The Ministry of Technology and Communications has announced the launch of Sas Accelerator for cybersecurity. The announcement came at the launch of the Regional Cybersecurity Week, which opened on Monday under the auspices of His Highness Sayyid Shihab bin Tareq al Said, Adviser to His Majesty the Sultan.
Dr Salim Sultan al Ruzaiqi, CEO at the Ministry of Technology and Communications, said, “We are glad to announce that the Ministry of Technology and Communications will take Sas Accelerator for Cybersecurity under its wings with the Oman Technology Fund and some international partners, to support and develop emerging tech companies in the area of Cybersecurity.
Registration for the programme will start in November, and the participating teams will start the accelerator programme during the first quarter of 2020 and it will continue for 10 weeks.
This programme targets the teams and companies specialising in cybersecurity in the MENA and which are still in the idea development phase. It will focus on technology business fields relating to cybersecurity like product analysis, added value, building a prototype and reaching to investors.”
Dr Al Ruzaiqi also highlighted the impact of fourth Industrial Revolution (4-IR) on the cybersecurity field. He said, “The applications and programmes of the 4-IR, such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, Internet of Things, 3D printing, big data, robotics, virtual reality and augmented reality technologies, and smart cities, have become fundamental pillars of the economies of the third millennium, and are radically changing the market demands in terms of work skills and competencies, rules and foundations of financial dealing, and trade, and methods of service delivery.
There is no doubt that these new technologies that cover different aspects of life require rapid transformation of cybersecurity, where AI can enhance cybersecurity by leveraging existing data to analyse vulnerabilities and identify potential risks and work to correct security vulnerabilities.”
On the sidelines of the summit, the results of the third edition of Regional Cyber Stars competition was revealed. The competition was organised by the Arab Regional Cybersecurity Center and Silensec and sponsored by Earnest & Young. The competition aims to develop skills and talents in the Arab countries in the field of cybersecurity and enhance their ability to compete at the regional and international levels. The participants were divided by age into two groups; 7 to 24 years old and 24 years and older and in this edition 383 participants competed from 8 countries.
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