Riyadh hosts 4th Annual Kingdom Cyber Security Meeting

The 4th edition of Kingdom Cyber Security Meeting kicked off today at the Mövenpick Hotel Riyadh. The two-day event will feature more than 30 speakers that will be addressing aspects related to critical infrastructure protection, advanced persistent threat prevention, securing the cloud, mobile, big data and social platforms, risk management, business continuity and disaster recovery.

Through a rich technical agenda, the event aims to contribute to the efforts in building region’s robust and resilient cyber security strategy that extends beyond the compliance tick and enhances the defensive capability. The agenda will also offer invaluable advice and best practice guidance through peer-led interactive sessions, thought provoking debates, real-life case studies, and live demos; giving each participant a learning experience unique to their professional needs.

Key Market

Speaking about the important steps to be taken by the Kingdom, Dr. Taghreed Justinia Asst. Professor and Program Director for Health Informatics at King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, said: “With a telecommunications infrastructure supporting the development of smart cities, it is necessary to focus on securing the infrastructure and data. Getting citizens and various agencies involved in unifying the vision is an important step. With that, investing in cyber security alongside any investment in smart city development is a necessity and must be considered in the planning and budgeting stages of any project, and not left to later stages or only when there is a security threat.”

Chris Yule, Senior Security Researcher at SecureWorks, said:” Considering that Saudi Arabia is a key market in an increasingly globalised world, it is important for SecureWorks to engage with prominent decision makers in the region, and this event presents an excellent opportunity to do so. We are expecting a productive and dynamic conference, discussing how decision makers can protect their organisations against growing cybersecurity threats”.

Sharing his view on most recent emerging threats, trends and observations of the current landscape in the Middle East, Yule added:” SecureWorks is actively present in the Middle East, thus, we have insights into the changing needs in the region. Events such as Kingdom Cyber Security offer a productive learning discussion platform for security players in the region, helping organisations in the region prevent, detect, respond to and predict future cyberattacks. By working and engaging with trusted partners, organisations can ensure that they’re well protected against emerging threat group trends and directing their resources to protect the appropriate part of their business”.

Spain & Saudi Arabia

“During King Felipe VI’s visit in January, Spain and Saudi Arabia discussed cooperation between the two countries in various technological fields. Cybersecurity is becoming more and more intrinsic in industry. And experts agree that cybersecurity will become one of hottest industries globally by 2020. From this perspective, Saudi Arabia plays a key role in the region, and the development of Saudi-Spanish joint ventures would strengthen both countries’ capacities in cybersecurity industry and would allow Saudi-Spanish businesses to seize these opportunities and reinforce trust of citizens and businesses in the digital world, contributing to the global goal of ICTs security”. Said Ricardo Mor Solá, Ambassador at large for Cybersecurity at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation in Madrid, Spain; who also presented a special session on Critical National Infrastructure Protection.

“The Kingdom Cyber Security Meeting is important for Spain because Saudi Arabia is presently gearing up for a nationwide digital transformation. This means that improving and protecting technological infrastructure in the country is necessary. Exchange of best practices in this respect may be very useful for both parties. This is the first time that Spain participates in the event, and I am really looking forward to discussing with other participants and Middle East’s top government and business security experts about how to address the growing concern over securing critical infrastructure. This event is also an opportunity to explore with Saudi government agencies and other major stakeholders on how to collaborate on issues like cybersecurity governance and adoption of recognized information security frameworks”. Mor Solá concluded.

The 4th Annual Kingdom Cyber Security Meeting is organized by Fleming and sponsored by SecureWorks, KPMG, Cyberia, Attivo Networks, Security Matterz, PhishME, Simeio, Oregon Systems, Owl Computing Technologies, Tenable, ife, Infoblox, Nexthink, Malwarebytes, HP, McAfee and Enzar. The event is endorsed by ISACA Riyadh Chapter and in partnership with EC-Council.