UAE Government Stakes Global Leadership in Securing Smart Cities

RSA: Next Five Years Vital to Protect Critical National Infrastructure

Dubai, UAE, December 21, 2016:  The UAE is staking its global leadership in securing Smart City services and protecting critical national infrastructure.

In the interconnected Internet of Things era, the UAE is one of the world’s best-prepared countries in cybersecurity, ranking 17 out of 105 countries by the United Nations’ International Telecommunications Union. The Dubai government also recently launched its Cyber Security Strategic Plan to enhance protection of government services.

“As more Smart City and government services become digitized, the Internet of Things is a cyberattack force multiplier, with critical national infrastructure especially at risk. The UAE government is at the global forefront of protecting Smart Cities and providing residents with peace of mind while using government services,” said Andrew Calthorpe, CEO at the UAE-based Smart City consultancy Condo Protego.

With the number of connected devices more than doubling from 23 billion in 2016 to 50 billion by 2020, cyberattacks will shift to “disruptive” and “destructive” attacks, especially on the hybrid cloud, mobile devices, and critical national infrastructure, according to a report by cybersecurity firm RSA presented at the recent RSA Conference Abu Dhabi.

As a result, Condo Protego is seeing strong UAE public sector demand for cybersecurity solutions with advanced threat detection and response, such as RSA’s Security Analytics.
 
“Channel partners are vital for guiding public sector adoption of cloud or on-premise solutions to future-proof services, and the cybersecurity solutions with the full visibility, analysis, and action to prevent cyberattacks in real-time,” added Andrew Calthorpe.