news
Saudi Arabia’s Global Cybersecurity Forum
puts emphasis on protection
landmark cybersecurity
event has taken place in
Saudi Arabia. The Global
Cybersecurity Forum launched
powerful initiatives to protect
children and empower women in the
arena of cybersecurity.
A
The two-day forum was organised by
the National Cybersecurity Authority
in the Kingdom and attracted 3,500
participants, including policymakers
and executives from global tech
companies. The forum concluded
its activities by issuing the Riyadh
Cybersecurity Statement. This urged
all stakeholders to support several
recommendations aimed at making
a combined effort to create a safer
cyberspace for all.
The National Cyber Security
Authority also signed MoUs with
the NEOM company, global safety
science company UL, as well as the
King Abdullah University of Science
and Technology.
foundations for greater cyber-
resilience, capacity and management
of the threat landscape.
The MoUs were signed to create
strategic partnerships leading to co-
operation, raise the level of research
and development and build more secure
cybersecurity systems. The forum highlighted and enabled
discussions on investment and
economic opportunities created
within the cybersecurity industry.
Overall, one of the event’s main
aims was to shape the conversation
on cybersecurity and create the It also served to create an action-
oriented roadmap that sets the stage
for cybersecurity in the 21st century.
HUAWEI GLOBAL EXPERT SPEAKS OUT ON
CYBERSECURITY NEEDS IN KSA
uawei joined top government,
business and academic
leaders in Saudi Arabia at
the Global Cybersecurity Forum held
in Riyadh. The company is advocating
uniform standards that support
cybersecurity risk mitigation. Andy
Purdy, Huawei’s Chief Security Officer
in the US, was in the KSA to stress the
importance of a co-operative approach
to cybersecurity risk mitigation in
which governments, telecom service
providers and technology vendors
collaborate on industry guidelines that
protect consumers and also harness
the economic potential of Digital
Transformation.
H
According to Huawei, the topic is
particularly timely as the roll-out of 5G
services continues in the Kingdom.
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Industries are already starting to benefit
from the leaps in bandwidth and network
speeds provided by 5G.
“In today’s digital era, high-level
decisions about security principles
must be supported by both public
and private sector stakeholders. That
co-operation is the only way to extend
identity and location-data privacy, to
strengthen identity management of
connected devices and to align user
authentication standards within a Smart
City environment,” said Purdy. “The
challenge is that there are simply more
stakeholders involved in these decisions
than ever before. But it is a challenge the
world can overcome.”
Purdy also acknowledged the efforts of
government bodies in Saudi Arabia to
improve their cybersecurity capabilities
and seek international co-operation.
Saudi Arabia was, for example, ranked
13th globally and first in the Arab world
in the UN’s Global Cybersecurity Index
in 2018.
Andy Purdy, Huawei’s Chief Security
Officer in the US
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