Cybersecurity Audit in Egypt

A cybersecurity audit in Egypt is an independent review of your security controls against the requirements your sector must follow — the Personal Data Protection Law (Law No. 151 of 2020), the telecom and national-CERT guidance under the NTRA, and the Central Bank of Egypt’s cybersecurity requirements for financial institutions — usually alongside ISO 27001. CyberSigma is CERT-In empanelled and PCI QSA authorised (CEMEA, Asia Pacific and the USA); we scope the right framework for your organisation, test the controls with evidence, and hand you a prioritised, audit-ready report.

Which Egypt regulations actually require a cybersecurity audit?

Egypt’s cybersecurity and data-protection regime has matured quickly, anchored by the Personal Data Protection Law and sector regulators. An audit is only useful if it is scoped to what your sector actually requires. The ones we most often map to:

• Personal Data Protection Law (Law No. 151 of 2020) — Egypt’s data-protection statute, setting obligations on lawful processing, security and cross-border transfers.
• NTRA and EG-CERT — the National Telecom Regulatory Authority and the national CERT, which set cybersecurity expectations for telecom and connected sectors.
• Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) requirements — cybersecurity and resilience expectations for banks and payment providers.
• ISO/IEC 27001:2022 — the international baseline most Egyptian enterprises certify against for customers and tenders.

What a CyberSigma Egypt audit actually covers

We run the audit as an evidence-based gap assessment against the controls your regulator scores, not a documentation walk-through. In a typical engagement we:

• Confirm scope and the applicable framework(s) — the Personal Data Protection Law, NTRA/EG-CERT guidance or CBE requirements — so you are assessed against the controls that actually apply to you.
• Review governance, policy and risk management against the framework's expectations.
• Technically validate the controls that matter — identity and access, network segmentation, patching, logging and monitoring, backup and recovery, and cloud configuration.
• Test the process and people layers: third-party and vendor risk, incident-response readiness, and staff security awareness.
• Deliver a findings report mapped to your chosen framework, with a remediation plan ordered by risk.
• Re-test after remediation, so you can evidence closed findings to a regulator, assessor or customer.

Representative engagement: a Cairo bank

A useful way to picture the work: a Cairo-based bank needed to align with the Central Bank of Egypt’s cybersecurity expectations while certifying ISO 27001 for international correspondent relationships. We scoped a single assessment, gathered evidence once, mapped findings to both, and delivered one risk-ordered remediation backlog. This example is representative of how we structure Egypt audits; named client references are available under NDA on request.

How long does an Egypt cybersecurity audit take, and what does it cost?

Most audits run a few weeks end to end, depending on the number of in-scope systems, sites and frameworks. Cost follows that scope rather than a fixed list price, so we run a short, free discovery call, agree the scope in writing, and give you a fixed quote before any work starts. If you are working to a regulator or customer deadline, tell us the date and we will tell you honestly whether it is achievable.

Is a cybersecurity audit mandatory in Egypt?

It depends on your sector. Banks and payment providers answer to the Central Bank of Egypt; organisations handling personal data must comply with the Personal Data Protection Law; and telecom and connected sectors fall under NTRA expectations. Even where nothing is strictly mandatory, customers and tenders increasingly require ISO 27001 or an independent audit.

What does the Personal Data Protection Law require?

Law No. 151 of 2020 sets obligations around lawful processing, data-subject rights, security measures and cross-border transfers of personal data. We assess your processing and controls against those requirements as part of the audit, and work alongside your legal advisers for formal positions.

Do banks have specific cybersecurity obligations?

Yes. The Central Bank of Egypt sets cybersecurity and operational-resilience expectations for the institutions it regulates. We map our assessment to those expectations alongside ISO 27001 so you can evidence compliance to the regulator and to partners.

How often should we run a cybersecurity audit?

At least annually, and again after any major change — a new core system, a cloud migration, a merger or a serious incident. Regulated sectors and enterprise customers commonly expect evidence dated within the last 12 months.

Can one audit cover multiple requirements?

Usually, yes — and it saves you money. Because the controls overlap, we gather evidence once and map it to each applicable requirement (for example CBE expectations plus ISO 27001 plus PCI DSS), then give you one risk-ordered remediation plan instead of three.