Global Cybersecurity Forum in Riyadh tackles how technology can shape future of cyberspace

Delegates astatine this year's Global Cybersecurity Forum will talk "scaling cohesive advancement into cyberspace".

Attendees will purpose to tackle issues specified arsenic utilizing technologies for illustration artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum computing to lick cybersecurity's astir pressing questions.

They will besides purpose to build cohesive cybersecurity strategies successful "a quickly evolving and divided world landscape".

Follow on pinch nan day's action connected our unrecorded blog:

Doreen Bogdan-Martin, secretary-general of nan International Telecommunications Union (ITU), took Riyadh backmost to 1865 successful her fireside chat: "Securing Prosperity: AI Preparedness successful a Connected World."

Fun fact: nan ITU was built successful 1865 to group standards to make judge telegraphs could beryllium sent betwixt countries. Now, they're moving connected really to modulate AI deepfakes and misinformation.

"Standards are that invisible backbone that guarantee communications hap that exertion is interoperable, that its interconnected, that it's trusted," Bogdan-Martin told nan room.

Robert M. Lee, nan laminitis and CEO of cybersecurity patient Dragos told Euronews that it's important for businesses and individuals to return steps arsenic soon arsenic imaginable to get their cybersecurity systems successful spot - because things tin escalate quickly.

"It's not arsenic scary arsenic you ideate but it's worse than you realise," he said.

Craig Jones, nan contiguous past head of cybercrime astatine INTERPOL, said its up to civilians to protect themselves against cyberthreats.

He compared it to nan information that you person astatine a location aliases apartment, for illustration securing nan windows and doors pinch locks.

"Once you're connected nan internet, you person to beryllium protected from everybody," he said.



Next up, we heard from cyberpsychology professor Mary Aitken who wanted to punctual those astatine nan forum that a cyber onslaught is "not conscionable an onslaught connected a machine, it's an onslaught against humans and nan quality mind.

"We're going to person to up accomplishment astatine standard to woody pinch this attack," Aitken said.

We're starting to upload our interviews pinch nan who's who astatine nan forum.

Jürgen Stock, erstwhile caput wide of Interpol, told Euronews that we are facing an "online epidemic" of cybercrime and to enactment safe, group should beryllium updating their devices and to instal immoderate package that mightiness beryllium disposable to unafraid their systems.

The biggest threats to defense, according to nan panelists, is AI.

Mohammed al Khalifa: "One personification tin look for much opportunities to attack," he told nan panel. "It's already weaponised without regulations, [because] you cannot modulate these kinds of tools, truthful you request to beryllium alert and hole to recognise these attacks."

With this comes cheaper ways to equine attacks, said Romania's Dan Cimpean. A Deloitte study estimates that a low-budget cyber onslaught wherever hackers put $34 (€28.98) a period could bring backmost $25,000 (€21,310.69).

What this intends according to Cimpean is that businesses request to move distant from accepted cybersecurity towards resilience, truthful really companies will beryllium capable to bounce backmost from attacks erstwhile they do happen.

We're coming up to nan adjacent large session: building a thriving and innovative information and defense ecosystem pinch Romania's Dan Cimpean, nan head of nan country's nationalist information directorate, Jean-Paul Palomeros, nan erstwhile ultimate allied commandant transformation, NATO and Shaikh Salman bin Mohammed al Khalifa of Bahrain.

Defense investments from nan European Union will scope astir 130 cardinal this twelvemonth and will beryllium person to 800 cardinal by 2030. So far, only 3.5 cardinal of this will beryllium earmarked for cybersecurity spending, according to nan EU's Security Action for Europe plan. So really do we support Europe's - and nan world's - information scale-up safe from attack?

Here is Africanews' Bridget Ugwe pinch Senegal's erstwhile president Macky Sall.

Sall told america that Africa should move distant from consuming exertion to go an strategical character not conscionable successful cybersecurity but each nan science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields (STEM).

He insisted that African Nations should put massively successful training its youth, successful business with large world institutions for illustration nan World Economic Forum, and nan tech giants from Google and Amazon.

The Euronews and Africanews teams are engaged networking pinch GCF delegates and are arranging interviews pinch nan forum's cardinal contributors.

This is who we will beryllium talking to successful nan coming days:

• Jose Manuel Barroso, erstwhile president of nan European Commission
• Macky Sall, erstwhile president of Senegal
• Bocar Ba, main executive serviceman SAMENA Telecommunications Council
• Sheema SenGupta, world head of kid protection UNICEF
• Estefania Vergara Cobos, economist astatine nan World Bank
• Akshay Joshi, caput of cybersecurity, World Economic Forum (WEF)
• Stephane Straub, main economist, infrastructure astatine nan World Bank
• Johan Gerber, EVP and world caput of information solutions astatine Mastercard
• Laurent Gisel, caput of arms and behaviour of hostilities unit, ICRC
• Robert Gates, erstwhile US Secretary of Defense, United States
• Jean-Paul Palomeros, erstwhile ultimate allied commander, translator astatine NATO
• Carmen Marsh, president and CEO United Cybersecurity Alliance
• Christopher Porter, caput of world information practice astatine Google Cloud
• Oli Waghorn, head of business improvement BAE Systems

We sewage entree to nan full reside from UN Secretary-General Antonio Gueterres.

Take a look:

John Defterios, nan erstwhile emerging markets editor for CNN, asks Kitarovic really to create practice successful nan property of AI.

"I do judge we will request regulation," Kitarovic said. "We person to look astatine what we are doing ... we person to person an attack that starts from nan premise 'how do we make our treaties future-proof truthful they don't expire for illustration yesterday's package ?'"

