The kingdom has a comprehensive cybersecurity plan to tackle malicious attacks on the country with a dedicated fully-Bahrainised line-up at the core of the operation, its top official revealed.
In the cat-and-mouse game of online safety matters, National Centre for Cybersecurity chief executive Shaikh Salman bin Mohammed Al Khalifa, believes he has the brightest brains working on the current threats ... as well as those most likely to follow.
He told the GDN on the sidelines of the three-day First Arab International Cybersecurity Conference and Exhibition at Exhibition World Bahrain in Sakhir, that the objective remains to help organisations, companies and everyone living in the country better understand and tackle the challenges with set standards, alongside a flexibility of mind.
“The GCC is working towards clear cybersecurity objectives,” said Shaikh Salman. “There is a comprehensive plan for cybersecurity in place in Bahrain, but we need a lot of defenders to audit standards to combat attacks.
“The whole world is moving towards digitising everything and the landscape has become much bigger to protect.”
Cybersecurity refers to the complete universe of tools, practices, and rules that protect data assets from ‘malicious actors’ which could be criminals or countries with ill intent.
“Technology changes every year and we will need different approaches to keep on top of the challenges. It our responsibility to offer the most up-to-date advice.”
He said he had great confidence in the kingdom’s cybersecurity sector and his ‘100 per cent’ Bahraini team. The number of people involved at the centre has not been revealed..
He is also determined to entice the very best student talent into the sector. “We want to build on our own team of defenders,” he said.
He added that it was vitally important for the public and private sectors to ‘work together’ to identify new threats and act accordingly.
“We are trying to protect ourselves as much as possible realising that competency, efficiency and the building of knowledge continue to be the most valuable factors,” said Shaikh Salman.
Almost every cyberattack is targeted at people, even if the ostensible victim is a business or government institution, suggest experts such as the preyproject.com website.
Hackers are invariably after private information about people or seeking to disrupt people’s lives. People thus need to be aware of their role in reducing and preventing threats.
Organisations also need to create policies and processes that reduce threats and companies need to invest in technology that protects them from cyberattacks.
The attackers use tech, so the defenders must as well. These include things like firewalls, encryption and intrusion detection.
There are literally hundreds of millions of cyber threats. The most common is a virus – a form of malicious software (malware) code that installs itself on devices.
The danger list includes identity theft, password attacks, a Trojan virus embedded into an email attachment, ransomware, a variant of malware that encrypts data, and phishing – tricking the victim into clicking on a hyperlink that will put malware on a computer.
The National Cybersecurity Centre was formed in 2020 through a royal decree by His Majesty King Hamad.
The National Cyber security Centre, which is headquartered in Juffair, sets a comprehensive strategy for cyberspace and active governance standards to safeguard and monitor any electronic attacks and hacking attempts and spread awareness among individuals and organisations to achieve the Economic Vision 2030 and reinforce sustainable development goals.
Shaikh Salman was also amongst several GCC panellists talking about the issue during the event.
mohammed@gdnmedia.bh
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