‘Kingdom, a major target of hackers’

The Kingdom, which is home to over 400 financial institutions, is a major target of hackers from across the world, said Yacoub Al Awadhi, CEO of NGN International, a system integration company.

This came as NGN International organized a Cyber Security Workshop at the Capital Club in Manama, in collaboration with Group-IB, an international cybersecurity company. The event was held in the presence of senior information security professionals from a number of leading Bahraini banks.

Mr. Al Awadhi highlighted that Group-IB’s products and services provided by NGN in the Gulf region are state-of-the-art cybersecurity tools and solutions relying on unique cyber intelligence and proactive threat hunting tailored to all financial institutes in Bahrain and the rest of the GCC.

“We offer these advanced solutions at a time when we are witnessing a surge in hacker attacks against vital institutions such as government, banking, energy, and healthcare,” he said. “The presence of more than 400 financial institutions in Bahrain makes it a major target for many hackers around the world,” he added. The co-operation between NGN and Group-IB extends to providing quality training for Bahrainis in cybersecurity and closing the skills gap in the related market in the region.

“There are over 900 Bahraini graduates in ICT courses and figures indicate that there are about one million vacancies in cybersecurity around the world,” he stated. Group-IB specialists have trained law enforcement agencies, corporate security teams, and universities around the world, as well as experts within Group-IB’s official partners, Interpol and Europol. The new programme becomes available for Bahraini companies thanks to the NGN-Group-IB partnership.

Vice President of International Business at Group-IB Nicholas Palmer highlighted that the co-operation with NGN will play an important role in the development of Bahrain’s national economy.