ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates - Saturday, April 5th 2014 [ME NewsWire]

At the closing ceremony of the 5th International Cyber Crimes Conference, organizers and participants submitted a letter of thanks and appreciation to Lt. General HH Sheikh Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, for his generous sponsorship and unlimited support for this conference, which recommended that specialized prosecutions in cyber crimes should be established in both the federal and local courts.

The conference also recommended intensifying awareness programs within society that include all concerned categories, especially children, with a focus on community-based awareness for information technology users. It also called for including legal and security education related to information technology risks into school curricula, as well as providing judicial departments specialized in IT crimes with qualified personnel that undergo continuous training to keep up with the latest developments, in addition to preparing a guidebook on the related provisions and regulations, and establishing judicial departments specialized in IT crimes in the local and federal courts.

The conference called for enhancing coordination between information technology regulatory authorities, law enforcement agencies and judicial authorities with regard to combating cyber crimes; taking into account the need to use international best practices to combat these crimes.  It also called for developing a smart phone application that acquaints users with cyber crimes and relevant legislations, and educates them on the optimal ways to deal with modern technologies and how to behave should users face an unlawful act that is considered a crime.

Furthermore, the conference recommended the adoption of information security standards when designing services and smart applications. It also called for adopting a national strategy to enhance national expertise in the area of electronic encryption, in addition to signing partnership agreements between the government, private sector, and academic entities in order to establish a council specialized in the governance and development of encryption standards. It also emphasized the importance of adopting information security strategies, particularly with regard to geographical information systems (GIS), and to seek bilateral agreements and join international conventions to strengthen efforts to combat cyber crimes; in addition to continuously reviewing and amending legislations related to IT crimes and holding similar conferences, seminars, workshops, and panel discussions.

Major General Ahmed Nasser Al Raisi, Director General of Central Operations at Abu Dhabi Police GHQ, praised the efforts of participants in the conference which came in line with the UAE Vision 2021 and Abu Dhabi Vision 2030 that aim to implement e-Government concepts to make the Abu Dhabi government one of the best five e-governments in the world.

“Cooperation and coordination with the Ministry of Justice, in particular the Institute of Training and Judicial Studies, and with both, the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA), and the National Electronic Security Authority (NESA) to convene  this conference contributes to enhance of the existing strategic partnerships with key partners, to face the increasing challenges of this type of crimes. These partnerships will also contribute to enriching communication and dialogue among legislators, law enforcement professionals, policemen and security professionals and technicians, whose disciplines involve them in fighting cyber-crimes,” he added.

Lieutenant Colonel Faisal Mohammed Al Shammari, Information Security Officer and Chairman of the conference’s Organizing Committee, noted that the conference addressed legal, security and technical aspects of cyber-crimes. It was also an opportunity to exchange scientific and technological expertise and knowledge related to information security, to raise cyber awareness, and spread cyber security education in many fields, notably critical installations and geographic information systems (GIS). The conference also allowed representatives from government and private sectors to review the best experiences in cyber-crime fighting and encryption strategy development.

Counselor Dr. Mohammed Mahmoud Al Kamali, Director-General of the Institute of Judicial Training and Studies delivered a speech at the conference, by which he expressed his heartfelt thanks and appreciation to the speakers, participants and experts who enriched the conference with their expertise and experiences, and provided valuable research and work papers in this area.

He said: “The work papers presented at the conference and the panel discussions that spanned over two days were carefully selected and provided extensive information on this subject. The speakers are world-renowned and highly competent experts and specialists. They reviewed the practical, security, technical and legal problems, and provided alternative solutions. There was also a Q&A session for the benefit of the members of judicial, police and security authorities; university professors; law and information technology (IT) students; legal consultants from government and private sectors; representatives of government and private technology institutions and social institutions attending the conference.”

Moreover, Dr. Al Kamali stressed that the conference urged information technology regulatory authorities, academic institutions and private sector authorities to support and promote research and studies on information security. “The latter should include encryption, editing, testing and investigation of cybercrimes; as well as  developing techniques to use the Emirates ID card as a parental control tool, to allow families to supervise children's use of modern technologies,” added Dr. Al Kamali.

Panel Discussions

The conference was organized by the Ministry of Interior and the Institute of Training and Judicial Studies, in partnership with the Ministry of Justice, the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) and the National Electronic Security Authority (NESA). It was held at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Centre (ADNEC), in conjunction with the International Exhibition for Security and National Resilience (ISNR Abu Dhabi 2014). On Day 2 of the conference, Interpol’s Robert Shilling chaired the first panel discussion, which tackled the online digital security challenges.

Christian Berg from a specialized company; Lieutenant Colonel Faisal Mohammed Al Shammari, Director of the Ministry of Interior’s Child Protection Center; and Michael Soko, from the Global Alliance against Child Sexual Abuse online, took part in the seminar.

Andrew Wadsworth of Lockheed Martin submitted a work paper on the vital infrastructure, highlighting the recent cyber attacks on the oil and gas sectors.

The second panel discussion was conducted by Abdul Alim Al Sayed, and tackled phones security. Attending the seminar were Nicolai Solling; Scott Totzke, Vice-President of BlackBerry Security, Captain Nasser Salem Al Raqbani from the Information Security Department at the Abu Dhabi Police GHQ, and consultant Mohammed Abdul Raheem from Abu Dhabi Police.

Consultant Mohammed Abdul Raheem of the GIS Center at Abu Dhabi Police submitted a work paper titled “Geospatial Data Security Challenges”. Moreover, Dr. Jenner Seibert, presented a work paper on the technology risks and threats on children and protection mechanisms.

26 local and international experts and professionals took part in the conference, which was attended by  members of the judiciary body, the police, security and technical authorities, university professors, law students and legal advisers of the Federal and local authorities and the private sector; as well as employees of Government and private institutions and social institutions.

The closing conference was attended by Brigadier General Ismail Al Serkal, Deputy Director General of Central Operations at Abu Dhabi Police, a number of officers, along with Counselor Dr. Mohammed Mahmoud Al Kamali, Director-General of the Institute of Judicial Training and Studies; members of the judiciary authority, police and security agencies, university professors, law and IT students, legal advisers in governmental and non-governmental entities, governmental and private technical institutions, and social institutions.

Important conclusions

Dr. Al Kamali outlined the recommendations of the four previous conferences, like the issuance of the Arab Convention on Combating Information Technology Offences;  the Arab Guiding Law to combat cyber crimes;  and the Arab League Convention to combat cyber crimes,  mainly inspired from the UAE Cybercrime Law.

Al Kamali hailed the organization of this conference, which is now in its fifth edition, as well as the efforts of the Institute of Training and Judicial Studies by convening several seminars, discussion sessions, and workshops in the field of fighting cyber-crimes. He cited the issuance of the new federal law no. 5 of 2012 on combating cybercrimes.

He highlighted the most important recommendation of the 4thInternational Cyber Crimes Conference, which concentrated on the criminalization of credit card abuse, password fraud, and producing, selling, buying, importing, exhibiting, providing, or promoting in any way links, software, tools, or devices designed or adopted for the purposes of committing cyber-crimes, or the use passwords or codes to decipher or log into websites or information systems unlawfully, among other things.

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The Arabic-language text of this announcement is the official, authoritative version. Translations are provided as an accommodation only, and should be cross-referenced with the Arabic-language text, which is the only version of the text intended to have legal effect.

Contacts

The UAE Minister of Interior's General Secretariat, Tactical Affairs and Security Media Department

Abu Dhabi Police GHQ - Security Media

Chris Cron +971-(0)-50-987-1317

E-mail: cron.media@hotmail.com

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