Censys has appointed Meriam ElOuazzani as its first dedicated Vice President for the Middle East, Turkey and Africa (META), underscoring the company’s intent to scale operations and deepen its footprint across high-growth cybersecurity markets.
Based in Dubai, ElOuazzani will spearhead the company’s end-to-end regional growth strategy, spanning revenue expansion, strategic alliances, ecosystem development and enterprise adoption. The appointment marks a pivotal milestone for the US-based internet intelligence firm as it sharpens its focus on attack surface management and external threat visibility in META markets.
Strategic push to anchor internet intelligence leadership in META
Announcing the appointment, Sarah Ashburn, Chief Revenue Officer at Censys, said the move reinforces the company’s investment in a region that is witnessing accelerated cybersecurity spending and digital infrastructure expansion.
ElOuazzani will be tasked with positioning Censys as the default external attack surface intelligence layer for enterprises and governments navigating increasingly complex threat landscapes. Her mandate includes expanding hyperscaler, MSSP and channel partnerships to drive scalable market penetration.
The Censys META Vice President appointment comes at a time when regional enterprises are transitioning from perimeter-based security models to real-time exposure management and proactive intelligence frameworks.
Two decades of regional cybersecurity leadership
ElOuazzani brings over 20 years of experience in cybersecurity and enterprise technology across the Middle East and Africa. Prior to joining Censys, she served as Senior Regional Director at SentinelOne, where she established and scaled regional go-to-market operations.
She also held multiple leadership roles at VMware across MENA, strengthening channel ecosystems and distribution networks to accelerate growth. Earlier in her career, she led Regional Product Sales for Mobility across the Middle East at Cisco Systems.
Industry observers note that her track record in assembling high-performance teams and building partner-led growth engines aligns closely with Censys’ regional ambitions.
Regional inflection point in cybersecurity maturity
Commenting on her appointment, ElOuazzani said the META region is entering a new phase of cybersecurity maturity, driven by sovereign digital strategies, critical infrastructure modernization and increased regulatory scrutiny.
“Governments and commercial organizations are moving beyond perimeter defence toward operational visibility and real-time threat detection,” she noted, adding that authoritative external intelligence is now central to managing digital exposure.
Censys’ platform continuously maps internet-facing assets, services and critical infrastructure, enabling security teams to identify exposures and detect adversary activity before exploitation occurs. The company claims its scanning capabilities cover all 65,535 ports, detect changes up to seven times faster than competing solutions and support more than 26 industrial protocols, 68 vendors and 226 ICS fingerprints.
Strengthening the regional leadership bench
Alongside the Censys META Vice President appointment, the company named Rajaee Al-Dalgamouni as Regional Sales Lead (META) and Ahmed Ehlayel as Solutions Engineer to support go-to-market execution under ElOuazzani’s leadership.
Censys has already established partnerships in the Middle East, including collaboration with Rilian Technologies to deliver internet intelligence and ICS/OT capabilities to sovereign and critical infrastructure entities. The latest leadership expansion signals a deeper commitment to national cybersecurity priorities and long-term regional growth.
With cyber risk rising across government, energy, telecom and financial sectors in META, Censys is positioning itself as a foundational intelligence layer for exposure management and proactive defence strategies.
