Critical cyber infrastructure in the Mena region is being targeted and it needs to be protected on priority, said an expert.

“The Aramco and RasGas attacks (which formatted oil company hard drives in an attempt to cripple the targets) should be considered a wakeup call,” said Jukka Puputti, regional director at F-Secure, a global leader in providing security as a service through operators.

The company is a Silver Sponsor at the Cyber Defence Summit for the Middle East and North Africa taking place on March 4 and 5 at the Al Bustan Palace in Muscat.

“F-Secure’s strategic direction is to expand into the Mena market in the coming years. The Cyber Defence Summit offers a great way to meet operators’ stakeholders and allow us to fully focus our efforts on protecting the region by bringing our best breed of internet security and content cloud solutions,” explained Puputti.

The two-day initiative is co-organised by French business information group, naseba.

Nicholas Watson, managing director at the group said: “Middle East is increasingly becoming a principal target for cyber attacks. Reports in the industry mention massive numbers including $443 million lost to cybercrime and 1.5 million being victims of such crimes in UAE.

“The time to discuss best practices and act on them is now, having global leaders like F-secure, BAE Systems Detica and Cassidian reinforces the entire goal behind the summit.” – TradeArabia News Service