Aiming to raise the awareness of more than 2000 employee in the field of information security this year, Muscat municipality launches "Wa`ay" campaign about information security in the advanced level.
on Tuesday the services affairs Assistant Manager of the municipality of Muscat Khaled ben Mohamed Burham a campaign to raise awareness about security of information on its second phase which aims to raise awareness of 1500 employee in 2015 after the positive outcomes achieved in the first phase which aimed to raise awareness of 600 employee in the beginners level this year. That is to enhance the awareness of security of information, informing about the risks involved and the best practices followed in governmental organizations in cooperation with the national center for information security from the informations techniques authority in the presence of the general manager of Al Salama information center of information techniques authority and a number of specialist in the municipality of Muscat. That was in the municipality main building.
the program commenced with a racital of the Holy Quran then Dr. Ibrahim ben Abdalla Al Rahby - the general manager of the general bureau of the Muscat municipality in Seeb, the directorial committee for the security of information and the supervisor of the campaign presented a worksheet entitled `towards an environment with information security. He confirmed that the municipality of muscat is taking advanced steps to protect information, making them available according to international standards of following the necessary procedures and enabling the necessary systems that provide the secrecy and security of information against hacking or losing them. He also spoke about the information security in the municipality of Muscat and its roles done by information systems in the municipality to provide devices and systems in compliance with the international standards of information security that protect its secrecy and protect it from risks inside or outside the organization. he stated the laws and legislations that support and organize functions of information security by stating the regulation and decisions bade by the municipality inself and the information technique authority.
"Wa`ay" campaign with advanced level that includes many aspects: Hacking and how to deal with it`s security breaches. as well as security of mobile phones, cloud-based computing, social media, instant texting, and internal risks.
Dr. Ibrahim Al Rahby spoke about the ways that can be followed to enable technical information security, elaborating the challenges facing this field in municipality and the suggested solutions.
Hence, the general manager of information security center demonstrated during the session the level of cyber security that the Sultanate has reached. He spoke about the necessity of activating and increasing efforts in governmental organizations to enhance the level of awareness of information security by statistics of verification and evaluation of information security on 36 systems and websites that showed 376 security loophole from 2011 to 2014. He also spoke about the definition of cyber security, the risks facing it and he mentioned the ways and techniques to stop them.
Success of the first phase of "Wa`ay"
Eng. Badr ben Ali Al Salhy - the general manager of information security center and the regional center of information technology in informations techniques authority- stated the quick responses and tangible achievements that the campaign has accomplished to raise the awareness about information security in its beginner stages in governmental organizations and it increased significantly in the stages of awareness of information security which has been noticed by the evaluation of the level of first stage which is what inspired the second phase of the campaign in the advanced level in Muscat municipality.
He expressed the necessity of focusing on establishing, finishing and activating departments, groups of information security in governmental organization for being depended on not just to raise the awareness but also to secure the organization in general. He also added that the information security center supports that approach, received calls from governmental organizations, helps them recover after hacking and rehabilitates employees to be able to prevent such hacks and threats.