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du's third cyber security conference, sponsored by partner-sponsor Huawei, and presenting sponsors Cisco, HP, IBM, Oracle, Nokia, and others, welcomed 12 regional and international speakers to discuss the global importance of cyber security and its relevance in the UAE
Dubai, UAE - du’s highly anticipated Cyber Security Conference, which was held at Madinat Jumeirah in Dubai on October 9, 2016, proved to be a resounding success as luminaries from across the globe shared their knowledge and experience about the threats posed by cyber security, and the opportunities this opened for the development of future technologies. Eminent international speakers raised key issues including Cognitive Security, Security for 5G, Internet of Things, Cloud Security, and Security in the Digital Economy during the event.
Distinguished speakers from partner sponsor Huawei, Mr. David Francis and Professor Yale Li, took the opportunity to discuss the importance of international collaboration and the future of cyber security in the cloud. Huawei’s Chief Security Officer for Europe, Mr. David Francis, said during the conference: “The most pressing challenge we have at the moment is the lack of international alignment and international sharing. As far as cyber security is concerned, we [Huawei] have very much been promoting the need to work collaboratively together.”
“It is our collective responsibility to build security measures into our technologies, and particularly our cloud technologies to account for my prediction that the size of data, the number of IoT devices, and machine intelligent level will double approximately every two years,” added Professor Yale Li, Global Chief Strategist at Huawei.
Osman Sultan, du’s Chief Executive Officer, commented on the proliferation of the internet in our lives and its effects on cyber security: “The digital transformation is the defining factor of our age today. Think about it – everything that needs to be done, we are now doing remotely and online. As such, cyber security should not be an afterthought for an organisation, it should be at the heart of the thought itself. Cyber security is a collective responsibility – it has no boundaries or borders and it is the responsibility of us all.”
Key note speaker, Governor Tom Ridge, the first United States Secretary of Homeland Security defined resilience as the readiness to quickly identify, contain, and resolve a breach in order to ensure business continuity, to limit disruption, and to recover from a cyber security attack. While his main point of discussion was risk management, other speakers including Mr. Chris Esemplare, Global Vice President and General Manager of IBM Security Services; Mr. Giuseppe Targia, Vice President of Applications and Analytics Security for Nokia; and Naji Ukaily, Cisco’s Cyber Security Expert discussed security in its various forms. Oracle Fellow, Mr. Patrick McLaughlin and Mr. Lorenzo Gonzales, Hewlett Packard Enterprises’ Chief Technologist delved into new technologies including data and the cloud.
The conclusive panel discussion at the du Cyber Security Conference centered around the pertinent topic of smart cities, particularly addressing the cyber security challenges posed by the high connectivity and network requirements of smart cities. du’s Senior Vice President of Managed Services & Smart City, Marwan Bindalmook moderated the panel discussion, and Mr. Wesam Lootah, CEO at Dubai Smart Government Establishment, Governor Tom Ridge, Mr. David Francis from Huawei and Mr. Carlos Domingo - du’s Chief New Business and Innovation Officer formed the panel.
This year, the event once again hosted the popular hackathon with the aim of encouraging youth participation in the cyber security arena by encouraging Ethical Hacking. The event provided a safe learning environment for young hackers to test their skills and challenge them in a competitive environment. Khalifa University students emerged triumphant and were awarded the AED20,000 prize.
The du Cyber Security Conference promoted the sharing of information about the latest developments in cyber security, including information security risks, threats, vulnerabilities and safeguards. During its last two editions, Cyber Security Conference hosted a group of local, regional and global keynote speakers representing leading names in various key sectors. Main topics discussed varied from ‘Drone Hacking’ to ‘Envisioning Smart City Security Challenges’ and ‘Security Strategies for 2020’ among others.
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About du
We started operating in 2007, offering mobile and fixed telephony, broadband connectivity and IPTV services. Today, we serve more than 8 million individual customers and over 80,000 businesses in the UAE. We also provide carrier services for businesses and satellite up/downlink services for TV broadcasters.
We won the Gallup Great Workplace Award. Our recruitment strategy aims to provide fulfilling opportunities for quality talent in a cosmopolitan working environment where more than 60 nationalities work 35% of which are Emiratis. We are the first telecom company in the world to release a Sustainability Report based on GRI-G4 comprehensive guidelines. Among our other laurels, we also have the credit of being the first in the UAE to be awarded with prestigious LEED Platinum certification for 2 of our green retail outlet.
du is 39.5 percent owned by Emirates Investment Authority, 19.75 percent by Mubadala Development Company PJSC, 19.5 percent by Emirates International Telecommunications Company LLC and the remaining by public shareholders. Listed on the Dubai Financial Market (DFM), the company trades under the name ‘du’.
For further information, please contact:
Saugat Chatterjee
Brand & Communications
du
Mobile: +971559367045
Email: Saugat.Chatterjee@du.ae
Layal Dalal
Communications Manager
MSLGROUP
Email: layal.dalal@mslgroup.com
© Press Release 2016
