Abu Dhabi to host global confab on cyber-terrorism

Abu Dhabi / WAM

More than 40 counter and cyber terrorism experts, decision-makers, senior government officials and the United Nations Secretary-General’s representative will gather in Abu Dhabi on Monday for the International Conference on the Criminalisation of Cyber Terrorism, to find common ground for implementing a system of international laws and legislations that address the roots and extensions of the terrorist phenomenon in the digital space.
Organisers have said that one of the conference’s main objectives is to launch innovative ideas to promote international co-operation and develop a deeper understanding of the new challenges confronting legislators, government entities and international organisations facing the increasing exploitation of cyberspace by terrorist groups.
Dr Ali Rashid Al Noaimi, Chairman of the Organising Committee of the Conference, said that the two-day international gathering is the first of its kind in terms of the type and level of participants, as well as the explored topics and set objectives.
“The conference complements the UAE’s counter-terrorism efforts within its responsibility towards the international community,” Dr Al Noaimi said during a press conference in Abu Dhabi on Saturday.
He further emphasised that the main aspiration of the organisers is to provide an international platform for in-depth analysis and scholarly exchanges, to address the phenomenon of cyber terrorism globally.
“The conference will issue the Abu Dhabi Declaration that will call on stakeholders to deal with cyber terrorism through an international legal framework, to confront and criminalise cyber terrorism,” he added.
He further stated that terrorist organisations have used cyberspace to serve their agendas and objectives and harm the national security of states.
“The event’s prime goal is to create international legislation to help states pursue, prosecute and criminalise those who propagate terrorist ideologies and commit terrorist acts,” he stressed.
Regarding the conference sessions, Dr Al Noaimi explained that the conference will feature four main sessions on electronic terrorism in the context of conflicting legislation and cultural and social decline, reconciliation of human rights principles with efforts to combat electronic terrorism, interactions on the second session to reconcile its principles, and the prospects for joint action among institutions concerned with combatting electronic terrorism.

TRA warns users of
ransom attacks
As thousands of institutions around the world have been subjected to a series of WannaCry ransom attacks over the past few hours, causing their data to be encrypted with a claim for payment, the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) calls on users not to open links and files that they may receive from unknown sources, trying to deceive them to download it, and then penetrate their devices.

”So far we have not received any e-government services cases that are affected by the virus,”said the Computer Emergency Response Team (aeCERT) in the TRA. It is a malicious program that affects smart phones and computers, encrypts and locks their data so that it can not be accessed until payment is made,” it said about the virus.

TRA calls on the system administrators to increase the degree of readiness and continuous monitoring of the systems
and to inform the authority in case their devices got exposed to the virus.

Explaining how can the virus penetrate systems, the TRA said: The victim receives a message or link from an anonymous person, the content of the link is a file containing malicious software. The sender tempts the victim to download the file by deceiving him that the message contains important or personal files. In turn, the user uploads the file to his or her smartphone. The virus encrypts important data in the device or encrypts the entire device, so that the user can not access his data. The offender asks the victim for money / a “ransom” in exchange for the decoding of the data and returning it to its nature.”

To reduce risk of exposure to this virus, the TRA advises users to :
– Make sure to back up your device data constantly, to recover it if you are infected with the virus.
– Avoid opening links from unknown sources, and do not upload files sent by anonymous people via e-mail.
– Use anti-virus software and make sure it’s original, and update it constantly
– Update the operating system of your phone and PC continuously, and be sure to update the software in it.
– Avoid access to suspicious sites
– Be sure to download software and applications from their official sources and avoid pirated programs.

The TRA also advises those whose computer get infected with the virus to :
Avoid obeying them, if you pay the amount required, they will continue to blackmail you and they’ll ask for more money.
If the affected device is affiliated to your organisation, inform the IT department directly.
If the affected device is your personal computer, take it to the authorized dealer.
Stop operations on the device or network directly and restore the backup .