The Department of Information Systems at the College of Economics & Political Science, Sultan Qaboos University organized today, the First Information Systems Forum on the topic “Cybersecurity, Privacy and Trust” under the patronage of H.E. Hussein bin Ali Al Hilali, the Attorney General on April 13th, 2017. Researchers, developers in Information Systems security, and industry professionals from across Oman attended the event to exchange their knowledge and experiences on how to address security and privacy challenges for information systems, especially in business and governmental organizations. Along with technological issues, the forum discussed social issues related to cybersecurity and privacy. The forum addressed aspects related to cyber security and privacy that are of concerns to organizations and individuals, thus creating new opportunities for academics and practitioners in private and governmental sectors to exchange their knowledge and allow for discussion on the problems and solutions in the emerging area. The topics discussed included “cyber security governance; managing cyber security; cyber security for emerging technologies; and cyber laws, privacy, trust, and security awareness.
Delivering the welcome address, Hon. Dr. Saeed Mubarak Al-Muharami, Dean of the College of Economics & Political Science, said that with Internet-based services becoming more and more involved in everyday sensitive and critical applications and business processes, IS security, privacy and trust and forensic investigations are becoming an important concern especially with tremendous increase in cybernetic crimes. “The IS Forum addresses these aspects and aims to create new opportunities for academics and security practitioners in private and government sectors to exchange their knowledge and allow for discussion on the problems and solutions in these emerging areas”, he said.
The first keynote was delivered by Eng. Badar Ali al Salehi, Director General of Oman National CERT at the Information Technology Authority. He gave a general overview of cybercrimes across the world and in Oman in particular and the legal, social and technical issues, which cybercrime presents. Dr. Ramasubrahmaniam, Director and CEO of Valiant Technologies, Abu Dhabi, gave the second keynote on “cyber security governance”. The event included two panel discussions. The first panel discussion was on “cybersecurity for emerging technologies” by Mr. Maitham Al-Lawati, General Manager of Risk and Compliance at Oman Data Park, and Mr. Faiz Al Raisi , Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for Dreamlab Technologies-Oman, and chaired by Dr. Saqib Ali. The Second panel discussion was on “cyber laws, trust and security awareness” by Dr. Husain Al-Ghafri, Consultant and Legal Lawyer, and Dr. Saeed Al-Muqbali ,Chief Prosecutor-Public Prosecutor of Shinas,and chaired by Maimuna Al-Sulimani , Lawyer, academic and Founder of Law & Life Project.
The forum ended with closing remarks by Dr. Kamla Ali Al Busaidi, Head of the Information Systems Department at SQU. She indicated that the objective of this forum was to provide a platform for academics, students., researchers, developers in IS security, and industry and government professionals to meet to exchange knowledge and experiences on how to address security and privacy challenges for information systems, especially in business and governmental organizations, including not only technological issues but also social issues.
Media reports about the forum can be found at:
Al-Shabibi Newspaper(Arabic): http://www.shabiba.com/article/178025
Oman TV report: https://youtu.be/X336On9LVAU
Omantribune newspaper: http://omantribune.com/details/35630/
SQU latest news: http://www.squ.edu.om/Home-SQU-Media/Details-Page/ArticleID/5155/Information-Systems-Forum-Focuses-on-Cybersecurity-Privacy-and-Trust