To her, that intends establishing panels for illustration nan UN's group of experts connected artificial intelligence to watch really nan exertion is evolving and accommodate rules, done annexes, to support it current.

Kitarovic points retired that AI is an opportunity but besides a consequence to those successful nan profession.

On 1 hand, nan forum organisers opportunity that AI tin thief pinch detecting threats successful real-time, automatically responding to treats arsenic they travel arsenic good arsenic making models that tin foretell imaginable breaches.

However, astir for illustration Kitarovic, judge that AI will springiness attackers an advantage.

Research has shown that its easy to alteration nan codification that dictates really AI models behave and what questions they are allowed to reply truthful hackers tin return advantage.

We're already seeing models of OpenAI's celebrated chatbot ChatGPT beryllium utilized by hackers to make phishing emails aliases to clone voices. The astir celebrated of these acheronian uses of AI, WormGPT, is almost arsenic wold arsenic nan first OpenAI model.

Take a look astatine immoderate of our related sum to study much astir AI successful cybersecurity.

Chris Inglis from nan United States reiterates what Kitarovic says, that cohesion should beryllium astir uncovering nan astir communal needs of citizens, not conscionable stopping cyber attacks.

"We are advancing nan interests of our citizens, there's thing much collaborative than that," he said.

Croatia's Grabar Kitarovic: "Building spot isn't easy, but its worthy it."

Kitarovic says statement successful cybersecurity should beryllium astir agreeing to definite principles, not needfully everything. She's suggesting that leaders request to commencement mini pinch initiatives for illustration associated information exercises and sharing information.

Leaders besides request to find communal crushed connected important cybersecurity issues, for illustration protecting children from online threats.

She says that citizens besides request to spot occurrence successful cybersecurity, including nan number of attacks that person been stopped truthful they tin travel to support immoderate regularisation that will travel next.

The basal message: Start small, win and past scale.

Up first successful nan GCF's programming is simply a sheet called Against nan Odds: Gaining Consensus amid Complexity.

H.E. Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic, erstwhile president of Croatia, H.E. Macky Sall, erstwhile president of Senegal and Chris Inglis, nan erstwhile nationalist cyber head from nan United States are group to return nan stage.

This is 1 of nan halfway themes of nan conference: bringing leaders together to collaborate connected really to conflict backmost against cyber crime contempt different nationalist interests.

H.E Majed bin Mohammed Al-Mazyed, nan Governor of nan National Cybersecurity Authority of Saudi Arabia, is now taking to nan shape to invited delegates.

Al-Mazyed announces a Global Initiative for Capacity Building connected Cyberspace connected behalf of nan Saudi authorities successful business pinch nan United Nations. The inaugural will "accelerate capacity astatine standard from training and acquisition to argumentation and investigation development," he said.

Al-Mazyed besides talks astir really nan authorities of Saudi Arabia is moving to create "evidence-based investigation to unlock nan afloat economical opportunity" that cybersecurity tin bring.

Then a distant connection from Antonio Guterres, nan Secretary-General of nan United Nations: "We must activity together to make judge that cybersecurity useful for nan communal good".

We're getting started present successful Riyadh pinch nan Saudi nationalist anthem and a invited from HRH Prince Faisal bin Bandar bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, nan politician of Riyadh Province.

There's tons of money progressive if a cyber onslaught happens.

Global losses from cyber crime are expected to scope $10.5 trillion (8.92 trillion) successful 2025, successful some nonstop costs for illustration stealing costs and nonaccomplishment successful gross if companies suffer their capacities moreover temporarily successful a cyber attack.

One of nan questions that will beryllium addressed is: really tin governments, exertion companies and exertion leaders collaborate to make judge little money and clip is mislaid to cyber attacks?

So what is cybersecurity and why is Euronews covering it?

Cybersecurity is nan operation of methods, processes, devices and behaviours that protect machine systems, networks and information from nefarious actors that are looking to bargain it.

These cyber attacks are up 75 percent successful nan past 5 years, according to nan organisers of nan forum.

Just past week, airports successful Brussels, Berlin and London reported disruptions to their physics systems because of a cyberattack that made cheque successful and boarding impossible.

From 2023 to 2024, captious infrastructure, truthful hospitals, powerfulness plants and proscription networks sustained complete 420 cardinal cyberattacks, aliases 13 attacks per second.

We spot it much and much successful mundane life too. Over 85 percent of study participants by Finnish cybersecurity institution F-Secure said they had received a integer scam effort successful 2024.

That tin beryllium thing from a suspicious phishing nexus that you get by text, a suspicious email from personification impersonating a workfellow aliases family personnel aliases moreover an AI-powered telephone telephone that uses a clip of a loved one's voice.

Good greeting from nan Ritz Carlton successful Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, wherever Euronews is connected nan crushed to screen nan Global Cybersecurity Forum (GCF). 

This year's conference, called "Scaling Cohesive Advancement successful Cyberspace" is looking to fortify world cyber resilience by advancing world collaboration and purposeful speech betwixt C-Suite executives, authorities officials and organisations.

We’ll beryllium present for nan adjacent 2 days bringing our followers nan latest successful nan world of cybersecurity. On nan schedule for time one: fireside talks pinch Dr. Saad Alaboodi , Chief Executive Officer of Saudi Information Technology Company (SITE), Ahmad O. Al Khowaiter, Chief Technology Officer of Saudi Aramco and Doreen Bogdan-Martin, Secretary General of nan International Telecommunications Union (ITU).