Saudi Conference on IT and Security
Pat Mancino
Security Experts, Researchers, Academics, Government Leaders and Specialists from Across the Globe Meet in Riyadh for Historic Four-Day Working Conference
Riyadh - On behalf and under the patronage of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz; Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz, Deputy Premier, Minister of Defense and Aviation, and Inspector General, inaugurated a major conference on the use of modern information technology in security, held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on December 1-4, 2007 at the King Fahd Cultural Center.
The Conference on "Information Technology and National Security" was organized and chaired by HRH Prince Muqrin bin Abdulaziz, President of the General Intelligence Services. The four-day international symposium coincided with Saudi Arabia's efforts to highlight what it has done and is doing to underscore the importance of information technology in promoting social, political, economic, and national security. The conference attracted security experts, researchers, academics, government leaders, and specialists from across the world to convene Saudi Arabia’s first-ever international symposium devoted exclusively not only to the issues of information technology and modern civil society, but doing so in an open forum.
The conference commemorated the 50th Anniversary of the establishment of the Presidency of Saudi Arabia’s General Intelligence Service. It also recognized the efforts of past heads of Saudi Arabia's General Intelligence Presidency, including among others, HRH Prince Nawaf bin Abdulaziz and HRH
Prince Turki
Al-Faisal, who recently served as Saudi Arabia's Ambassador to the United States. In addition, the symposium was co-sponsored by some of the Kingdom's leading private sector firms and international companies including
Saad Group,
Kingdom Holding Company,
Dallah Albaraka, RTCC,
Al Faris, El Seif
Xenel, Saudi
Oger, Microsoft,
Oracle, and others whose leaders were publicly recognized by
Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz and other prominent personalities who addressed the gathering.
HRH Prince Muqrin noted in a publication distributed to the conference attendees, "Today, as everyone knows only too well, we live in the age of information, and managing information is no longer the same task it was before. A great deal of what used to take hard intelligence effort and time, can nowadays be readily available via open sources owing to the immense advancement in IT sectors, communication systems, transfers and storing data capabilities, surveillance, follow-up, remote controlling, and satellite transmission.. ..The General Intelligence Presidency has therefore, assumed this vital role of promptly collecting accurate data, performing the necessary analysis, and forwarding the final output to the decision makers." Prince Muqrin called on Saudi Arabians to do more to expand the role of information technology so that all citizens become aware of the plethora of information that is available to the public. HRH added, "We want to teach citizens to monitor things on the internet.. ..Mom and Dad must pay more attention to their kids."
The conference emphasized that critical infrastructure systems, facilities, and assets are so vital that, if destroyed or incapacitated, would disrupt the security, economy, health, safety, or welfare of the public. Infrastructure, he stressed, must be viewed not only as built by man but also as virtual (i.e., cyber networks, electronic data, and information systems.) Care and sensible counter measures, he added, must be continuously adapted to prevent harm to all citizens by those who attempt to impose "their nefarious agenda." One other point he was keen to express was that network security advancements are also great challenges faced by global leaders in their quest to adhere to the principles of openness, inventiveness, and the assumption of good will embodied in the Internet's founding.
A total of 94 research papers from specialists from across the globe were accepted at the conference. Complete texts of these papers may be viewed at
http://www.itns.org.sa
.
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