Kuwait needs to urgently confront electronic threats

American cybersecurity expert Guillermo Christensen has warned that Iran is a major threat to cybersecurity; hence, the need for Kuwait to immediately confront electronic threats.

Christensen made the statement in a lecture that the American Embassy organized recently at Saad Al-Abdullah Academy for Security Sciences as part of a series of lectures on cybersecurity, reports Al-Qabas daily.

Present at the event were US Chargé d’Affaires James Holtsnider, Assistant Director General of the academy Brigadier General Ali Jassim Al-Wahib, senior officers and 320 students from the Police College.

In response to the daily’s query about his assessment of Kuwait’s ranking third in the list of countries most targeted by cyberattacks in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, Christensen cited the global report published by Group- IB, a company specialized in cybersecurity services. He affirmed “there is a huge improvement on this, because we have more people studying the field of cybersecurity.

He pointed out that the danger in the region comes from Iran, which is considered a major threat to cybersecurity, as it is one of the most professional countries in the world in terms of electronic piracy and penetration of Internet networks. While stressing the need to think like hackers and prepare for many attacks, he asserted: “We may be victims of cybersecurity without knowing it, especially since the digital system is a fragile system and was not designed in a way that enables it to confront the attacks that our devices are exposed to.”

He stated: “We cooperate with the Kuwaiti side to develop our capabilities in the field of cybersecurity. We exchange and share information in this regard. The embassy also cooperates with many Kuwaiti government agencies and companies in this field.”

Moreover, Al-Wahib unveiled a plan to include cybersecurity in the curriculum of the academy at the beginning of next year; affirming there have been discussions on this matter with the security authorities