The Ministry of Technology and Communications is conducting an intensive boot camp in Knowledge Oasis Muscat till February 6 to boost cybersecurity capabilities and entrepreneurship skills in Oman and the MENA region.

The camp is being held as part of the Sas Accelerator for Cybersecurity programme in partnership with the UK-Oman Digital Hub and the Oman Technology Fund represented by OTF Techween.

The boot camp is being run by CyLon, a world-leading cybersecurity accelerator.

CyLon works to find and grow in the world’s best emerging cyber businesses. Since its launch in April 2015, CyLon has successfully supported more than 100 companies and has a portfolio now valued at more than £400mn.

Sas Center for Entrepreneurship has been supporting more than 70 tech start-ups in Oman over the last seven years, through its incubator and accelerator programmes. In addition, the ITU Arab Regional Cyber Security Center (ITU-ARCC) is contributing its technical and network capabilities to further boost the programme from a regional perspective.

OTF Techween, a pre-seed fund programme founded by Oman Technology Fund, will be providing funding to the selected individuals and will be a partner in the administration of the programme.

The UK-Oman Digital Hub is a British Embassy Muscat initiative designed to build digital skills, entrepreneurship and cybersecurity capability in Oman.

The boot camp focuses on enabling participants to better understand how their ideas can be commercialised within the cybersecurity landscape, by providing technical and business workshops and one-on-one mentorship provided by international experts in the cybersecurity and entrepreneurial fields.

The boot camp will be followed by nine weeks of virtual mentoring and check-ins and a final bootcamp in April.

The activities include, amongst others, workshops on problem solving, value proposition identification, minimum viable product development, Lean Canvas, branding strategy creation and idea pitching skills.

The programme witnessed a lot of interest with 55 ideas registered, and 12 selected to participate.