Cyber-threats need smart tactics
Security has to be woven every step of the way within the set strategic objectives to achieve the smart city vision, said Rabih Dabboussi, senior vice-president of sales, business development and marketing at DarkMatter Group.
Speaking to Khaleej Times on the sidelines of the recent Hack In The Box Security Conference, Dabboussi explained that regarding security protocols as an afterthought to a smart city vision is setting up for a failure.
"We have seen how complex the digital infrastructure in smart cities are," he said. "For a city to become smart and resilient, you need a complex framework of policy, guidelines and laws. Everyone and everything will be attacked at one point or another, so you need to look at your capacity to recover. For this to happen, the focus has to be on simulating scenarios of what happens when something will be compromised," he added.
Organised by Hack In The Box (HITB), in cooperation with Dubai Electronic Security Centre (DESC), the event featured a range of high profile cybersecurity speakers from around the world who explored cutting-edge developments in the field, including topics such as AI and blockchain tech. "We are confident that this event will have a huge impact on cybersecurity not only in the UAE but regionally," said Dr Bushra Al Blooshi, DESC head of research and innovation.