Smarter borders critical to national digital transformation

Dubai - "If done well this cooperation will help India and the UAE build better smart and resilient services and send signals to adversaries to look elsewhere."

The UAE and India signed a memorandum of understanding, or MoU, for cooperation in the area of combating electronic crimes on Thursday and this is perceived as an interesting cooperation that has to be viewed in the context of both countries ambitious plans to build the smartest cities and nations in the world, says Ash Pal, chief disruption officer, BloodyIT.
BloodyIT is working on several smart city projects in the UAE. Pal said: "We see significant effort to build smarter borders as critical to national digital transformation with the best protection coming from tight integration of cross-border data, people and processes. Smart cross-border collaboration that addresses these areas will combat international electronic crimes most effectively than the traditional piecemeal efforts. If done well this cooperation will help India and the UAE build better smart and resilient services and send signals to adversaries to look elsewhere."
The MoU was signed between the UAE's Ministry of Interior and India's Ministry of Home Affairs aiming at boosting cooperation in the area of electronic crimes, which threaten to destabilise societies. The high-level UAE delegation led by His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, visit to India also focused on security issues.
The two nations agreed to strengthen their strategic partnership by continuing to work closely together on a range of security issues, particularly on counter-terrorism, maritime security and cyber-security, while re-affirming their respect for the bedrock principles of national sovereignty and non-interference.
"Investments in security measures will undoubtedly need to increase in government and businesses because of cyber and smart city initiatives. Given that India and the Middle East are somewhat behind in this area I'd say they need to double. I think the UAE is in better shape as security is part of the national scorecards and the Expo has driven greater focus in this area. Selective increase in spending on tools is needed but most investment will be required in high quality people and security operations. India and the UAE need to make significant investments in resilience (such as development of digital security operations centres) and in upgrading the quality of leadership. Cyber threats are a daily part of life and resilient security leaders who can handle hourly emergencies as routine events are required," said Pal.
"It's important to know that the government will not solve this problem and companies will need to do their fair share of the work as their international data flows between the UAE and India and are more significant than those of government and need to be better protected from state and non-state cybercrime. Every organisation is at risk from cybercrime. External criminals and terrorists are not the major problem and many examples exist of cybercriminals who have been employees, teenage children and family members. All ministry heads and CEOs need to identify the major risks to their organisations and the level of risk they are willing to tolerate. India and the UAE have stated that they wish to be leaders in digital transformation and disruption. This cooperation if executed well puts them one step closer to that goal."
The recently released Cisco 2016 annual security report examines threat intelligence and cybersecurity trends, and reveals that only 45 per cent of organisations worldwide are confident in their security posture as today's attackers launch more sophisticated, bold and resilient campaigns.
Rabih Dabboussi, General Manager, Cisco UAE, said: "Today, more than ever before, increased collaboration, communication and coordination - both within organisations and across the security industry - are required to effectively combat cyber threats. Across the board, organisations in the UAE will need to invest in the people, processes and technologies that will enable themselves to become more resilient in the face of new attacks and compete in the new digital age."
- sandhya@khaleejtimes.com