Dr. Mohamed Al Kuwaiti, the Managing Director of the United Arab Emirates National Data Centre under the Supreme Council for National Security (Head of Cyber Security in short), this week told Cyber Week, the large annual international cybersecurity event hosted by Tel Aviv University, that “Israel and the national cyber system helped us repel a denial-of-service (DDOS) cyber-attack.”
Al Kuwaiti was joined on stage by Gabi Portnoy, Director General of the Israel National Cyber Directorate, as well as Sheikh Salman bin Mohammed bin Abdullah al-Khalifa, CEO of the National Cyber Security Center in Bahrain, Brig. Gen. El Mostafa Rabii, Morocco’s Director General of cyber security, and Robert Silvers, US Undersecretary for Policy at the Department of Homeland Security.
On Monday, Shin Bet Chief Ronen Bar told the Cyber Week conference that “today’s Palestinian terrorists are created online. Bar said, “The ‘Iron Dome’ that the Shin Bet is developing in cyberspace is already taking its first steps, the array of alliances is emerging and it has already come into action. We are already cooperating with several significant countries in the field and we see the global cyber Iron Dome beginning to take shape.”
In his speech, Al-Kuwaiti praised Israel as one of the major countries that help the UAE in building a cyber dome: “There’s this great startup nation,” he said, “We get a lot from many companies that help us build a cyber dome or expand our existing cyber dome.”
Al-Khalifa told the conference: “The first word needed for success is trust, and what you see in front of you today is trust. We’ve all been working together behind the scene but now we’re past that stage, and I think we now want to see this trust in action.”
Gaby Portnoy described the Cyber Dome project as a big data, AI, and an overall approach to proactive cyber defense, relying on a collaborative effort between cybersecurity leaders in Israel and around the globe to create “the most prominent dimension of future warfare.”
Portnoy said: “The Cyber-Dome will elevate national cybersecurity by implementing new mechanisms in the national cyber perimeter and reducing the harm from cyberattacks at scale. The Cyber-Dome will also provide tools and services to elevate the protection of the national assets as a whole … and will synchronize nation-level real-time detection, analysis and mitigation of threats.”
Portnoy concluded: “We are facing common cyber challenges. The attack surface is expanding along with new technologies and the increasing motivation of attackers. We need to face the challenges in partnership and use the knowledge we have gained and new technologies for a better and faster defense.”
Over the past 12 years, Cyber Week has become internationally acclaimed as one of the top cybersecurity events in the world. Cyber Week offers a unique gathering of cybersecurity experts, industry leaders, startups, investors, academics, diplomats, and government officials. With more than 9,000 attendees from more than 80 countries, this conference offers a thought-provoking exchange of knowledge, methods, and ideas that you won’t want to miss. Events will run for a full week and include over 50 roundtables, panels, workshops, forums, BSides, competitions, and more.
