UAE | General
Cyber security top priority for UAE government
Cyber security of the UAE government's information and ensuring that its own citizens protect it has become a priority, said Dubai eGovernment eServices Director Salem Al Shair on Tuesday.
- By Amelia Naidoo, Staff Reporter
- Published: 18:02 September 16, 2008
Dubai: Cyber security of the UAE government's information and ensuring that its own citizens protect it has become a priority, said Dubai eGovernment eServices Director Salem Al Shair on Tuesday.
Speaking at the signing of an agreement with Zayed University (ZU) to collaborate on providing career development opportunities for its information technology students, Al Shair said IT graduates had a role to play in achieving this goal.
To this end ZU has recently launched a cyber security programme for its students announced university vice president Dr Sulaiman Al Jasem.
"Cyber security a very critical subject for us now, most of all because government and private organisations are heavily dependent on technology. Without proper protection of these technological environments, we will be a sitting duck – a situation we don't want to be in," said Al Shair.
Al Shair continued that cyber attacks have become a war technique that countries used against each other for political and economic reasons.
"This puts a big burden on our local calibre to take up this responsibility of protecting what we have achieved so far and what we are hoping to achieve in the future," he said.
Dr Rahman Haleem, ZU Dean of the College of Information Technology, said that with the information revolution currently going on, a country's information needed to be in the hands of people who actually owned the country, "not foreigners coming in to secure this information for us."
"I am very biased in that direction and do everything I can to encourage students to apply for IT courses on the basis of the need of the country," Haleem said.
However, Al Shair commented that the UAE had a good relationship with expatriates who felt welcome in the country, which is why a high-risk environment does not exist.
With the dramatic expansion in the country, more skilled professionals are required, he said.
"Not in the near future nor in the long term will we have enough people to do the policing work required. We will definitely continue depending on expatriates and the majority of organisations we have here."
Under the signed agreement, Dubai eGovernment will offer internship programmes for students of Zayed University Outreach. Both parties will collaborate in determining projects to be conducted by IT students under the internship programme.
Dubai eGovernment and Zayed University will also determine areas for innovation and joint project research and development, which will eventually be implemented commercially.
The newly sealed partnership is part of Dubai eGovernment's programme to help consolidate the UAE's position as the top performer among Middle East countries in the information and communication technology (ICT) readiness index.
In the Global Information Technology Report, a joint study conducted by the World Economic Forum and INSEAD, the UAE has figured within the top 30 countries in the ICT index, ahead of its neighbours in the region.
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