DOHA: The Supreme Council of Information and Communication Technology (ictQatar), through its Qatar Computer Emergency Response Team (Q-Ccert), organised Secure Energy 2013, a conference that highlighted the latest information security trends, challenges and risks to help organisations better manage information security in the critical energy sector.
“Qatar’s progress in cyber security in the energy sector, a vital sector for Qatar’s national economy, is being recognised the world over. The balanced anti-cyber threat mechanisms based on a modern regulatory framework and the adoption of an anticipatory monitoring and assessment approach together with awareness programmes have positioned Qatar as a leading country in cyber security,” said Khalid Al Hashimi, Executive Director, CSS/Q-Ccert, at the opening of the conference.
Q-Ccert aims to enhance the robustness of the cyber-security in Qatar through a host of policies and technical solutions that have been locally drafted and modified. Moreover, Q-Ccert plans to engage more with established research institutes, universities and other organisations to conduct research that would help improve Qatar’s defence systems and to address risks the country faces.
Qatari and Arab professionals will work on providing solutions developed locally and build small and medium-sized enterprises to invest in research findings and promote them through modern marketing channels.
Omar Sherin, Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Section Manager at Q-Ccert, spoke about information security risk management in ICS and said that ictQatar, will launch an online application for energy organisations to measure their compliance with the new ICS Security Guideline (SCADA) once it’s released in Qatar. The new ICS Security Guideline has been developed following Q-Ccert’s extensive consultations with energy corporations countrywide to make it localised and keeping abreast with latest technologies, he said.
The one-day conference, held on Thursday at Crown Plaza Hotel, featured several other discussions and case studies in the ICS threat landscape, challenges in securing ICS operation and other key areas of relevance to information security in the sector.
Speakers included Peter Panholzer from Limes security and co-author of +SECURE; Ibrahim Hamad from Dolphin Energy; Jonathan Pollet, Founder of Red Tiger Security; Jim Gilsinn, Co-Chair of ISA99/IEC 62443; and Mounir Kamal Incident handling and Forensics Section Manager at Q-Cert.
The Peninsula
