A new initiative has been launched to help Bahrain’s micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) bolster their awareness and readiness in combating cyber threats that could disrupt business operations.
The Bahrain Chamber, in collaboration with the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and Nasser Centre for Science and Technology (NCST), launched the Cyber Ready Bahrain initiative yesterday during an orientation session at its office in Sanabis.
“This is going to be an ongoing programme to train businesses on best practices when it comes to cybersecurity,” NCSC chief executive Shaikh Salman bin Mohammed Al Khalifa told the GDN.
“Our initial pilot will look at training around 100 willing businesses that want to take advantage of this programme.
“We are going to train both technical and non-technical workers within organisations and build their capabilities. When it comes to cybersecurity, attackers leverage every opportunity, whether it’s technical attacks or a user opening up an unsafe email and link. We have seen it happen in the most advanced organisations.
“It’s ultimately about good ‘cyber hygiene’ and putting the right tools in place and, with a little bit of awareness, businesses become difficult targets for cyber attacks.”
The first and ongoing phase of the programme will involve assessing cyber readiness at interested businesses.
According to NCST academic vice principal Dr Mussab Zeyad Aswad, the second phase involving structured training sessions will begin in June, after Eid Al Adha, based on feedback received.
The third phase will involve practical labs and simulations, followed by a fourth phase of pilot implementation and validation in selected organisations.
The programme will be expanded in its final phase to include corporate private sector firms, as well as government entities.
“Cybersecurity has become an essential component of protecting enterprises, promoting the stability of the business environment and maintaining confidence in the economy,” Bahrain Chamber first vice-chairman Yousif Salahuddin Ebrahim noted in his remarks. “In light of the rapid digital transformations in the world, cyber threats are growing as attackers develop their tools. It is important for us to strengthen cybersecurity and risk management as a national and economic imperative that requires the integration of efforts among various entities.
“MSMEs are more vulnerable to cyber attacks and since these are a large percentage of the companies in Bahrain, we must take care of them and support them with tools and knowledge to deal with risks efficiently and effectively.”
The training programme will offer five tracks – non-technical training; technical training; Development, Security, and Operations (DevSecOps) training; application security training and hands-on secure coding.
According to NCSC cybersecurity services licensing section chief Rashid Khalifa, the National Cybersecurity Maturity Programme, within the initiative, will allow technology professionals to progress from practitioner to progressive, professional and ultimately, expert, with hands-on and theoretical knowledge of cyber threats and how to tackle them.
Once fully implemented, the Cyber Ready Bahrain initiative will help MSMEs better understand cyber risks, strengthen business resilience and improve cyber readiness through awareness, guidance and practical assessment tools. It is targeted at companies in all sectors, since cyber threats are not limited to any sector and have been growing in the past several years.
According to former information security and risk management at Benefit and cybersecurity consultant Ali Beshara, a common misconception is that certain businesses think they are ‘too small’ or that their businesses activities do not rely on secure data to function.
Mr Beshara urged businesses to identify one person within the organisation who would be responsible for cybersecurity, enable multi-factor authentication and ensure important data is backed up securely and verifiably. “Last year, a prominent business in the kingdom was targeted and had 184 gigabytes of data stolen, including customer information and critical business intelligence, after which the hackers demanded a ransom,” he added.
In case a cyber attack is detected, he urged businesses to immediately report the incident by calling 992 or visiting the NCSC website, since every minute wasted could affect the potential to recover critical business information.
naman@gdnmedia.bh
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