Okaz/Saudi Gazette RIYADH — The Shoura Council has announced a system to protect websites from being hacked into and online information stolen will be put in place soon. The deputy head of the council's Transportation, Communication and Information Technology Committee, Awadh Al-Asmary, said the system will ensure the protection of official and commercial websites. "There will be a system in place to track hackers and prevent information thefts to protect the private life of netizens based on religious values and principles of public security in Saudi society. There will be serious penalties for information theft to deter potential criminals," said Al-Asmary. He also said there are many who have tried to hack into the website of the Ministry of Justice to achieve personal goals. "There is a need to protect the official government websites and try all hackers who attempt to penetrate websites and abuse the law for personal gains. There are several information security centers throughout the Kingdom which are equipped with state of the art technology qualifying them as the best information security centers in the world," said Al-Asmary. He also said the centers work on detecting threats on any government websites. "Once a threat is detected, the centers give an early warning to the host of the website whether it is an association or a ministry. The host is then responsible to strengthen its firewall to block any threats before they have a chance to break into any database," said Al-Asmary. He said the Kingdom's information security system is among the latest and most advanced worldwide. "Saudi Arabia is among the top 20 countries in the world with the most advanced technology is economy, military forces and security. Even though the country has strict and strong information security regulations that all ministries follow to protect them against threats, there are several smaller public agencies that fall short of following all of the regulations, making a weak link," said Al-Asmary. He added that the security centers face the problem of a lack of cooperation from some of these agencies. "Some of the agencies do not take the warnings sent to them from the centers seriously or do not do anything to tackle the potential threats. That is why there is a need for a security system external to the system of the security centers and the systems of associations and ministries," said Al-Asmary. He also said threats will always be there as intruders also have access to the latest technologies.
