The organisers of the GCC Digital Security Forum announced the programme of the event as well as dignitaries who will be attending the Forum on 4th-5th February at St. Regis Hotel. The Forum will be held under the patronage of Her Excellency Dr. Hessa Al Jaber, Minister of Information and Communications Technology, Qatar and is being organised by MEEZA in cooperation with Al-Iktissad Wal-Aamal Group. Speaking at the press conference were Faleh Al Naemi, Assistant Secretary General Shared Services, Ministry of Information and Communications Technology, representing H.E Dr. Hessa Al Jaber, Ghada El Rassi, CEO, MEEZA and Faysal Abou Zaki, Deputy CEO, Al-Iktissad Wal-Aamal Group.
The GCC Digital Security Forum will be attended by more than 350 delegates representing governmental institutions, private companies, regulatory bodies as well as other organisations from Qatar, GCC and other parts of the world. Topics covered at the Forum will include discussions pertaining to issues of digital security and the realities in the Gulf region in terms of legislations, policies and preemptive measures that governments are taking to protect their economies from digital attacks and crimes. In addition, topics will include the major digital security threats and available solutions. In parallel, the GCC Digital Security Forum will discuss how organisations and companies are improving their understanding of digital security and developing strategies to meet these challenges. Finally the Forum will evaluate how regulatory authorities and Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERT) can help in enhancing digital security and deal with incidents and breaches on national levels.
The Forum will also focus its discussions on promoting stronger ties between governments and the private sector to protect the Digital economy in the Gulf region, by creating policies, standards, norms and measures that help to reinforce a highly secure environment for networks and electronic transactions over these networks. These are especially essential for critical infrastructure such as energy, power, transportation, banking and financial markets as well as telecommunications.
More than 25 expert speakers will be take part in the Forum, most prominently mentioned are Dr. Hessa AL Jaber, Rashid Al-Naimi, Chairman, MEEZA and CEO, QF Investments, Dr. Hamadoun Touré, Secretary General, International Telecommunication Union. Other prominent speakers include Khaled Al Hashmi, Cyber Security Executive Director, Q-CERT and Ghada El Rassi, in addition to Troels Oerting, Head, European Cyber Crime Centre in Netherlands, Lt. Col. Ret. Bill Hagestad, Cyber Threat Researcher and Technical Author, Red Dragon Rising Publishing, USA, Noboru Nakatani, Executive Director, INTERPOL Global Complex for Innovation, Dr. Fadi Aloul, PhD, Professor, CISSP, Andy Archibald, Deputy Director, National Crime Agency, UK and Riemer Brouwer, Head, IT Security, Abu Dhabi Company for Onshore Oil Operations.
Faleh Al Naemi, Asisstant Secretary General, Shared Services, Ministry of Information and Communications Technology, stated that support for the GCC Digital Security Forum is in line with the mission to support the objectives of the Qatar National Vision 2030, which encompasses fostering economic and social development through providing a conducive environment to the long-term growth and development of all aspects of the information and communications technology sector in Qatar.
He added, “Our mission remains to develop policies, regulate the market, supervise the enforcement of rules and design laws and regulations to provide the most conducive conditions necessary for growth of the sector and its services and to spread the benefits across all sectors of the economy and society. We all strive to help the development of the knowledge economy and faster innovation in Qatar.”
He continued, “We are confident that the GCC Digital Security Forum will make a contribution towards raising awareness and sharing ideas, experiences and solutions.”
Ghada El Rassi said,“The perils facing digital security and digital attacks on companies and governmental institutions as well as individuals has become a source of great concern for governments and the private sector across the globe. As for the incurred losses due digital attacks and intrusions, it is estimated to be in the hundreds of billions of dollars and some reports go as far as saying that it has reached one trillion dollars per year. It is difficult to value the indirect losses that result from these attacks.” She added, “The role of MEEZA is in not only providing the products and services to enhance digital security but also providing the knowledge and professional solutions to be able to effectively share the benefits of the digital economy. We do this through close cooperation with the government, our partners and customers. Through the GCC Digital Security Forum, MEEZA wants to raise GCC digital security discussions to higher levels and with this in mind we decided to make this Forum an annual event to bring together renowned regional and global experts and all stakeholders to share ideas and discuss digital security challenges and solutions.”
El Rassi then explained, “The Forum will discuss basic issues pertaining to Digital Security, governmental policies and initiatives as well as the strategies being set by various organisations and companies to deal with these evolving challenges. The Forum will also discuss the strategies that some companies and institutions have been implementing to enhance their digital security to meet threats in the digital realm. Finally the Forum will evaluate how regulatory authorities and CERTs (Computer Emergency Response Teams) are enhancing digital security and the new methods being applied by digital hackers. At the Forum we will focus on the potential of strengthening the cooperation between governments and private sector, as well as building inter-governmental cooperation in the sphere of sigital security.”
Faysal Abou Zaki concluded, “We are at a time when we can no longer dismiss or ignore the risks and damages that digital attacks and intrusions are imposing on our economies and societies. We describe them as dangerous crimes threatening not only companies and government institutions but also the entire social and economic security of countries around the world. We commend the leadership initiative that MEEZA has taken in creating this Forum and the efforts made to attract this line-up of distinguished speakers.”
The GCC Digital security Forum is being sponsored by regional and international companies which include CISCO as a strategic partner and Ooredoo as the Official Telecom partner. HP is a pearl sponsor. Blackberry, Al Khaliji Bank, and Vodafone Qatar and Orange Business Services are Oryx sponsors, while Mcafee-Intel, EMC, Paramount Computers, Cassidian Cyber Security and Websense are supporting companies.