The 10th Regional cybersecurity Arabic regional and OIC-CERT drill kicks off
The Regional Cybersecurity Week kicked off with the Tenth Regional Cybersecurity drill for the Arab regional and OIC Member States (OIC-CERT) under the patronage of H.E. Dr. Ali bin Amer Al-Shaidhani, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Information Technology for Communications and Information Technology. This event is organized by the Arab Regional Cybersecurity Center of the International Telecommunication Union and hosted by the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Information Technology with the participation of more than 400 specialists from 45 countries.
The Tenth Regional Cybersecurity Exercise for Arab States and OIC Member States is entitled "General Perspective on the Rapid Evolution of Cyber Threats" for Emergency Response Teams (CERTs) in the region. This drill aims to enhance communication and build the capacity of information emergency response teams to ensure continuous efforts to address cyber threats (virtual attack) through the National Information Emergency Response Centers for the Arab region and the OIC member states.
This drill targets the National Centers for Cyber Security and Information Emergency Response and the Cybersecurity Centers and Teams in the Infrastructure and Vital Institutions of the Arab Countries and the Centers OIC member states.
The drill will last for two consecutive days and will include 4 drills scenarios developed by ITU-ARCC and Kaspersky.
The opening ceremony included a speech by Eng. Badr bin Ali Al-Salhi, Director General of the National Center for Information Safety CERT and Head of the Arab Regional Center for Cybersecurity, in which he spoke about the importance of such drills, which come in light of the increasing acceleration in cyber-attacks and the resulting losses, where the losses of cybercrime on the global economy were estimated at 6 trillion US Dollars in 2021 Finn Jane was about 3 trillion US Dollars in 2015 and expected to reach 10 trillion US Dollarsin the year 2025. The information scene has also recently witnessed a number of critical cyber incidents, for example: disruption of service in the most important and prominent international companies such as the attack that closed one of the largest gas pipelines in the United States and belongs to Colonial company, the breach of the special program of the US company SolarWinds and the data breach of more than 400,000 travelers that affected the British Airways company. Moreover, the hack that targeted the leak of the data of more than a billion Facebook users, also the hack that was associated with the Exchange server of Microsoft and with the beginning of the Covid19 pandemic, the cyberattack on the pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and AstraZeneca.
Salhi adds: And do not forget the current conflict in Europe, as the conventional military war preceded it, a cyber war that targeted many vital institutions. This enhances the importance of holding such exercises to enhance the readiness of countries and teams in institutions concerned with rapid response, dealing with cyber risks and threats and reducing the scope of their effects if they occur.