GENEVA — The Saudi National Cybersecurity Authority (NCA) held a Cyberdrill to raise the level of cyber readiness, and enable the exchange of information and knowledge in the field of cybersecurity.

The drill, which took place at the ITU headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, as part of the ITU Learning Labs initiative for staff experiential training, was attended by the ITU secretary-general, senior directors, and staff of the ITU, the UN’s specialized agency for ICTs.

The drill introduced a realistic simulation of cyber incidents to enable to participants to better understand the impact of a cyberattack on a conference and determine an appropriate course of action to ensure business continuity.

A specialized platform was built, hosted, and operated in cooperation with the Saudi Information Technology Company (SITE), through which the cyber drills and scenarios were developed to simulate the latest methods used in cyber-attacks.

The platform also provided strategies for how to combat threats.

The training built on the success of a previous CyberDrill carried out in May on the sidelines of the World Summit on the Information Society 2023, with the participation of more than 40 countries and organizations from around the world.

The NCA stated that this exercise comes as part of Saudi Arabia’s efforts and initiatives to support cooperation and joint endeavors in cybersecurity at the global level. — SG