OIC Secretary General Dr. Yousef Al-Othaimeen said the Organization is considering establishing a Cyber Security Unit within its General Secretariat in 2017 to prevent and combat Cyber Terrorism. The OIC Secretary General made the statement during the OIC - Computer Emergency Response Team's (OIC-CERT) Annual General Meeting and Conference 2016 with the theme "Towards Cyber Resilient Ummah" held from 11-14 December 2016, in Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. "The OIC is considering to establish a Cybersecurity Unit within the General Secretariat in 2017 with the objective of promoting and developing cooperation among OIC Member States to prevent and combat cyberterrorism," said Dr. Al-Othaimeen. "We all realize that the nature of the internet and cyberspace is not confined to the physical boundary of a country. Hence there is a strong need to strengthen the OIC-CERT, which is meant to establish cross border collaborations to share information and initiatives to counter cyber threats," he added. Dr. Al-Othaimeen therefore urged OIC Member States, who are not yet members of OIC-CERT, to exert more efforts to join the organization to make the important mechanism more effective in dealing with cyber security issues. Also speaking at the conference, Eng. Badar Ali Said Al Salehi, Chair, OIC-CERT and Director General, Oman National Cert (OCERT) noted that the conference aligns well with the objectives and efforts OIC-CERT is putting to address the uprising issues of cyber-attacks and their significant impacts on the economy, defense, Security, energy, financial services, telecommunication and transportation. He added that Cyber Attacks are now led not just by Hacktivism (like "Anonymous") and criminal gangs but by State sponsored cyber warfare/cyber espionage and terrorists. The OIC Secretary General Dr. Yousef A. Al-Othaimeen used the occasion to launch the new OIC-CERT web portal: www.oic-cert.org .
