The Second Gulf Cyber ​​Security Conference: Efforts to Counter Cybercrime

Mahmoud Kafrawi - Kuwait

Information security experts called for unifying the Gulf efforts to face the challenges of cybersecurity and provide the necessary protection for sensitive data and information related to the GCC countries through the development of national strategies to address those challenges.

Experts at the two-day Gulf Cybersecurity Conference in Kuwait said Wednesday that the high-tech data, the rapid pace and intensity of networking increases the risk of cyber attacks and the associated loss of privacy, financial robbery and more.

They pointed to the importance of clear policies to counter the growing cyber attacks, especially as information security affects the public and private sectors and all institutions operating in any country.

In his speech, the Minister of Oil and Electricity Minister Khalid Al-Fadhil said that we are facing new and sophisticated patterns of breakthroughs every day, and that it is urgent to take these risks seriously, to reach solutions and develop capacities and prepare preventive plans to address them.

Fadil pointed out that cybercrime is no longer confined to individuals and institutions, but beyond that to threaten the security of the state and the safety of its facilities and economy, which requires harnessing all technological capabilities, qualifying human resources, and improving the ability to deal with cybersecurity issues, to reduce cyber threats to the state economy And national security.

He stated that the Government of Kuwait attached great importance to this matter, as it represents a grave danger to the security of the nation and the citizen. Hence, the first initiatives of the National Cybersecurity Strategy, which drew up a comprehensive national cybersecurity system, have been defined to implement an integrated roadmap that requires serious and intensive efforts. Over the next three years.

Kuwaiti Excellence
Al-Fadhel said that the Kuwaiti government is also preparing to establish a national cybersecurity center that will contribute to enhancing the security of the infrastructure and provide services to all state institutions.As a result of these initiatives, Kuwait has made remarkable progress in ranking the global cybersecurity index, jumping 72 centers, which will continue to achieve greater excellence. Over the coming years.

In turn, the President of the Kuwaiti Society for Information Security Safa Zaman the penetration of penetration significantly in the Gulf, which resulted in increased rates of cybercrime.

Zaman said in a statement to Al Jazeera Net that the number of cyber crimes reported in Kuwait in 2013 was about 997 crimes according to statistics of the Department of Cybercrime, and reached in 2018 to 4502 crimes, while the number of this year between five and six thousand crimes have been reported , Except for hacking accounts that were not reported by their owners.

Fatima Al Balooshi, director of the Human Resources Information Systems Department at the Ministry of Civil Service in Oman, said that the National Center for Information Safety in the Sultanate handled 1,839 security incidents in 2017, and the number rose to 2334 in 2018.

According to Baloch island that last year witnessed the discovery of 432 thousand attempts to cyber attacks in the cyberspace of Oman, in addition to the exposure of Omani websites to 71 thousand attacks, has also been dealing with 203 malware was discovered.

Omani superiority
The Sultanate was ranked second in the Arab world in the Global Cybersecurity Index in 2018, issued by the International Telecommunication Union, and ranked 16th globally in the index covering 175 countries.

During his speech at the session devoted to discussing the readiness of the GCC countries in the field of cybersecurity, the Director of Information Systems Department at the Secretariat General of the Council of Ministers Khalid Ibrahim reviewed the Qatari efforts in this regard, pointing to the establishment of the State in 2016 the Information Security Committee headed by the Prime Minister, in charge of developing the strategy. General Information Security in the country.

Ibrahim also stressed the readiness of Qatar and the great coordination between the various agencies to deal with cyber attacks and deal with them as quickly as necessary.