The seventh edition of the Cyber Defence Summit will be held in Doha today and tomorrow.
The summit, to be hosted by French business facilitation company Naseba, will serve as a high-level platform for business leaders to share knowledge, network with peers and consult leading cyber security solution and service providers.
Addressing the 120-plus chief information officers (CIOs) and chief information security officers (CISOs) attending the summit will be senior representatives from the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology, Qatar Foundation, Qatar University, Qatar Petroleum, Maersk Oil and Doha Bank, to name a few.
Ten leading solutions and service providers – Ooredoo, BAE Systems, Spire Solutions, Fortinet, Fidelis Cyber Security, Global Security Network, StormShield, CyberRoam, Entrust Datacard and Solucom – will also showcase their capabilities during the summit and help overcome the challenges.
Qatar sees cyber security as one of the three grand challenges alongside energy and water security. A significant portion of the country’s ICT spend is being allocated towards developing proactive cyber security and upgrading existing infrastructure and capabilities, a statement notes.
Waleed al-Sayed, chief operating officer at Ooredoo Qatar, said: “We understand the specific threats facing banks, financial companies, government and logistics groups, and are working to develop a full portfolio of tailored solutions to ensure (that) Qatar’s information is safe.”
Simon Goldsmith, director of cyber security at BAE Systems Applied Intelligence, noted: “The first challenge is perception. Cyber security is seen as an IT problem for the IT department to fix. Organisations that have suffered a high-profile cyber attack have found out the hard way that treating it as a business, and not an IT, issue is essential.”
“What is really exciting about such events is that it is a productive exchange of ideas that contribute to a better understanding of the cyber security landscape,” added Sanjeev Walia, CEO of Spire Solutions
“Networking and knowledge sharing are paramount to addressing the issue of cyber security as it needs to be overcome proactively and collectively. We are excited to be hosting the upcoming event in Qatar,” said Naveen Bharadwaj, senior project manager at Naseba, producer of the
summit.