DOHA: The Qatar Computer Emergency Response Team (Q-CERT) at the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology (ictQATAR) is to conduct its third National Cyber Security Drill ‘Star-3’ in collaboration with Qatar University (QU).
Khalid Al Hashmi, Assistant Undersecretary, Cyber Security Sector, ictQATAR, and Dr Sumaya Al Maadeed, Head, Computer Science and Engineering Department, College of Engineering, QU, told a press conference that cyber drills every year aim to measure the level of readiness against evolving cyber threats.
‘Star-3’ to be held this month will be sector-specific, focusing on building defence strategies to create opportunity for participating organisations to test and improve their internal procedures, understand cyber security holistically and assess sectorial maturity.
Organisations from the energy, finance, government, telecommunications, healthcare, education, sports and transportation sectors will participate in Star-3, in addition to ICT providers and academia. “The drill is not a competition, not an audit. There is no pass or fail. It is for organisations to test their processes and learn from their peers.
There will not be any kind of ranking or benchmarking of any kind among participating organisations,” said Al Hashmi.
The goal of developing and cultivating national cyber security capabilities explain why QU students are invited to the four-day event.
“This year, ictQATAR is organising Star-3 in collaboration with QU and inviting students from other universities. This fulfils the fourth objective of the National Cyber Security Strategy: Develop and cultivate national cyber security capabilities,” said Dr Sumaya.
The number of participants has increased about 200 percent since the first drill. The expected number of participants is over 300 from 46 organisations.
Ahead of Star-3, Q-CERT invited participating sectors to a half-day workshop on business crisis and continuity management to bring all participants up to speed on cyber security concepts that need to be applied during the drill.
The Peninsula
