Information Security Conference Launching in Riyadh Today

The annual conference on information security in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) 2017 will begin today in Riyadh with the participation of the world's leading companies in the field of security and information technology amid the escalating level of cyber-attacks. 

Samer Omar, CEO of  VirtuPort, the thought leaders behind the conference, said that the conference is in line with the 2030 Vision and the National Transformation Program 2020 and will discuss important topics that will provide an overview of the nature of the cyber threats facing the Kingdom and the Arab Gulf countries in general. “Cyber space is an essential part of any national security policy, and developed countries have categorized cyber defense and cyber security issues as a priority in their national defense policies." He said. 

Engineer Samer Omar said that the Kingdom's establishment of a specialized Cyber Security Commission was a successful strategic step, especially that it came at the right time, after the escalation of attacks on its information infrastructure. He stressed that linking the Commission with the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, demonstrates the level of importance. 

Dr. Khalid Biyari, CEO of Saudi Telecom Group, will deliver a welcome speech at the conference, which will highlight the importance of Cyber Security across the Middle East and the challenges of securing digital information as cyber-attacks escalate.

Keynotes

Fahd Al-Jutaily, Vice President of Cybersecurity at STC Solutions, will deliver a speechentitled "Value of Cybersecurity – Things You Might Not Know".  Other topics will include `Building a Secure Internet of Things World`, `Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) implications, techniques, and effective measures`, `Integrated Risk Management – Integrating People, Process & Technology`, `Threat Intelligence`, `The Power of Sharing and Adaptive Security Strategy for Security Operation Centers`.  There will also be panels discussing Managed Security Services (Success stories, value-add & selection criteria) and Security-as-a-Service (Clean pipe, Vulnerability Assessment, e-mail & web as a service).

According to the CEO of VirtuPort, the most important objectives of the Information Security Conference are to promote an advanced society in the technology sector and to enhance the opportunities for the convergence of senior leaders and thinkers in the field of cyber security in the Kingdom.  

Hackathon Competition

The information security conference will host 10 government and private universities in the Hackathon competition that aims to attract young Saudi talent, leading to future roles in the field of information security and protection of the information infrastructure in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. 

The Hackathon is a free dynamic competition aimed at Saudi university students, serving as a platform for their inspiration, and exploiting their technical talents through a certified competition in which they attempt to penetrate a model of a smart city. The top three will be awarded cash prizes, as well as honorary awards received by the respective universities, and will be broadcast live, as well as video clips on the private channels of the VirtuPort. 

Sponsors of the Conference

STC Solutions is the lead sponsor with Huawei as the Platinum Sponsors for the 2017 MENA Information Security Conference. Golden sponsors are A10, Fortinet, Kaspersky and Obrela. 

The conference has gained tremendous support from AccessData, Aiuken, Anomali, Cisco, CybrScore, Fidelis, Forcepoint, IBM, McAfee, Micro Focus, Nexthink, Palo Alto Networks, RedSeal, Symantec, Tenable, Thales are all Silver sponsor also supporting this critical event.