UAE at heart of global alliance to protect one billion people from growing cyber threats

Etisalat is one of three telecom operators forming an alliance with Japanese technology giant SoftBank Group to offer cyber security services to businesses, helping them to combat rising cyber threats.

The companies, which include Spain’s Telefonica and Singapore’s Singtel, have signed a pact for the Global Telco Security Alliance, which will have more than 1.2 billion customers in more than 60 countries across Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East and the Americas, Etisalat said on Thursday.

“Under the agreement, the group will share network intelligence on cyber threats and leverage their joint global reach, assets and cyber security capabilities to serve customers worldwide.”

The Abu Dhabi company said by using “each member’s respective geographic footprint and expertise, the alliance is able to support each other’s customers anywhere and anytime, allowing them to respond rapidly to any cyber security threats”.

Such security threats are on the rise as perpetrators use new tools for attacking businesses and penetrating information technology infrastructure.

The cybersecurity market, which was estimated to be worth $122.45 billion (Dh449.6bn) in 2016, is forecast to rise to $202.36bn by 2021, according to Statista.

Last May, major companies such as FedEx and Telefonica, with public institutions including the UK’s National Health Service, were victims of a worldwide WannaCry ransomware attack. Researchers at Kaspersky Lab at the time recorded more than 45,000 attacks in 74 countries worldwide, including the UK, UAE, Spain, Russia and Saudi Arabia.

“SoftBank is excited to join the initial alliance partners including Singtel, Telefonica and Etisalat, to offer enhanced security to our customers and advance our cyber defence,” said Andrew Schwabecher, Softbank’s head of the cloud and cybersecurity division.

This is not the first collaboration between an Abu Dhabi company and Masayoshi Son’s Softbank.

Mubadala Investment Company, the strategic Abu Dhabi firm managing $127bn in assets, is one of the largest investors in Softbank’s $100bn Vision Fund, pledging $15bn to the vehicle last May.

It subsequently established a venture capital arm in October to oversee its commitment to the Vision Fund and two other investment vehicles.