Panel: "Cybersecurity Next Dimension: Cyber Diplomacy" - Author Remarks

Background on the event:

The Regional Cybersecurity Week is one of the key strategic annual initiatives of the ITU-Arab Regional Cybersecurity Center in Oman established in 2013 and comes under the capacity-building pillar of the Center.

Given the importance of the topics addressed in the conference, in addition to the participation of a group of international experts and speakers as well as international cyber security companies and organizations that participated in the accompanying exhibition and presented a range of cyber security solutions and technologies, such continued success of the cyber security week resulted in being awarded 5 World Guinness Record Awards in the 2023 edition, breaking records for the largest global gathering attended by over 1600 participants from more than 70 countries around the world, including Arab and Islamic countries, African nations, and East Europe as well as central Asia, which made the regional cybersecurity week to be the largest cross-regional cybersecurity event.

The 2024 Regional Cyber Security Week was held in Muscat, Sultanate of Oman, from 28 - 31 October 2024, in collaboration with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

Information about author's participation:

In the panel entitled "Cybersecurity Next Dimension: Cyber Diplomacy" along with H.E. Stella Kloth, Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to Oman and Dr. Nadher Alsafvani, MENA Cyber Dialogue Advisor at Center for Humanitarian Dialogue (HD), Switzerland I spoke -among other things - about the development of the Diplomatic Technological Empowerment Framework (DTEF), an initiative I coined and developed, aimed at equipping diplomats with essential knowledge and tools for engaging with advanced digital technologies in their work. This initiative is part of my Professional Doctorate research in Information Security at the University of East London, where I focused on empowering diplomats in the areas of information security, digital diplomacy, and technological resilience, particularly in the Arab world and the Global South. The session was moderated by Badar Al Salehi - Director General, Oman National CERT and the Director of the Regional Cybersecurity center.