Edge entity ORYXLABS recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the UAE Cyber Security Council at GITEX Global 2024. It is, after all a giant leap to further reinforce the defenses of the UAE against rising cyber threats. In this world, digital risks are becoming more sophisticated and widespread every day. This partnership could not have come at a better time. Such collaboration, indeed, reflects a very forward-thinking move in safeguarding critical infrastructure and national assets while being a benchmark for other countries currently facing such threats. Against the alarming reports about cybercrime damages expected to amount to a staggering $10.5 trillion annually by 2025, according to Cybersecurity Ventures, the case for strong cybersecurity frameworks cannot be overstated.
This MoU covers a number of critical areas wherein the parties agree to collaborate with ORYXLABS and the UAE Cyber Security Council with regard to heavily bolstering the cybersecurity posture of the country. The chief among these is that of sharing insights on security risks as a means of fostering an empowering culture of openness and cooperation between the public and private sectors — one more crucial in today’s threat landscape as attackers exploit mismatches in communication and coordination. The MoU promotes the sharing of information openly so that each party is better prepared to detect the emerging threat and reacts to it, accordingly.
The other essential element has been the enhanced cooperation in terms of a collaborative response to incidents related to information security. As cyberattacks cause disarray, quick and efficient responses to such attacks are crucial for damages not to escalate. The MoU ensures swift and effective response to such events using the expertise and resources of ORYXLABS in coordination with the Cyber Security Council. At a time when the urgency of response turns the difference between containment and catastrophe, coordination like this is absolutely vital.
A need to improve digital resilience across various sectors in the UAE is also pinpointed through this partnership. Cyber resilience would be the ability to withstand and recover from cyber incidents and would thus be a critical component of any complete security strategy. In this joint endeavour, both organizations aim to have the overall resilience of businesses, government agencies and other institutions; these firms have to be equipped to protect themselves, recover quickly from attacks, and continue largely without interruption. This resilience is not only about protection from financial loss or reputational damage but also one that would protect national security and restore people’s trust in the systems upon which modern society depends.
Beyond the UAE, there are many lessons drawn for the broader GCC region and the international landscape of cybersecurity. The MoU dovetailed off findings from the State of the Nation: GCC Report, launched at GITEX, based on more than 13 million data points analyzed in 2 million domains across the region, demonstrating critical gaps in current efforts to address cybersecurity and presenting actionable recommendations for improvement. It was concluded that underpinning these gaps will only be possible through public-private partnerships.
But both the report and the MoU clearly indicate that governments alone cannot solve cybersecurity challenges. The difference between being one step ahead of the ever more expert cyber adversaries and falling behind will come from the private sector’s understanding of new technologies, threat intelligence, and innovative security solutions. Public-private partnerships pool resources and knowledge and create conditions where responsibility for national cybersecurity is shared. This shared responsibility is imperative because no single organization or government can purely run the full scope of cyber threats in isolation.
The Chairman of the UAE Cyber Security Council, Dr. Mohammed Hamad Al-Kuwaiti, noted that cybersecurity was one of the cornerstones of digital transformation. The fast pace at which the countries, for instance, UAE, are moving from smart cities to economies driven by Artificial Intelligence, actually ensures that the step forward towards progressing into such areas is secure. Without such controls in place, innovation and economic-growthgenerating systems could soon find themselves at the center of hackers’ guns. With cybersecurity as the basis of digital transformation, the UAE is rapidly heading toward their long-term digital and economic sustainability.
The ORYXLABS- UAE Cyber Security Council partnership serves as a good reminder regarding international cooperation on cyber threats. Never has the need for interdependence among nations been more prominent than in today’s world of global cyberattacks. As it stands, the MoU revealed today remains a model for other countries and regions looking to improve their cybersecurity efforts through bilateral partnerships. According to McKinsey, organisations in public-private partnerships reduced vulnerability to cyber threats by as much as 30%. That goes to show how tangible the difference in risk reduction and strengthening a defense could be from such partnerships.
Of course, it has a significance going beyond the technical measures. It also hints at a greater discussion of how prepared we, as a global community, are in the face of an intensifying cyberattack threat. Are we doing enough in terms of security in digital environments? Are we improving truly through public-private partnerships? Or, does this partnership hint more at being symbolic than effective?.
Cybersecurity needs to be embedded as part of the way organizations operate. It cannot be thought of as some add-on or worse, a byproduct of a demarcated IT function but more realistically need to be treated as a shared priority at every level of government, industry, and society. The partnership between ORYXLABS and the UAE Cyber Security Council is a model of this type of holistic approach, advocating transparency, coordination, and resilience.
As good as this step is toward better cybersecurity in the UAE, it could also be a wake-up call for the rest of the world. With threats in cyberspace evolving and proliferating continually, collective action will be required to ensure safeguarding our increasingly digital societies. The lessons learned from this collaboration can open doors to similar initiatives around the world so that more people benefit from a safer digital future. After all are we ready to move along with their actions and do the needful to safeguard ourselves in this new epoch of digital change? Time only will tell, but surely it’s a collaborative step in the right direction.