Secretary-General of the League of Arab States (LAS) Ahmad Abul-Gheit stated on Monday that cybersecurity has become a fundamental pillar of national security for all states and economic entities.
Abul-Gheit made the remark in a speech during the opening session of the 3rd International Conference on Information Security and Cybersecurity, titled “Cyber and Information Security Exhibition and Conference,” held under the patronage of Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly, and organized by the league’s Arab Information and Communication Technologies Organization.
Abul-Gheit said that cyber wars have become a reality and a weapon used by states and non-state actors, including groups with destructive criminal activities, adding that this was highly effective due to the reliance of modern systems on technology and networks, making them vulnerable to ransomware attacks.
He pointed out that cybersecurity has become a concept that goes far beyond the issues of protecting messages, financial transactions and a
dministrative operations, but also includes data security and storage, a lot can be extracted from the available data by analyzing an individual’s behavior and the content consumed through social media platforms.
Abul-Gheit noted that social media platforms can have dangerous consequences and impacts when misused, such as spreading false information, calls for violence and hatred and speeches questioning the integrity of individuals and national institutions, which would give criminal and terrorist organizations exceptional capabilities and skills to carry out cyberattacks and misinformation campaigns.
Abul-Gheit emphasized the need to build new capabilities to strengthen the technological defense line with innovative approaches that are continuously updated to match the nature of emerging threats and called for launching awareness campaigns to alert Arab citizens and various Arab institutions about the importance of data protection from cybercrime risks.
He noted that the conference would witness the laun
ch of the Arab Strategy for Cybersecurity prepared by the organization and approved by the Council of Arab Ministers for Communication and Information at its recent meeting in Abu Dhabi.
He added that the last Arab summit approved the Saudi initiative to establish an Arab ministerial council for cybersecurity, supported by a permanent technical secretariat based in Riyadh, expressing his hope that it would be launched as soon as possible to undertake its assigned tasks.
On his part, Secretary-General of the Arab Organization for Communication and Information Technologies, Mohammad bin Omar stated that the Arab region was witnessing several challenges in the field of cybersecurity, including rapid technological development, lack of awareness about cyber issues and the development and complexity of threats and legal and regulatory challenges.
He noted that the continued evolution of cyber threats in terms of complexity and frequency, implementing strong security measures was extremely important to protect in
dividuals, companies and government entities from harmful activities and pointed out the importance of proactive and comprehensive cybersecurity strategies to mitigate risks and maintain trust in digital ecosystems.
The Arab Cybersecurity Strategy, prepared by the Arab Information Technology Organization, would be launching as a roadmap for countries to develop and improve their national cybersecurity strategies.
Source: Kuwait News Agency