Saudi Arabian Government to Address Cyber Security at the National Level

Saudi Arabia climbed 4 spots to become the 16th biggest economy in the world in 2016, fueled by their commitment to sustainable growth through economic diversification and technological transformation.

However, with the widespread use of technology, the risk of cyber threats from hackers, insiders, organised criminals, and foreign governments, has reached new heights.

Enhancing the nation’s cyber security infrastructure to combat these threats, develop relevant standards, share critical information and educate stakeholders have become a key priority.

Pursuing these goals, the Ministry of Interior (MOI) represented by National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), in partnership with Naseba, is organising the 2nd Annual International Cyber Security Conference (ICSC) on February 27th – 28th, 2017 at the Security Forces Officers Club in Riyadh.

The conference is the largest cyber security gathering in the Kingdom with over 600 VIPs, CEOs, CIOs, CISOs, IT and Security Managers representing the nation’s critical national infrastructure organisations, private sector and academia.

Committed to supporting the Kingdom’s bid to safeguard its critical networks, leading solution 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, highlighted that one of the key objectives of the conference is to “facilitate national, regional and international collaboration between government, industry and critical infrastructure organisations.”

Nicholas Watson, Managing Director, Naseba further highlighted that “effective information and knowledge sharing within and across industries is crucial to help mitigate cyber threats and attacks. The conference emphasises 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, cyber security 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 cyber security 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.”