Thursday 25 / April / 2024
Muscat: Oman will become a global cybersecurity hub after international advisory firm Ernst and Young (EY) opened a first-of-its-kind Digital Security Operations Centre (DSOC) here.
Manned by some of the brightest young Omani talent, the security centre will monitor round the clock critical cyber infrastructure of clients, which will include both regional and global companies. It boasts of an 80 per cent Omanisation rate and will serve all sectors from banking and finance to oil and gas.
“This centre will put Oman at the forefront of global IT security. Oman is already described as one of the most cyber-secure nation in the world, and now, the DSOC is operating in the country helping businesses here to secure their IT infrastructure 24x7. We find the talent in Oman perfect for our centre,” said Mohammed Nayaz, Partner at EY.
Conventional security
“There is a major difference between a conventional security centre and DSOC. As we have seen in several cyber-attacks, eight to five monitoring is no longer of value to clients as hackers are getting more innovative. Therefore at DSOC, we monitor 24x7, with our team working round the clock to address any threat that may arise any time of the day.”
Adding to traditional monitoring capabilities of a SOC, EY’s DSOC provides advanced analytics that will help organisations address sophisticated cyber-attacks arising from emerging technologies. The centre monitors both IT and Operational Technology (OT), as well as IoT infrastructure. The DSOC uses PathScan Technology, a network anomaly detection tool that seeks to identify network threats. It also houses a big data platform to host PathScan analytics, threat intelligence and management system and a cybersecurity emergency response team.
Malicious activity
“As technology improves, so do cyber threats. In an IoT-enabled network, we protect our clients by monitoring every node or device that connects to our client network.
Once the device is verified by the client, it is accepted into the system. The network is monitored continuously by our DSOC, and any malicious activity is singled out for further analysis by our team,” remarked Clinton Firth, cybersecurity leader, EY, Middle East and North Africa (MENA).
The centre was launched by Dr. Ahmed bin Mohammed bin Salim Al Futaisi, Minister of Transport and Communications, who commended the employment of Omanis at the centre.
“Yesterday, I had participated in the opening of a regional cybersecurity centre by EY. I extend my welcome to these unique initiatives by the private sector and their trust in our youth,” Dr. Ahmed Al Futaisi tweeted later.
As earlier stated by EY, most companies do not apply advanced IT security techniques owing to high costs, and so, the centre will address this issue too.
EY officials explained that a defining fact about the centre was that cybersecurity will not remain in the domain of large organisations any more, and even smaller enterprises can have their systems monitored
through DSOC.
The data and operations will lie within the organisation itself, and EY will only monitor the traffic movement and detect any threats that these may bring.
The centre currently employs some 20 staff members, and within a year, the count is expected to rise above 70, as more companies sign up for their systems to be protected.
