Free space

Digital Sovereignty

Faisal Muhammad Al-Shamri

05 December 2020

Some mention the aforementioned "BlackBerry" devices and the advantages of the BBM chatting program, and some companies' procrastination in allowing security agencies the right to access encrypted messages, which are suspected of being misused by some criminals and extremists.

Some also remember case stories about selling or wiretapping users' information and data, up to what was known four years ago to direct voters using special software and predictive analysis of social networks.

These kinds of technical issues and challenges have not decreased, but rather increased exponentially.

Our transformation into an information society, the shrinking of the digital gap in how to use and its increase in the aspects of development, scientific research, analysis and control, pushes us to the very least, which is monitoring laws, penalties, fines, and prevention decisions issued by other countries, analyzing their causes, and the possibility of benefiting from them, to reduce harm or increase benefits.

From India's decision, the second largest digital market in the world, to block more than 175 applications belonging to companies from a neighboring country and enormous economic power, followed by another blocking of 45 other applications, is this due to an upcoming economic war, whose arena will not be in traditional fields, but rather markets and applications Digital, or economic sovereignty and the desire to establish the existence and institutional entity of one of the largest digital markets in the world, with more than hundreds of millions of dealers.

This regulatory digital rivalry reminds us of similar US threats regarding another Chinese program. The US government not only forced the company to save data within the US sovereign geographical area, but also forced the owner company to sell the rights to operate the application and its ownership to US companies.

These sovereign concerns prompted the interior ministries of some European countries to invest hundreds of millions to support, market and develop open source operating systems, such as "Linux", and alternatives to easy-to-use office applications to face these concerns.

These facts require a non-traditional view shared by all concerned parties, whether telecom service providers, the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, or the concerned agencies, and we trust that they are aware and follow these challenges, as they are non-traditional challenges that require an exceptional response, coupled with the authorities concerned with consumer protection as well as the Ministry of Intelligence. Artificial and digital economy, this is their field.

And our technical and investment company must develop their technical partnerships and presence. Digital sovereignty does not stop at a classification of services or a reserved digital range, but rather is further and more comprehensive than that.

The decision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, to establish a cybersecurity council in the country to prepare policies and legislation to enhance cybersecurity and raise the readiness of all sectors to respond, to reflect the volume of leadership support to enhance digital security, as he said. His Highness:

“The security of the homeland today in the digital space is no less important than its security in the geographical space.” Digital sovereignty is no less important than geographic physical sovereignty.

Certified Digital Transformation Consultant, Lecturer, and Corporate Excellence

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