The UAE is staking its global leadership in securing smart city services and protecting critical national infrastructure, said an expert.

In the interconnected Internet of Things era, the UAE is one of the world’s best-prepared countries in cybersecurity, ranking 17 out of 105 countries by the United Nations’ International Telecommunications Union.

The Dubai government also recently launched its cyber security strategic plan to enhance protection of government services.

"As more Smart City and government services become digitized, the Internet of Things is a cyberattack force multiplier, with critical national infrastructure especially at risk," remarked Andrew Calthorpe, the chief executive of UAE-based smart city consultancy Condo Protego.

Condo Protego (Latin for storing and protecting) is a leading regional ‘consultative solutions provider’ for
enterprises to SME-sized customers.

The company focuses on data storage, virtualization, security, and data protection – providing not only 24x7 support coverage, but also unprecedented 30-minute response time.

"The UAE government is at the global forefront of protecting Smart Cities and providing residents with peace of mind while using government services," noted Calthorpe.

With the number of connected devices more than doubling from 23 billion in 2016 to 50 billion by 2020, cyberattacks will shift to 'disruptive' and 'destructive' attacks, especially on the hybrid cloud, mobile devices, and critical national infrastructure, according to a report by cybersecurity firm RSA presented at a recent industry conference in Abu Dhabi.

As a result, Condo Protego is seeing strong UAE public sector demand for cybersecurity solutions with advanced threat detection and response, such as RSA’s Security Analytics.
 
“Channel partners are vital for guiding public sector adoption of cloud or on-premise solutions to future-proof services, and the cybersecurity solutions with the full visibility, analysis, and action to prevent cyberattacks in real-time,” he added.-TradeArabia News Service