The Ministry of Transport and Communications (MoTC) has launched the ‘4th National Cybersecurity Drill’ or ‘Star-4’ yesterday as part of the objectives of Qatar’s National Cybersecurity Strategy.
The drills under Star-4, which carries the theme ‘Managing Supply Risk in Supply Chain’, will run until Thursday to complement the series of national exercises initiated by Qatar Computer Emergency Response Team (Q-CERT) to raise the efficiency and readiness of various institutions against cyberattacks.
Speaking to reporters yesterday, Khalid al-Hashmi, assistant undersecretary, cyber security sector at MoTC, said Star-4 focuses on cybersecurity risks that may be encountered by various sectors.
He said the technical side of the drills aims to enhance surveillance, monitoring, and reporting by institutions when dealing with cyberattacks.
He noted that a team of specialists are ready to respond to various cyber emergencies.
Al-Hashmi said that this year’s drills are a combination of exercises (simulation of actual attacks or compromise) and workshops.
Nora al-Abdullah, cybersecurity training and awareness section manager at Q-CERT, pointed out that the cybersecurity drills do not gauge the number of attacks but measures of the readiness of Qatar organisations in the face of a cyberattack.
“Each organisation assists itself hence, it is a personal assessment. We come up with recommendations based on each year’s exercise so, each year we see what is their status and we share these findings with the organisations.
“The most positive effect of these drills is seeing all these organisations coming together and strengthen Qatar’s cybersecurity ecosystem, and I think that is the essence of having a national cybersecurity drill,” al-Abdullah explained.
Al-Hashmi also pointed out that the drills increase readiness and collaboration among organisations and supplies them with the knowledge and tools to contain any form of cyberattacks.
He said cybersecurity readiness also helps attract foreign investments into the country.
“One of the objectives of the national cybersecurity drill is to serve as a national indicator from the perspective of an investor. Any technology investor will decide to come to the region when they see these kinds of drills being conducted on the national level. Basically, this is an indicator of economic maturity,” al-Hashmi stressed.
According to al-Abdullah, the number of Star-4 participants increased since the launching of the first national cybersecurity drill (‘Star-1’) in 2013. This year, more than 250 people, representing 60 organisations from seven major sectors participated in Star-4, she said, adding that the cybersecurity drills are all based on international standards of readiness exercises.
Khalid al-Hashmi speaking during the launching of the ‘4th National Cybersecurity Drill’. PICTURE: Ram Chand
