The Industrial Cybersecurity Center its represented in the Middle East by three internationally well-known experts: Ayman AL-Issa, Samuel Linares e Ignacio Paredes, CCI Coordinators for Middle East (CCI Coordinators Team).
Several reports and studies allow the Center to characterized the Industrial Cybersecurity madurity of the UAE - United Arab Emirates. Among them – and as analyses source of this article-, should be mentioned:
- Cyberwellness Profile United Arab Emirates (de ITU)
- Cyber security in the Middle East Strategy: A strategic approach to protecting national digital assets and infrastructure (de PwC)
- A false sense of security? Cybersecurity in the Middle East (de PwC)
- Challenging Environment Elevates SCADA Cybersecurity to the Executive Level (de Booz Allen Haminton)
Thanks to the information provided by these reports, it can be described the sensitivity level of the industrial organizations in the region, according to the following percentages:
In addition, the trend in this aspect for recent years has been a slight increase.
UAE - United Arab Emirates counts with local and national public bodies promoting an adequate legal framework, in order to ensure the progressive incorporation of industrial cybersecurity measures in regional presence companies (mainly critical infrastructure). The main organizations are:
- NESA National Electronic Security Authority
- AECERT Arab Emirate CERT
- TRA Telecommunications Regulatory Authority
- Among the main national laws and regulations affecting in this context in UAE - United Arab Emirates, it should be highlighted the NESA UAE Information Assurance (IA) Standards, with the
- National Cyber Risk Management Framework.
Analysing the most widely adopted industrial cybersecurity measures by United Arab Emirates organizations to protect industrial automation systems, it should be highlighted the application of:
- Compliance Assessments
- Industrial cybersecurity consulting / advisory
- Ethical hacking
- Internal security audits
- External security audits
- Conventional firewalls
- Industrial firewalls
- IDS / IPS
- Backups
- Log correlation
- Encrypted communications
- Industrial applications control
- Whitelisting
- Antivirus
- Cybersecurity training and awareness
In conclusion, regarding the UAE industrial cybersecurity maturity level, thanks to the sources consulted (see note below), it can be characterized the industrial cybersecurity situation in this region with the following SWOT analysis:
Weaknesses
- Lack of alignment between business, cybersecurity departments and suppliers
- Excessive duration of the acquisition / purchase periods that slow down the agile evolution of the projects.
- Lack of operational technologies certifications, processes and professionals
| Strengths
- Awareness, especially regarding industrial critical infrastructures
- Increase of Industrial cyber security trained professionals
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Threats
- Extremely advanced Threat Landscape
- Development of industrial applications without cybersecurity requirements
- Shortage of local industrial cybersecurity professionals working for manufacturers
- Shortage of specific industrial cybersecurity risk management tools
| Opportunities
- Strategic position in the industrial cyber security sector
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