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GCC Fights Cyber Crimes | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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GCC, Cyber Crime, PKI


Riyadh – In a new attempt to anticipate any electronic attack on Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states, the Electronic Governmental Ministerial Committee will hold its fifth meeting in the Kingdom of Bahrain on Wednesday.

The committee will discuss the Gulf strategy for cyber and information security as well as cooperation among GCC states in information technology, according to a source.

The source added that the content and IP addresses of the suspicious sites will be given to all GCC countries through a common system.

GCC Secretariat General said Tuesday that the Ministers will launch the suspicious website system IP Reputation, which enables computers emergency response centers of the GCC States to monitor and track suspicious web addresses around the world, in order to prevent threats these addresses may cause.

The ministerial committee will review during the meeting the initiatives of the first phase contained in the pilot e-Government Strategy.

The committee will also discuss the start of implementing five joint electronic services as a preliminary phase and will adopt information security strategy for the safety and cyber-security of the GCC States.

The committee will also discuss topics pertaining to public key infrastructure (PKI) and GCC technical services aimed at enhancing the role of e-Government in serving the citizens of the GCC countries and providing services easily through a safe and efficient environment.

Cybersecurity is an important regional issue as businesses become increasingly digital. Whilst all industries are at risk of cyberattacks, financial services, governments, healthcare, transport and manufacturing sectors are the most commonly targeted.

In addition, the ministerial committee’s meeting will discuss the recommendations of the GCC e-Government’s executive committee at its recent meetings, which highlighted several topics related to e-Government and IT in cybersecurity and information emergency response.