ISNR Talks outline futuristic vision of national security, resilience

ABU DHABI, 21st May, 2024 (WAM) -- Under the patronage of H.H. Lieutenant General Sheikh Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior, this year’s International Exhibition for National Security & Resilience (ISNR) 2024 will once again feature the ISNR Talks as an unmissable forum for thought sessions that outline futuristic visions of technology impacts on the national security, cyber security and law enforcement sectors.

Opening the first day’s AI Forum, Dr. Mohamed Al Kuwaiti, Head of Cyber Security, United Arab Emirates Government, gave a Keynote Address on “Fortifying cybersecurity: Cultivating a culture of cyber resilience”.

Al Kuwaiti said: “National security is an integral part of the overall security and the UAE’s efforts in cyber security domain align with the country’s efforts to become an AI nation by 2071. The National Security Operation Center of the UAE Cybersecurity Council aims to promote cyber security culture in the county and ensure the safety and security of people, data and protect data privacy. The Council uses AI to identify attacks threatening the nation's cyber-security and ISNR has emerged as a major platform for networking and turning great ideas into products.”

Next on the agenda was Fireside Chat with Dr. Mohamed Al Kuwaiti and Hadi Anwar, Chief Cybersecurity Officer, Core42.
Al Kuwaiti said: “Cyber security is not a technology problem, but a complexity problem and the first line of defense is people who identify the weakness in system. 'Cyber Pulse' is an initiative by the UAE Cybersecurity Council that aims to encourage community members in the UAE to play a part in cybersecurity efforts. The initiative starts with the education curriculum to ensure that no kids are vulnerable to attacks by creating awareness among parents about cyber security threats.”

Al Kuwiati also noted that Innovation is a key pillar of the UAE’s national cyber security strategy and play an important role in fostering cyber security by ensuring compliance and validation to ensure the quality of outcomes. The "CyberE71" Business Incubator from the UAE Cybersecurity Council focuses on incubating and accelerating the ideas.

Eng. Arif Mohammad Al Janahi, Security Consultant, Security Industry Regulatory Agency (SIRA), followed this with a presentation entitled “Pixels to Metadata by AI”.

Al Janahi said that the Security Industry Regulatory Agency was established in 2016 to provide Dubai with the highest level of safety and security through the implementation of international best practices in security systems, services and guards. The entity is tasked with addressing video digitalization challenges, standardization and regulations.

Al Janahi also noted that the main goal of video analytics is to automatically recognize temporal, spatial events in video and create a digital biometric signature of individuals across different use cases

A further presentation by Martin Yates, Senior Government Technology Advisor, Presight, dealt with “Reviewing the potential of Generative AI in policing”.

Martin Yates explained that the core areas of using generative AI in policing include field management, post investigation, judiciary services and forensic services, ensuring high efficiency in all domains.

This was followed by a Panel Discussion on "The future of threat management – AI & smart technologies"
Martin Yates noted that cities today generate a vast among of data and smart cities platforms utilize AI to enhance security, identify problems and protect communities by having the right algorithm to understand the data.

For his part, Hadi Anwar said that AI offers multiple advantages and challenges. While AI models using datasets help in decision-making, there are challenges, such as AI systems not considering how they integrate with other security solutions, in addition to the challenges of regulatory compliance. With vast amounts of data being generated from real-time monitoring, predictive analysis helps anticipate what kinds of incidents would hit an organisation and plan responses.

The afternoon continued with a presentation on Upholding ethics for safe utilization of AI by Dr. Ebrahim Al Alkeem Al Zaabi, Cybersecurity & AI Expert, Government of Abu Dhabi.

Al Zaabi said: With the rise of Artificial Intelligence, several questions have been raised about the importance and scope of AI ethics and how can we frame the right data to reach the right decisions while considering data privacy and upholding ethical aspects. To understand AI’s impact, there are three considerations: economic implications, social influence, and legal considerations.