Forum highlights cyber security vulnerabilities

Muscat: The Regional Cybersecurity Week was inaugurated on Monday by Sayyid Shehab bin Tariq Al Said, Advisor to His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said.
The conference is organised by the ITU Arab Regional Cybersecurity Centre (ARCC), affiliated to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), in cooperation with the Ministry of Technology and Communications.
The event runs till October 31st and will see the participation of 600 specialists and 49 speakers from 45 countries around the world.
On Monday, three panel discussions were held and five working papers were presented, starting with a presentation by Marco Obiso, Cybersecurity Coordinator at the ITU.
Focusing on varied themes, the working papers addressed issues like cyber security vulnerabilities and regulatory reforms required for the fourth industrial revolution, the importance of regional and international cooperation, partnerships between government and industry, the role of legislative frameworks in preventing and combating cyber crime and the expected returns and profits from providing elements of cybersecurity.
On the sidelines of the conference, the results of the 3rd Cyberstars Regional Threat Hunters 2019 Award were announced. The awards are designed by ARCC in the Sultanate to create cyber security competencies and develop skills and talent in the Arab countries in the field of cybersecurity and to prepare the next generation of cybersecurity specialists in the field of information security and for the promotion of competition at the regional and global levels.
Amateur youths
This year’s edition targeted amateur youths aged between 17 and 24 as well as professionals aged more than 24 years who have the skills to detect information security vulnerabilities and find the best solutions to fill those gaps.
A total of 383 cybersecurity professionals, students and interested individuals from 8 Arab countries participated in the competition. 30 of these qualified to compete in the final phase of the competition to address a series of challenges in the areas of ethical piracy, infrastructure protection, malware analysis and digital evidence analysis.The week’s activities will include the FIRST Symposium and the 11th OIC-CERT annual conference on Tuesday. On Wednesday and Thursday, the seventh edition of the Regional Cyber Drill will be held.