Cybersecurity competition winners to represent Oman at regional conference

Muscat: The third edition of cyber stars competition, organised by the Arab Regional Cybersecurity Center and Silensec and sponsored by Ernst & Young, has concluded.

The competition winners from the 24 and above age group were Salim Darwish Al Moqbali, who won best attacker, Rami Thani Al Amri, who was awarded best defender . The 17 to 24 age group winners were Rashid Hilal Al Abri, who won the best attacker and Malik Hilal Al Rawahi, who won the best defender, while Salim Ali Al Badi won the best responder to security incidents

The winners from both age groups will represent Oman at the annual Regional Cybersecurity Conference, organised by the Arab Regional Cybersecurity Center, in October.

Aziza Sultan Al Rashdi, Director of Cybersecurity Professional Services at the Information Technology Authority (ITA), emphasised the importance of such challenges in developing the capabilities and potential of Omanis, as technology undergoes rapid changes. “We are witnessing rapid and continuous updates and developments in technology and consequently attacks and security threats are developing, which requires parallel if not superior capabilities to those of the attackers. The Oman CERT is keen to develop Omanis in this field through a number of training programmes. In this edition of the cyber stars competition, we focused on ethical piracy, the protection of infrastructure systems, malware analysis and digital forensics analysis.”

The competition aims to develop talent in the Arab world within the field of cybersecurity and enhance the ability of Arabs to compete at both the regional and international levels. Out of 260 registrants, 40 participants competed in the final stage.

The ITU-Arab Regional Cybersecurity Center was launched in December 2012 by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the Sultanate, represented by the ITA. The centre provides assistance for Arab countries to establish national cybersecurity centres and helps them gain international recognition.