TRA Enhances Awareness with Cyber Security Workshop

Mobilk - The Telecom Regulatory Authority (TRA) organized a Cyber Security Workshop on Wednesday, 7th December 2016. The workshop was conducted in partnership with a team of Global Cyber Security experts from KPMG. The attendees of the workshop included Information Security professionals and technical experts from Leading Telecom Operators in Bahrain and senior Faculty members from University of Bahrain.

The workshop marked a significant step towards enhancing awareness within the Telecom Sector on the Cyber Security threats to the Digital world in general and the Telecom Industry in particular. The full day session also provided insights into best practices and frameworks used worldwide to address the rising threats over the Cyber space. The workshop is a part of ongoing strategic initiatives of the Telecom Regulatory Authority in line with 4th National Telecom Plan, to enhance the collaboration between various entities within the Telecom Sector on matters of cyber security to ensure resilience of Critical Telecommunications Infrastructure in supporting key sectors of the economy. 

In emphasizing the importance of Cyber Security, Dr. Khalid Al Khalifa, TRA Director of Cyber Security stated, “Cyber security is no longer an IT problem but a significant threat to businesses and needs to be addressed at the Board level. Critical business services are increasingly being rendered unavailable due to the disruptive attacks on the Telecom Infrastructure.” Stressing on the importance of secure development of the Telecom technologies Dr. Khalid added, “As 5G communications is set to change the world around us, it is important that these technologies are built on a secure foundation”. Dr. Khalid concluded by saying, “We as TRA are committed to ensuring that the Telecom infrastructure in the Kingdom of Bahrain is secure and reliable in supporting key sectors of the economy such as the Financial and the ICT sector”. 

The key note was delivered by Mr. Abubakar Arshad, the Cyber Security Advisor to the Telecom Regulatory Authority, during which he provided an overview of the Cyber threats facing the Telecom Sector worldwide and specifically Bahrain.

The sessions on the importance of sharing cyber threat intelligence was conducted by Mr. Akhilesh Tuteja who is the Global head of Cyber Security in KPMG. During the session Mr. Tuteja shared valuable insights on the need to share cyber security information to improve the resilience against targeted Cyber-attacks.  

Mr. Sony Anthony, a Partner at KPMG presented sessions on “Intelligence led Penetration Testing” and “NIST Cyber Security Framework” during which he presented international best practices that are being adopted by various Sectors worldwide to improve their Protection controls against cyber-attacks. During his session, Mr. Sony stressed upon the fact that, “rapidly changing threats landscape requires a robust architecture that can help Telecom Operators to respond to Cyber security challenges through a methodical approach”.