As part of its participation in GITEX Global 2022, Abu Dhabi government showcased its efforts to enhance the cybersecurity capabilities of government entities in the emirate, with the Abu Dhabi Digital Authority launching the Cyber Eye initiative - one of the key strategic projects in the field of cybersecurity at the local and regional level.
The Abu Dhabi Digital Authority implemented this strategic initiative in partnership with Etisalat and Trend Micro, in light of the accelerating pace of digital transformation in government services, and in response to the urgent need to provide the necessary cyber protection to ensure the security of digital assets, which are becoming increasingly dependent on cloud computing services.
The initiative aims to enhance the cyber capabilities of the Abu Dhabi government to ensure the security of its digital assets, by developing an advanced digital platform equipped with a first-of-its-kind technology and system to detect cyber threats as they occur. Once detected, effective proactive steps are taken to reduce risks and provide protection for public entities and private sector companies.
The Cyber Eye platform relies on Extended Detection and Response (XDR) system, which helps enhance the levels of cyber awareness in companies and organisations. The technology can collect and connect data automatically across multiple levels to detect, analyse and sort threats according to their degree of severity. This allows government entities to detect imminent risks faster, and thus avoid security incidents and data loss.
The initiative also seeks to enable cybersecurity teams within government entities to proactively detect security threats and provide responses across basic platforms. These teams will be responsible for network monitoring and risk analysis around the clock, in addition to conducting assessments of security levels and vulnerabilities, and detecting threats to networks in case of any suspected intrusion.
The initiative further aims to strengthen the capabilities of the Security Incident Response team, which is associated with managing security incidents that may affect government entities. The team will be tasked with fixing any defect resulting from these incidents to reduce their impact and limit the possibility of their recurrence, through the careful detection and assessment of threats, and applying lessons learned from these incidents in the future.
His Excellency Dr. Mohamed Abdelhamid Al Askar, Director General of the Abu Dhabi Digital Authority, said: “The Cyber Eye project aims to enhance the cyber security capabilities of government entities in Abu Dhabi at this sensitive stage of the digital transformation, standardisation of digital platforms, and the increasing reliance on cloud computing services. The project embodies the importance of strategic partnerships between the private and public sectors to support the pillars of the Abu Dhabi Digital Agenda.”
H.E. Al Askar pointed out that the project focuses on building an advanced digital platform to detect and proactively respond to malicious activities, cyberattacks and security threats that have become more sophisticated and hostile, in addition to enabling the competent security teams to exchange security warnings with government entities.
Majid Al Ali, Department Director - Cyber Security Operations, ADDA said: “The Cyber Eye initiative addresses the issue of infrastructure visibility and will promote standards and methods to enhance controls and capabilities for the purposes of optimizing resilience across government entities. Such methods will also allow technology teams to detect threats more quickly, including the most advanced attacks.”
The Abu Dhabi Government is participating for the eleventh time in GITEX Global 2022, following the great successes it achieved during previous participations. Last year, the Abu Dhabi Government Pavilion attracted more than 12,685 visitors, and 12 agreements and memoranda of understanding were signed. Additionally, 100 innovative initiatives and projects were also showcased in the field of digital transformation.
