Oman signs agreement in cybersecurity cooperation with World Economic Forum

The Sultanate represented by the Information Technology Authority (ITA) signed an agreement with the World Economic Forum, at the ITA premises in KOM. The cooperation aims to explore opportunities for building a non-exclusive collaboration between them towards promoting cybersecurity, increasing cyber capacities and identifying potential cooperation in projects and initiatives to mitigate cyber threats, including -but not limited to- cyber security capacity building and workforce development, cyber threat early warning, CERT/CSIRT implementations, global cyber network for response and cybersecurity of Internet-of-Things.

The agreement was signed with Dr. Salim Sultan Al Ruzaiqi, CEO of ITA, and Troels Oerting, Head of Global Centre for Cybersecurity, (GCC), at World Economic Forum.

Dr. Salim Al Ruzaiqi, CEO of ITA, commented on the signing: “Through this agreement we seek to strengthen cooperation between the Sultanate and the World Economic Forum in the field of cybersecurity and we hope that the agreement will contribute to enhancing the role of the Sultanate as a developed country in the field of cybersecurity readiness as we are ranked first place in the Arab world and fourth worldwide. The Sultanate is playing a major role in helping other countries build their capabilities to face the cyber threats and risks. The agreement will also provide investment opportunities for local and international companies working in cybersecurity."

On the signing agreement, Troels Oerting, Head of Global Centre for Cybersecurity, (GCC), at World Economic Forum, said: “I think the cyber security is the most important thing these days where we transform the whole world into digital way, so we simply connect all physical equipment to the digital world and the cloud for that security is needed. I am very grateful today that we have signed a MoU agreement with the government of Oman and the ITA in order to enhance our cooperation on how to protect the innocent users of the internet not to be victims. The only way we can do that is by working together. By working with Oman we also get access to many other countries in the region and over the globe because Oman is known as the Switzerland of the middle east for its neutral roles. I also been impressed by the expertise in this country in cyber security so we are looking forward to generate big projects together and to improve security not just for Oman but also for everybody else in the world.”

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World Economic Forum

The World Economic Forum is the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation and a not-for profit foundation that is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. It engages the foremost political, business and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas.

ITA is a Public Authority created by Royal Degree 52/2006. ITA endeavours to consolidate and implement the Digital Oman strategy to transform the Sultanate of Oman into a knowledge-based economy for the achievement of social and economic benefits to Omani society. ITA’s vision is ‘Transforming Oman, Empowering You’. For more information, visit www.ita.gov.om  or email to eoman@ita.gov.om .

For more information or media clarification, please contact:

Sumaiya Humaid Al Kindi

Media Specialist

Information & Awareness Division

Telephone:            +968 2414 9513

GSM:                       +968 9540 5850

Fax:                         +968 2416 6604

Email:                      sumaiya.alkindi@ita.gov.om 

© Press Release 2018