity, Finance, Education, DoD, and gov entities.
Our enablement is comprehensive yet simple—powered by people, process, and AI—to conduct a complete assessment of an institution’s cyber posture, identify risks and gaps, generate a tailored remediation roadmap with implementation guidance, automate the development of policies and framework-specific control mapping, and maintain continuous cybersecurity compliance through real-time endpoint monitoring and evidence collection. The result is a centralized compliance vault that provides institutions with real-time visibility, complete evidence repositories, and instantly audit-ready regulatory reports.
So, in its essence, we have tried to build a platform that is a living, learning system that grows with the organization it protects. It’s not a tool, it’s your trusted cybersecurity partner.
What is your mission?
Mark L. Madrid: For me, what AccuSights stands for is deeply personal. Our mission to give small and mid-sized businesses enterprise-grade protection aligns with everything I’ve lived and worked for. Growing up in a humble Texas Panhandle farming community, raised by migrant farmworker parents who built a welding business from nothing, I saw firsthand how vulnerable small businesses can be—and how much they matter to families, communities, and futures.
“I’ve been taught to be an elephant, not a hippo. Elephants have big ears, while hippos have small ones. The most important questions I ask are, ‘How are you doing?’ and ‘What does success look like?’ Listening shaped my path—from becoming my town’s first Hispanic valedictorian, earning a scholarship to UT Austin, and learning resilience selling books door-to-door, to later serving as a Presidential Appointee at the U.S. Small Business Administration and leading national entrepreneurship initiatives.”
Across every role, one truth remained constant: small businesses carry the biggest burdens with the fewest resources. That is why AccuSight’s mission matters so much. By making cybersecurity accessible, continuous, and affordable, we are protecting more than systems—we are protecting dreams, economic mobility, and the entrepreneurs who fuel our economies. Our work ensures that no business is left behind simply because it didn’t have Fortune 100 budgets.
Your leadership team combines decades of experience across Fortune 100 cybersecurity, Wall Street leadership, and entrepreneurial innovation. What shared vision brought the three of you together as leaders of AccuSights?
Mayra Khan: As an entrepreneur, I have firsthand witnessed the way a cyberattack, even compromising a single password, can erase years of effort. We always wanted to bridge the gap, making enterprise-level protection personal, practical, accessible, and most importantly, affordable.
Sam Khan: True that. That particular moment changed everything for us. For more than 20 years, I tried securing financial systems and healthcare giants. But when my close friend’s business collapsed with a single data breach, reality and realisation struck me hard. I came to know how vulnerable the real backbone of our economy, the SMEs, can be. And since my wife is herself a small business owner, I can relate more to the importance of cybersecurity for these entities.
Mark L. Madrid: I look at it this way: our shared vision is empowerment. When you merge Sam’s technical depth and Mayra’s entrepreneurial empathy with my experience in small business policy, we think we could move mountains. Together, we are aiming to turn cybersecurity into a confidence builder, rather than being a cost centre. We want the world to know that cybersecurity is not an expense; it’s a mandate and can be leveraged with ease.
How do your different backgrounds and experiences shape the company’s direction?
Sam Khan: My experience in Fortune 100 cybersecurity gives us the foundation pillars of resilience and rigor. Mayra’s entrepreneurial journey ensures that we are human-centred and related to small business realities. As far as Mark goes, his policy background transcends boundaries, joining public and private collaboration. This type of diversity forms the basis of AccuSights. We approach cybersecurity not just from a technical lens, but from global, social, and economic perspectives.
How are you redefining the future of cybersecurity?
Mark L. Madrid: We do this by making cybersecurity predictive, not reactive. Our platform doesn’t wait for threats; it anticipates and notifies about them. We are also redefining accessibility. We believe that cybersecurity should not require a 100-person IT team; it should be automated and intuitive.
Why have you chosen to expand to the UAE?
Sam Khan: The UAE represents the future — a nation where innovation meets execution. Its leadership has made cybersecurity a national priority, and we wanted to be part of that journey.
Mark L. Madrid: The UAE’s digital economy is thriving, and its commitment to public-private partnerships mirrors our own philosophy of collaboration-driven security.
How are you helping position the UAE as the number one hub for cybersecurity excellence in the region and beyond?
Sam Khan: We have launched the 1,000 small business initiative under our CyberProtect Program. Under this, we will be offering a complimentary cybersecurity framework assessment to SMEs in partnership with local chambers and government bodies. We want to empower these businesses with the same level of cyber protection as global corporations. Our program will strengthen the very fabric of the UAE’s digital economy.
What is the biggest cybersecurity challenge facing small and mid-sized businesses in the UAE?
Mark L. Madrid: If there’s one thing I’ve seen repeatedly across SMBs in the UAE, it’s this: they know cybersecurity is important, but they don’t know where the real risks are coming from or how exposed they actually are. That gap between ‘we assume we are secure’ and ‘we can prove we are secure’ is the single biggest threat.
