NCSA organises second QatarCyber Assurance Conference

The National Cyber Security Agency organised the second edition of Qatar Cyber Assurance conference under the title: ‘Governance of Cyber Security Supply Chain’.

The event was held in the presence of Minister of Communications and Information Technology HE Mohammed bin Ali Al-Mannai, Minister of State and Chairman of the Free Zones Authority HE Ahmed bin Mohammed Al-Sayed, President of the National Cyber Security Agency Engineer Abdul Rahman bin Ali Al-Farahid Al-Malki and President of the National Cyber Security Centre of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan Engineer Bassam Maharmah.

The conference witnessed launching the accreditation service for penetration testing service providers as part of the accreditation programme offered by the agency.

The aim of the conference was to enhance cyber awareness of governance and cyber security of supply chains by issuing certificates of compliance in accordance with national standards as well as accreditation programmes for cyber security service providers through Qatar Common Criteria Scheme which is recognised globally.

During the conference, the National Cyber Security Agency and Qatar Free Zones Authority signed a memorandum of understanding aimed at the governance of companies that provide cyber security services in addition to signing a memorandum of understanding between the agency and Qatar Financial Centre for the Governance of companies that provide cyber security services and regulate data privacy.

National Cyber Security Agency President Engineer Abdul Rahman bin Ali Al Farahid Al-Malki said: “Today we celebrate the second edition of Qatar Cyber Assurance Conference, which culminates the mission of the National Cyber Security Agency in strengthening and developing the governance of cyber security supply chain in the State of Qatar.

He expressed pride in Qatar’s achievement of obtaining the internationally recognized approval for issuing information security certificates for IT devices as the first country in the Middle East and North Africa to issue those from the Common Criteria Recognition Arrangement (CCRA).

Director of the Cyber Assurance Department at the National Cyber Security Agency, Engineer Jassim Al-Muftah, said that the National Cyber Security Agency is working hard to raise the efficiency of service providers in the cyber security field through the Accreditation Programme, which is one of the programmes of the National Framework for Information Security Compliance.

He explained that this programme is based on measuring the commitment of service providers to the quality and standards necessary to perform penetration testing including the efficiency of capabilities, the quality of procedures and the safety of services.

The conference hosted the Director of Regulatory Affairs at Singapore Cyber Security Agency, Lawrence Tai, as a keynote speaker. Tai reviewed Singapore experience in securing supply chain, shared lessons learned and success stories. It also included hosting keynote speakers from the Republic of Turkey and Germany to review experiences related to the examination of devices and applications.

The conference included a panel discussion on supply chain and cyber security service providers moderated by Director of Risk, Resilience and Crisis Management at the National Cyber Security Agency, Engineer Noura Al-Abdulla, with the participation of Director of Governance and National Cyber Security Affairs Engineer Dana Yousef Al-Abdullah, Director of the Regional Office of the International Telecommunication Union for Arab States Adel Darwish, Cybersecurity Expert and Specialty Director in Digital Transformation at Carneby Kay Nqambki, and Dr. Daniel Phelps from Carnegie Mellon University Qatar.Accreditation service for penetration