The UAE was ranked 1st regionally and 4th internationally in cyber security, up to rank 31 from the previous rank of 35 last year, the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) report said Monday, in addition to achieving other high rankings in a number of categories of economic competitiveness.

The achievement in cyber security is a result of the attention extended by the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) to establish a cyber security team through the UAE Computer Emergency Response Team (aeCERT) - a TRA initiative - accredited by the UAE Ministerial Council for Services, under Decree Number (89/5) for 2008, as the national CERT of the UAE.

Mohamad Bin Ahmad Al-Qamzi, Chairman of TRA Board of Directors, said: "The TRA places great emphasis on cyber security making it one of the strategic goals in efforts to prepare a leading globally sustainable, secure and competitive digital environment in the country’s ICT sector. The TRA is committed to raising the efficiency of the aeCERT staff, ensuring aeCERT’s participation in all regional and international events, since such interactions increase the knowledge and expertise of the team members. We are proud that the team is managed by specialists with an Emiritization percentage of 100 percent."

The aeCERT provides 30 precautionary and interactive services under four sections: monitoring cyber-attacks and response; research and analysis; security awareness; and information security quality services. The members covered by aeCERT services (109 constituents/members currently) are divided as per the sensitivity of their information infrastructure. Governmental entities are given priority due to the nature of their infrastructure.

aeCERT made significant achievements in activating early alerts notifying members of vournabilities in the infrastructure, attacks, and malwares that might target its members.

The team continues to monitor information infrastructure in the UAE providing alerts to members and giving directions of how to mitigate attacks.

The team also participated in the information security ’Cyber-lympics’ organized in the USA where countries participated in competitions for peaceful cyber-attacks, in which aeCERT came in 4th place. The team also launched many awareness campaigns.