du’s highly anticipated Cyber Security Conference, which was held at Madinat Jumeirah in Dubai on October 9, 2016, proved to be a resounding success as luminaries from across the globe shared their knowledge and experience about the threats posed by cyber security, and the opportunities this opened for the development of future technologies. Eminent international speakers raised key issues including cognitive security, security for 5G, Internet of Things, cloud security, and security in the digital economy during the event.
Distinguished speakers from partner sponsor Huawei, Mr. David Francis and Professor Yale Li, took the opportunity to discuss the importance of international collaboration and the future of cyber security in the cloud.
Key note speaker, Governor Tom Ridge, the first United States Secretary of Homeland Security defined resilience as the readiness to quickly identify, contain, and resolve a breach in order to ensure business continuity, to limit disruption, and to recover from a cyber security attack. While his main point of discussion was risk management, other speakers including Mr. Chris Esemplare, global vice president and general manager of IBM Security Services; Mr. Giuseppe Targia, vice president of Applications and Analytics Security for Nokia; and Naji Ukaily, Cisco’s cyber security expert discussed security in its various forms. Oracle Fellow, Mr. Patrick McLaughlin and Mr. Lorenzo Gonzales, Hewlett Packard Enterprises’ chief technologist delved into new technologies including data and the cloud.
The conclusive panel discussion at the du Cyber Security Conference centered around the pertinent topic of smart cities, particularly addressing the cyber security challenges posed by the high connectivity and network requirements of smart cities. du’s senior vice president of Managed Services & Smart City, Marwan Bindalmook moderated the panel discussion, and Mr. Wesam Lootah, CEO at Dubai Smart Government Establishment, Governor Tom Ridge, Mr. David Francis from Huawei and Mr. Carlos Domingo - du’s chief new business and innovation officer formed the panel.
This year, the event once again hosted the popular hackathon with the aim of encouraging youth participation in the cyber security arena by encouraging Ethical Hacking. The event provided a safe learning environment for young hackers to test their skills and challenge them in a competitive environment. Khalifa University students emerged triumphant and were awarded the AED20,000 prize.
The du Cyber Security Conference promoted the sharing of information about the latest developments in cyber security, including information security risks, threats, vulnerabilities and safeguards. During its last two editions, Cyber Security Conference hosted a group of local, regional and global keynote speakers representing leading names in various key sectors. Main topics discussed varied from 'Drone Hacking’ to 'Envisioning Smart City Security Challenges’ and 'Security Strategies for 2020’ among others.
