Global leader in security as service aims to protect the MENA region

The long expected eight-page document will create a voluntary program calling for companies in critical infrastructure industries to agree to adopt a minimum set of security standards created by the government.

The order has highlighted the importance of cyber security and the news is no more pertinent than here in the Middle East and North Africa.

"The Aramco and RasGas attacks (which formatted oil company hard drives in an attempt to cripple the targets) should be considered a wakeup call. Nation States, activists, whoever - there is critical infrastructure being targeted and it needs to be protected," said Jukka Puputti, Regional Director at F-Secure.

F-Secure are a global leader in providing Security as a Service through operators, and a Silver Sponsor at the Cyber Defence Summit for the Middle East and North Africa taking place on March 4th and 5th at the Al Bustan Palace in Muscat, Oman.

"F-Secure's strategic direction is to expand into the MENA market in the coming years. The Cyber Defence Summit offers a great way to meet operators' stakeholders and allow us to fully focus our efforts on protecting the region by bringing our best breed of internet security and content cloud solutions," explained Jukka Puputti.

The two-day initiative is co-organised by French business information group, naseba. Nicholas Watson, Managing Director at the group added, "Middle East is increasingly becoming a principal target for cyber attacks. Reports in the industry mention massive numbers including $443m lost to cybercrime and 1.5 million being victims of such crimes in UAE. The time to discuss best practices and act on them is now, having global leaders like F-secure, BAE Systems Detica and Cassidian reinforces the entire goal behind the summit."

F-Secure will also be publishing its 2012 year end threat report highlighting trends and new developments seen in the malware threat landscape by F-Secure analysts.