The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA), represented by the Computer Emergency Response Team (aeCERT), held a workshop on information security aimed at raising awareness on e-penetration using DNS hijacking. The workshop was held in TRA office, in the presence of 31 participants representing a number of government and private entities from the UAE and the Kingdome of Saudi Arabia (KSA).
The workshop aimed to increase readiness of the teams and experts of information security in the UAE and KSA, in addition to increase the experience of the participants by providing them with technical training in the fields of cyber security in general and the workshop subject in particular. It also introduced best practices in fields of cyber security, cyber penetration, and activation of partnerships between cyber security teams in the UAE and KSA.
Mohammad Al Zarooni, Director Policies and Programs Department in TRA, said: “This workshop is part of TRA’s efforts to ensure a safe and secure cyber space, through enabling human cadres to deal with online risks, ensure its safety, and respond to security breaches, control them and defeat hacking attempts to violate the privacy of others in this open space, which is the nerve of modern life. In this workshop, we highlighted the latest techniques used in cybersecurity. We addressed the main points that security officials and specialists should focus on. We also discussed the latest methods used by hackers, how to deal with them, as well as their impact on systems and institutions”.
The participants were briefed throughout the workshop on the international piracy groups that target the Arab region in general and the UAE in particular. They were also introduced to DNS Hijacking, and the results of these modifications of security vulnerabilities that may be exploited by hackers to penetrate security systems. The workshop discussed techniques to detect these vulnerabilities, resolve them and ensure the highest degrees of protection. The workshop also discussed the best practices in the field of cybersecurity, in order to meet the requirements of digital transformation and the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
aeCERT has been established to improve information security standards and practices, protect and support UAE ICT infrastructure against online risks and breaches, and build secure and protected ICT culture.
The team aims to strengthen the UAE law on combating cybercrimes, assist in the development of new legislation, raise awareness about information security on national level, build national expertise in information security, emergency management, and computer evidence analysis.