Information and cybersecurity expert Samer Omar, CEO of VirtuPort’s MENAISC2019, announced the launch of the 7th Middle East and North Africa Information Security Conference 2019
The conference will be held in Riyadh for the fourth consecutive year, from 9-10 September, under the theme “Cyber Space, The New Frontier: Deception, Orchestration and Blackholes”.
Samer Omar stressed that the increasing foreign cyber-attacks on the kingdom in the recent period (geopolitical) have pushed for more institutionalisation by developing national cadres specialised to combat these attacks. This is in line with Vision 2030, digital transformation initiative and e-government development.
“There is a significant qualitative improvement in the quality and number of gifted and talented Saudis working in cybersecurity, and we will see in the near future more awareness and greater capacity in this vital sector of cybersecurity by these young men and women,” he added.
“Now we have specialised courses in cybersecurity in universities and other concerned institutions, and this in itself is a significant transformation that is important and demonstrates the depth of the kingdom’s Vision 2030,” he stated.
Last year, Saudi Arabia recorded the highest number of cyberattacks in all Arab countries and ranked 17th worldwide in the same context.
The MENAISC2019 will also host the Cyber Saber Hackathon in its third edition, which will attract students from all over Saudi Arabia to try their hacking skills and defend a smart city model.
Previous editions of the conference have attracted more than 300 participants from all over the kingdom, as well as a large number of specialised brands and international media organisations.