Most UAE SMBs don’t have the budgets to hire large cybersecurity teams, and the threat landscape here changes faster than traditional tools can keep up. The result? Outdated controls, manual checklists, missed patches, and compliance documents scattered in spreadsheets — all of which attackers love.
This is exactly where AccuSights steps in. We were built for organizations that want enterprise-grade security without enterprise-level overhead. Our platform continuously monitors controls, automates compliance with UAE and global standards, closes visibility gaps, and shows businesses exactly where they are exposed — in real time.
Alongside private enterprises, you’re also collaborating with government entities and chambers of commerce. Could you elaborate on these partnerships?
Sam Khan: Yes, why not? Collaboration is at the heart of our model, and has always been. We are working alongside chambers of commerce, government bodies, and financial institutions to deliver free cybersecurity assessments, awareness workshops, and compliance readiness programs. In Dubai, we recently met H.E. Dr Mohamed Al Kuwaiti, Head of Cyber Security, discussing our mission and how we want to work with him to empower the small businesses of the country. In the end, it’s about building ecosystems. When governments safeguard economies, we can be sure that the shield is unbreakable and our achievements have paved the way for a better and digitally safe future.
You are aligned with the UAE’s 1,000 Small Businesses Initiative. Tell us more about your involvement.
Mayra Khan: We are supporting this initiative by offering free cyber assessments for 1000 SMEs in the UAE. We are enabling them to understand their essential cyber hygiene status, vulnerabilities, and compliance requirements. It is interesting to note that this initiative is actually capacity-building. Every business we protect strengthens the nation’s overall cyber resilience.
What impact have you made so far?
Sam Khan: Our impact has been most visible in two areas. In the United States, we’ve been supporting small and mid-sized healthcare clinics with continuous protection and cyber risk assessments — keeping them safe from breaches and ransomware incidents that could have been financially and operationally devastating.
In the UAE, a defining milestone for me personally was receiving direct appreciation from H.E. Dr. Mohamed Al Kuwaiti, the nation’s head of cybersecurity. His recognition served as meaningful validation that our work is aligned with the UAE’s broader vision for resilience and digital trust.
Mayra Khan: We have seen measurable results so far, backed by faster response times and improved compliance posture. Most importantly, we are growing awareness.
Your presence at GITEX drew a lot of attention—can you tell us more about your meeting with His Excellency Dr Mohammed Al Kuwaiti, Head of Cybersecurity for the UAE Government?
Sam Khan: Yes. Meeting His Excellency Dr Al Kuwaiti was both an honour and an affirmation. Together, we discussed cybersecurity as “the new trust currency”- an idea that resonates with our mission. Realising his vision, knowledge, and awareness of cybersecurity as a standard, instead of a luxury, aligned perfectly with our vision.
What is the UAE’s 2030 Digital Resilience Strategy?
Mark L. Madrid: In 2030, we are not just talking about going digital; it’s a gone era. We are now aiming for a secure, digitally empowered economy. UAE in 2030 will be a platform where technology and trust advance together.
How are you ensuring your vision is aligned with the UAE’s National Cybersecurity Strategy and AI transformation goals?
Sam Khan: We’ve built our roadmap around the core pillars of the UAE’s National Cybersecurity Strategy—resilience, readiness, and secure digital growth. Our platform automates risk management and compliance so organizations can stay continuously protected, not just periodically checked.
On the AI front, we’re using intelligent automation to remove manual friction, improve accuracy, and help businesses adopt technology safely and confidently. Ultimately, our aim is simple: support the UAE’s transformation by making strong cybersecurity and responsible AI accessible to every organization, from SMEs to critical sectors.
As a company founded in the U.S., how do you see collaboration between the U.S. and UAE contributing to stronger global cybersecurity resilience?
Mark L. Madrid: The U.S thrives on a flourishing economy, while the UAE is built upon futuristic technology. Both have their potential. But what unites them is the fact that both are powerhouses. When we link their cybersecurity system, the U.S. financial economy, and the UAE’s forward-thinking policies, we can create a model for global collaboration.
What are the biggest opportunities you see ahead for your industry, and how are you positioning AccuSights to seize them?
Mark L. Madrid: AI-driven ransomwares need AI-driven defenses, that’s our space. We are also focused on making cybersecurity human-centric. In other words, we are trying to make it accessible, trusted, and easy to understand. Our partnership with governments and SMEs positions us at the cusp of innovation and impact.
What is your long-term vision for AccuSights?
Sam Khan: In simple terms, we want to be the world’s most trusted cybersecurity partner. In our long-term vision, we see ourselves as the pioneers of cybersecurity brilliance, making it simple, scalable, and sustainable for every business. We also envision strengthening the global digital economy. We want to build bridges, not batteries. We want to unite technology, trust, and transformation.
Where can readers find out more?
Sam Khan: You can always visit our official UAE website https://uae.accusights.com/ or the US one, www.AccuSights.com, to learn more about our initiatives, platform, and upcoming partnerships. You can also follow our journey and major updates on LinkedIn. We keep posting the latest insights from the cybersecurity niche and programs across the UAE, U.S., and beyond.
