Page 123 - SAMENA Trends - October 2019

REGULATORY & POLICY UPDATES SAMENA TRENDS

Saudi Arabia

Dr. Mohammed bin Saud Al-Tamimi has been appointed as was even a few years ago,” said Hammami. “A traditional WAF
governor of Saudi Arabia’s Communications and Information was once enough to mitigate application layer attacks. This is
Technology Commission, according to Saudi Press Agency. Al- no longer the case and keeping up with increasingly advanced
Tamimi’s appointment, announced on Monday, was made through attack tactics requires a step-change. Exploits are outpacing
royal decree by King Salman. (October 29, 2019) arabnews.com existing defenses and, even when a traditional WAF can mitigate
the threat, the associated implementation and management can
Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Energy has outlined how it is adapting be problematic.” F5 Advanced WAF addresses such challenges
and maintaining its world-class defense against evolving global head on, providing malicious bot protection, application-layer
Cybersecurity threats. “Cyberattacks aimed at disrupting critical encryption, API inspection, and behavioral analytics to defend
infrastructures are becoming more nuanced, advanced and against application attacks. It also addresses the problem of
difficult to spot. There can be no compromise when it comes to cybercriminals’ increasing use of automation to scan applications
our defensive posture and we cannot afford any disruption or for vulnerabilities, attack account credentials, or cause denial of
downtime. There is no margin for error as we expand, safeguard service (DoS). With F5 Advanced WAF, the Ministry uses proactive
and diversify the Kingdom’s future energy security,” said Wahid S. bot defenses to stop automated attacks, leveraging a combination
Hammami, CIO, Ministry of Energy, speaking at GITEX Technology of challenge- and behavior-based techniques to identify and filter
Week 2019. A key component of the Ministry’s bid to reinforce out bot traffic. Advanced WAF also includes F5 DataSafe, which
its Cybersecurity and digital transformation credentials entails encrypts data and credentials at the application-layer—without
working with application delivery and multi-cloud application having to update the application. The Ministry’s work with F5 to
services expert F5 Networks to protect online services. Ensuring date also encompasses F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM),
robust security and available, agile service delivery is more which gives users easy, contextually secure and scalable access
important than ever as the Ministry ramps up its central role in to applications and data, irrespective of device or location – from
Saudi Arabia’s era-defining Vision 2030 rollout. The government data center and the cloud to SaaS-based or hybrid environments.
expects local energy consumption to increase three-fold by 2030, Meanwhile, data center and disaster recovery are handled by F5
which will require combining hydrocarbon-based energy sources global server load balancing (GSLB) to ensure the high availability
with renewables, as well as driving a host of cutting-edge R&D of your global applications in all environments. F5 GSLB distributes
initiatives. To stay ahead of the curve, and to lay the foundation user application requests based on business policies, data center
for future success, the Ministry deployed F5® BIG-IP® Local and cloud service conditions, user location, and application
Traffic Manager™ (LTM). This enables it to move beyond mere performance. Underpinned by the BIG-IP platform, the solution
load balancing to achieve intelligent, granular network control delivers high-performance DNS services with visibility, reporting,
based on server performance, security, and availability. Because and analysis. It can also hyperscale and secure DNS responses
BIG-IP LTM is a full proxy, it is possible to inspect, manage, and geographically to combat DDoS attacks and deliver a real-time
report on all application traffic entering and exiting the network. DNSSEC solution. “Attacks against organizations in charge of
It also helps simplify, automate, and customize application critical assets will only continue to increase across the world,
services faster and with greater predictably. LTM is augmented and Saudi Arabia is no different. The challenge is complex and
with F5® Advanced Web Application Firewall (Advanced WAF) to fast-changing, which is exactly why we need to work with experts
stop attacks before they reach applications, while also providing like F5 Networks that can scale and adapt to our operational and
critical security controls to protect data both on-premises and service-delivery ambitions, as well as the evolving challenges we
in the cloud. “The threat landscape is vastly different than it face,” added Hammami. (October 9, 2019) saudigazette.com.sa

Turkey

The 12th International Conference on Information Security and only affect individuals, Turhan said, Cyber security has become
Cryptology started at the Information and Communication Tech- one of the most important agenda items of institutions, countries
nologies Authority. This year, the program was held with the theme and international organizations. With cyber-attacks, it is possible
of “Cyber Security and Post-Quantum Cryptology. Ömer Fatih to obtain bank account information of a computer user, to reach
Sayan, Information Security Association President Ahmet Hamdi the military and political secrets of a country, to make financial
Atalay, as well as many guests participated in the names. Minister centers, power plants, transportation and communication sys-
Mehmet Cahit Turhan, who addressed the guests at the opening tems and hospitals inoperable. Unfortunately, thanks to infor-
of the program, spoke about the point and effects of technology. mation and communication technologies, these opportunities
Stating that the dangers in cyber or virtual environments do not that make our lives and our jobs easier can be used by malicious
123 OCTOBER 2019