Muscat – The Sultanate of Oman participated in the tasks of the Regional Cybersecurity Week, which is organised by the Arab Regional Cybersecurity Centre (ARCC) in cooperation with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

The Ministry of Transport, Communications and Information Technology is representing Oman at the event, held in the city of Abu Dhabi from October 9 to 12, under the theme of “Cybersecurity Innovation and Industry Development.”

As many as 350 specialists from 70 countries are taking part in the event, which is hosted by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Cybersecurity Council.

The activities of the Cybersecurity Week include the 11th Regional Cybersecurity Exercise for Arab countries, member states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC-CERT) and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS Countries) for national cybersecurity centres in the Arab region.

The exercise assumes significance in the backdrop of a rise in cyberattacks at the world. This underscores the need for keeping pace with developments and providing better protection for data by using modern technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT) and the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR).

The drill included the simulation of different types of cyberattacks and the implementation of an adequate response mechanism that begins with tasks of preparedness, survey, detection and analysis, followed by procedures of containment, recovery, post-incident actions, sharing information and deriving lessons.

This year’s exercise also focused on analyzing multi-scale cyberattacks on organisations’ network systems, which gives a broader scope for assessing the participating teams’ preparedness and enhancing their awareness about methods of cyber defence on a more comprehensive level.