Saudi Arabia to address cyber security at the national level

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia, fueled by its commitment to sustainable growth through economic diversification and technological transformation, climbed four spots to become the 16th biggest economy in the world in 2016.
However, with the widespread use of technology, the risk of cyber threats from hackers, insiders, and foreign governments has reached new heights.
Enhancing the nation’s cybersecurity infrastructure to combat these threats, develop standards, share critical information and educate stakeholders has become a key priority for the Saudi government.
The Ministry of Interior (MOI) represented by National Cyber Security Center (NCSC), in partnership with Naseba, is organizing the Second annual International Cyber Security Conference (ICSC) Feb.27-28 at the Security Forces Officers Club.
The conference is the largest cybersecurity gathering in the Kingdom with over 600 VIPs, CEOs, CIOs, CISOs, IT and Security Managers representing the nation’s critical national infrastructure organizations, private sector and academia.
Committed to supporting the Kingdom’s bid to safeguard its critical networks, providers such as STC, Spire Solutions, TCC, Raytheon, SecurityMatterz, Advanced Electronics Company, Attivo Networks, BT, Fortinet, Innovative Solutions, Kaspersky, Northrop Grumman, PhishMe, Darktrace, Paloalto Networks, Protection Group International, Symantec and VirtualForge will be holding private one to one meetings with the attendees.
Dr. Abbad Alabbad, Communication & Strategic Development executive director, NCSC, said that a key objective of the conference is to “facilitate national, regional and international collaboration between government, industry and critical infrastructure organizations.”
Nicholas Watson, managing director of Naseba, said, “effective information and knowledge sharing within and across industries is crucial to help mitigate cyber threats and attacks. The conference emphasizes this, in addition to facilitating business transactions, partnerships and deals between the key stakeholders and vendors.”
Sanjeev Walia, CEO of Spire Solutions, the lead sponsor of the conference, noted, “At a juncture when the region is targeted by advanced cyber-attacks, cybersecurity is mandatory for every organization and here in Spire Solutions, we work closely with organizations to protect their business by helping them understand, detect and manage cybersecurity threats in an effective way. Our team will demonstrate some of the niche solutions available today such as deception technology, endpoint security, automated threat hunting, and advanced threat exposure management.”