Dubai Electronic Security Center (DESC), the official government cyber security partner to the Gulf Information Security Expo and Conference ( GISEC) that is co-located with (GITEX) technology week announced yesterday at its main stage the Dubai’s Critical Information Infrastructure (CII).

The initiative aims to protect the critical information infrastructure providing the main services underpinning the city’s most critical functions.

The Director General of the Dubai Center for Electronic Security, His Excellency Yousef Al Shaibani said "Safeguarding future solutions and ensuring sustainability of government and private critical services is an important priority to the center’s efforts. The  CII initiative  sets to fortify the continuity of services and contribute towards achieving excellence in cyberspace."

Ayesha Al Marzooqi, Senior Permits at Dubai Electronic Security Center highlighted the objectives and outcomes of the (CII) initiative " This project, in cooperation with government entities, identifies the most critical services that government entities are providing across the different sectors, as well as provide a clear description of the interdependencies between those entities. The CII initiative will help provide a higher level of cybersecurity for those critical services and their supporting systems, which will protect them from cyber risks and ensure their continuity under all circumstances. In addition to defining the interconnectedness of these services and systems across all sectors, this project will provide a higher level of electronic security for these critical services."

Aligning with the Cyber Security Strategy for Dubai  that was developed by Dubai Electronic Security Center (DESC) and was launched in May 2017 by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and ruler of the Emirate of Dubai. Part of the successful implementation of this Cyber Security Strategy is the protection of organizations and business processes services.

Critical Sector Overview:

Emergency Services

The emergency services sector provides a wide range of prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery services during both day-to-day operations and incident response.

Health

• The health sector protects the health of Dubai citizens, and on a larger scale, the city of Dubai from infectious disease outbreaks and natural disasters. A considerable part of the sector’s assets are privately owned and operated, collaboration and information sharing between the public and private sectors is essential to increasing resilience of Dubai’s health infrastructure.

Electricity & Water

• The Dubai electricity and water infrastructure is one of the backbones of Dubai’s economy, well-being and success. This CII protection framework identifies the electricity and water sector as uniquely critical because all other CII sectors are dependent on it.

Government

• Many government facilities are open to the public for business activities, commercial transactions, or recreational activities while others that are not open to the public contain highly sensitive information, materials, processes, and equipment. In addition, the government in Dubai is responsible to ensure that all main functions of the city function reliably.

Transportation

• The transport sector ensures easy, safe and efficient transport within Dubai, the UAE and across the world, using aviation, roads, taxis, metro, and more.

Oil & Gas

• The oil and gas sector serves the growing energy needs of Dubai and contributes to the achievement of Dubai Plan 2021. It includes exploration as well as supply.

Information & Communication Technology

• The ICT sector is central to Dubai’s security and economy, as businesses, governments, academia, and private citizens are increasingly dependent upon ICT functions. These virtual and distributed functions produce and provide hardware, software, telecommunication, Internet, cloud services and more.

Finance, Banking and Trade

• The financial services and Trade sector represents a vital component of Dubai’s critical infrastructure that is important to the economic prosperity and continuity of Dubai

Tourism & Real Estate

• The tourism and real estate sector include a diverse range of sites that draw large crowds of people for shopping, business, entertainment, or lodging.

(DESC) also showcases at its stand located in Hall 1 the Dubai Cyber Security Index (DCI) that was recently launched by His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Dubai Crown Prince and Chairman of The Executive Council of Dubai, which contributes to enhancing the readiness of the government authorities and securing the cyberspace in the emirate. The (DCI)  showcases an interactive display that highlights the capabilities and details of the index.