5th Middle East IT Security Conference concludes in Sharjah

The conference took place between the 12th and 15th of November at the American University in Sharjah and raised discussions on law enforcement's role in fighting cyber terrorism and new electronic security threats.

The conference brought together the most senior representatives from the region's industry leaders, including Information Security Managers, Directors of IT, network security and business continuity managers, security analysts, and many other respectable telecom professionals.

On the first two days of the conference delegates discussed developments in the areas of identity theft, hacking, e-forensics, secure online services, perimeter defense, digital espionage, encryption, and cyber crime. Over the course of the conference, delegates discussed and finally recommended the establishment of a regional authority to take responsibility for monitoring drivers and causes of cyber crime, and to coordinate regional efforts to fight these crimes, exchange experiences and disseminate knowledge and awareness of information. This body would also deepen the culture of information technology security and the development of talent in the region.

'The quality of the speakers and also the delegates supports the development of MEITSEC as one of the region's most prestigious information security events,' said Dr Doaa Faris, General Manager, Etisalat Academy. 'The conference was successful in its aims to shed light on the ever-changing data security landscape and we thank the speakers, delegates and sponsors for participating with us at this year's event.'

On the third day of MEITSEC, the Academy hosted a special Mobile Phone Forensics workshop which was led by Kevin Mansell, a recognized authority in the field of mobile phone forensics with a proven track record in training high tech crime investigators in the safe and effective retrieval of digital evidence. Judicial personnel, police chiefs, and many IT network engineers from the Gulf and Middle East attended the workshop.

The workshop discussed topics relating to mobile phone forensics including an analysis of SIM cards, mobile handsets, removable media, good practice in phone forensics, PIN protection, equipment - such as the SIM card reader, forensics SIM and handset reading software, data cables, infra-red reader, and Bluetooth adapters.

On the final day workshops continued with three streams of educational seminars. The content of these stretched from the implementation of an effective Information Security Management System (ISMS), based on the ISO 27001 Standard to the formation of a Computer Incident Response Team to investigate, resolve and prevent security hazards. Thursday's activities also included an ISF workshop to outline the efforts of the CERT group to determine best practices and develop solutions for both the new and the reoccurring problems every large organization faces.

MEITSEC was organized by the Etisalat Academy and Sharjah Police and concludes on November 15.