Cyber risks in region rise amid digitisation

Middle East and Africa digital market to reach $35b this year

● Strategy&’s study has outlined strategic reforms to improve cybersecurity in the region through a threepronged framework.

The growing digitisation initiatives in the Middle East and Africa is adding to the region’s cyber threats, according to a new study by global consultancy Strategy&.

The region’s digital market (which includes social media and gaming, for instance) is set to reach $35 billion (Dh128 billion) in 2015. It could add $820 billion to regional gross domestic product (GDP), creating 4.4 million jobs by 2020, as per the study.

Governments and large organisations across different sectors have been damaged by cyberattacks. While they are trying to create a secure digital environment, these efforts are often fragmented, tactical and reactive as they do not include the participation of all essential stakeholders, Strategy& said in the study. This has resulted in defensive measures being circumvented or exploited.

Strategy&’s study has outlined strategic reforms to improve cybersecurity in the region through a threepronged framework and six applications. The framework, called “CCC”, bases its approach to a national cybersecurity programme on being comprehensive, collaborative and capability-driven.

It aims to be comprehensive by identifying key private and public stakeholders and their roles, establish their needs, and create an integrative plan to ensure their participation.

By being capability-driven, the programme needs to emphasise both proactive and reactive capabilities, including nationwide adoption of information assurance standards and planning for worst case scenarios to best recover from an attack.

CCC framework

“Adopting a national cybersecurity programme following our ‘CCC’ framework heightens the chances of preventing, adequately combating, and quickly recovering from cybercrimes. As our region’s digital markets flourish, equipping ourselves with appropriate safety measures is an absolute must to ensure consistent progress,” said Sevag Papazian, principal at Strategy&, in a statement.