Doha, 16 May

The National Cyber Security Agency Of Qatar (NCSA) announced this morning accrediting of three IT Security Vetting labs under the Qatar Common Criteria scheme (QCCS) namely, TUV Informationstechniik GmbH, Germany; Beam Teknoloji, Turkey; and the National Testing and Vetting Laboratory Qatar

It was announced during a conference organised by NCSA entitled ‘Cyberspace in the State of Qatar: Compliance and Assurance’ held at Hotel Sheraton Doha in presence of Jassim Bin Seif Al Sulaiti, Minister of Transport; Engineer  Abdulrahman Bin Ali Al Malki, President of NCSA; a number of local and external bodies; and IT Specialists

Two organizations were issued first National Information Assurance (NIA) certificate of compliance on the occasion, including Public Prosecution; and Microsoft. These were issued by National Governance and Assurance Affairs at the NCSA within the National Information Security Compliance framework (NICSF).

In addition, Advisory Accreditations were also awarded to Deloitte & Touche Qatar and Pricewaterhouse Coopers-Qatar.

DERMALOG Identification Systems-GmbH Germany and Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd-China were awarded with certificates of compliance under QCCS.

Eng. Dana Al Abdullah, Director of National Governance and Assurance Affairs at the National Cyber security Agency, said on the occasion that their firm belief in strengthening the pillars of cybersecurity to facilitate progress and development in technological infrastructure, and protect it from renewable cyber threats, has been and continues to be the main motivation for us towards continuous efforts and comprehensively considering the various challenges in creating a safe cyberspace.

She said that the State of Qatar is keen to be proactive and keep pace with the continuous changes in the cybersecurity landscape, as we have adopted the approach of shared responsibility and involve the private sector and the supply chain in this responsibility through multiple programs.”

She said that ‘ The accreditation programs for cyber service providers were the first step to open bridges of mutual cooperation, and this resulted in knowing the readiness of the Qatari market for this type of partnership between the public sector and the private sector, as well as knowledge of the need of the public sector for this type of activity based on mutual trust and enhancing the importance of governance and assurance’.

Mariam Haji, Director of the Information Systems Department at the Public Prosecution, stressed that the accreditation obtained by the Public Prosecution is an incentive to develop and improve performance and raise the efficiency of its operations, pointing out that the Public Prosecution realizes that information security is an ongoing journey and a permanent conflict between good and evil, especially with the development of tools and technology.

She said that ‘the Public Prosecution has embarked on the project of complying with the national information assurance standards. This initiative was sponsored, supervised and followed up by the senior administration represented by the Attorney General. Thus, the Public Prosecution is the first entity in the country to attain the certification in order to support the national trends in the transition to a secure digital society’.

On the sidelines of conference, the National Cybersecurity Agency and Crest International signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) which aimed at raising competencies and capabilities in the field of information security by offering international accreditation certificates for service providers and professional certificates for individuals working in this field.

Eng. Dana Al Abdullah, Director of National Governance and Assurance Affairs, NCSA and
Roland Johnson, President of Crest International signed on hehalf of their organizations.

The conference witnessed a panel discussion on ensuring information security moderated by Eng. Noura Al-Abdullah of NCSA and penalists including Dr. Ashraf Ismail, National Cyber Security Agency; Mahamat Sakir, CEO of Beam Teknoloji; Kamel Zayan, Chief Cybersecurity Officer, Huawei, and Daniele Luzi, Director of Customer Engineering, Google.

The conference included a workshop on the compliance and accreditation program including participants from several sectors, in addition to a group of specialists and researchers in the field of information security.

Roland Johnson, President of Crest International delivered a speech on the Importance of Accreditation and Compliance.

The Cyber Security Agency aims to maintain and regulate the national cybersecurity and to promote and protect the vital interests of the state of Qatar in the face of cyberspace threats through programs and projects, most notably the programs of which are compliance with national information security standards and accreditations.