Protect society against cyber crimes: Experts

A security expert has emphasized the need for collaboration in order to protect society against cybertattacks during the 6th annual Cyber Defense Summit in Riyadh on Monday.
“Cyber security is no longer just an information technology priority. It must be addressed at the broad level,” said Yesser Deputy Director General Ahmad Al-Khiary.
Al-Khiary, also the current CEO of (ITS)2, noted the importance of protecting critical infrastructure and sensitive information in Saudi Arabia.
“We must address the issue collectively to arrive at feasible protective measures,” he said.
Another expert, Tareque Choudhury of BT Global Services, spoke on the occasion, defining critical assets and the role of chief security officers by giving examples of how private and public Saudi organizations can protect and preserve themselves.
He also shared some of the lessons learned from the BT cyber security team, which was deployed to defend the London Olympics in 2012 from any malicious cybertattacks.
“A lack of cyber protection has had catastrophic results. For example, hackers stole 40 million debit and credit card numbers from retailer ‘Target’s’ data banks, as well as the personal data of as many as 70 million customers,” he said.
Ray Kafity, vice president of META region at FireEye, added “We are now dealing with Generation Y Threats and as we progress, the threats will keep on becoming more complex and difficult to detect. With the threats being innovative, the cyber security has to keep up and be forward thinking and proactive.”
Eric J. Eifert, SVP of Cyber Security Solutions at Man Tech, said “One critical aspect which many fail to address is the internal threats due to a lack of awareness.”
He added that “this needs to be addressed carefully when developing cyber security. Employee training and standardization of internal laws and regulations is something that should be mandatory.”
He said an important method for combatting cyber threats is to first highlight the key security challenges, and to then present solutions to meet these issues through effective planning and through the simultaneous application of innovative hardware and software security solutions.