HIS EXCELLENCY DR. AL-KUWAITI
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HIS EXCELLENCY DR. AL-KUWAITI
Additional Info
| Job title of nominated professional (or team name) | Head of Cyber Security |
| Company (where nominated professional or team is working) | Government of UAE |
| Website | https://csc.gov.ae/ |
| Company size (employees) | 1,000 to 4,999 |
| Country | United Arab Emirates |
| Headquarters Region | Middle East |
Overview
His Excellency Dr. Mohamed Al-Kuwaiti holds a prestigious, yet critical responsibility within the UAE government, serving as the Head of Cyber Security for the UAE. As a passionate and dedicated leader, his contributions to elevate the UAE cyber security posture on a national level have made a measurable and positive impact, by securing critical national infrastructure, increasing national cyber awareness and developing cyber talent, and collaborating with other countries to exchange knowledge and intelligence, and empowering developing nations in enhancing their cyber security capabilities.
Accomplishments
Dr. Al-Kuwaiti led the UAE “National Cyber Capacity Building” initiative, which is a multipronged program addressing several crucial aspects to benefit UAE society, improve the UAE’s national cyber resilience, and strengthen the cyber security posture of the UAE.
Furthermore, during the past 10 years, Dr. Al-Kuwaiti contributed to the efforts aimed at spreading a cybersecurity culture in the UAE. Thereby, His Excellency has been actively involved in more than 500 cyber security lectures, workshops and conferences, as keynote speaker and thought leader impacting more than 5 million beneficiaries through social networks, conferences and more. To achieve the vision of the UAE Projects 50 and Centennial 100, Dr. Al-Kuwaiti put together a state-of-the-art innovative plan to protect the UAE cyberspace through emerging technologies such as Cloud, Big Data and AI.
Under the leadership of H.E. Dr. Al-Kuwaiti, in the UAE advanced 42 positions in the global cyber security index organized by the International Telecommunications Union under the United Nations, rising to 5th place globally in 2020 from 47th place in 2017. Hence, Dr. Kuwaiti contributed to the advancement of the UAE cybersecurity agenda by ensuring a secure digital transformation, reducing cybercrime and raising a community awareness.
Dr. Al-Kuwaiti has achieved global renown for the UAE and under his leadership, the UAE set two Guinness World Records in the past 6 months alone for the largest virtual Cyber Capture the Flag Event and the largest physical Bug Bounty competition.
As the world and the UAE experienced increased cyber attacks during the pandemic, Dr. Al-Kuwaiti’s timely and pro-active intervention played a key role in lowering the exposure of UAE to cyber attacks. There was a marked reduction in phishing attacks, identity thefts, social engineering scams and other common attacks perpetrated by cyber attackers since Dr. Al-Kuwaiti instituted pro-active preventive measures.
His Excellency has been an ardent advocate of embracing digital transformation to increase efficiency in the UAE government for the betterment of its people, and launched several initiatives to rapidly secure investments made in emerging technologies from the next new wave of Industry 4.0. Dr. Al-Kuwaiti subscribes to a notion of ‘Cyber Heaven’ through which citizens of UAE become more digital and cyber literate, and are able to keenly discern cyber threats around them today. Through the Cyber Pulse, UAE citizens across all ages were educated around the measures and incremental changes they could make to incorporate cyber hygiene into their daily lives and protect themselves and their loved ones.
One of Dr. Al-Kuwaiti’s primary objectives since taking on the mantle as the UAE Head of Cyber Security two years ago has been to increase national cyber awareness across the UAE, develop UAE cyber talent, and improve cyber resilience across the UAE. His Excellency spear-headed several key initiatives to achieve the above objectives:
- The “Cyber Pulse” project aimed at providing a cyber culture awareness at a national level, helping the UAE citizens understand the impact of cybersecurity attacks and providing guidance to protect themselves and their families from cyber threats. Through social media posts, and targeted training sessions, cyber awareness was imparted across a cross-section of the society impacting 4 personas (youth, families, people of determination and senior citizens).
- Furthermore, “Cyber Future Leaders” project helped leaders from more than 60 local, federal, and semi-government entities within the UAE to better understand the importance of cybersecurity and the impact of cyber-attacks on their organizations. The program empowered more than 200 professionals and leaders (including C-Suite, directors, and managers) with the knowledge and skills needed to boost cybersecurity initiatives within their organizations, understand cybersecurity standards and provide effective guidance to direct investments through a better appreciation of the cyber threats.
- The “National Cyber Capacity Building” initiative also promoted improvements around the national cyber security technologies and infrastructure.
- Exercises such as sectoral cyber drills, provided more than 60 local, federal, and semi-government entities as well as 10 UAE based universities with class-room training on cyber security as well as real-world simulations to test and improve their cyber security response capabilities.
ACADEMIC ACCOMPLISHMENTS
With over 20 years of experience, Dr. Al-Kuwaiti holds a Doctorate in Computer Engineering and Network Security from George Washington University in the U.S. and a master’s degree in Telecommunications and Computer Networks. He also holds a M.A. degree in International and Civil Security. Dr. Al-Kuwaiti has won various awards such as Best Lecturer, Dean honors list, leadership Awards, best Design Projects.
As a testament to his dedication towards Academic Excellence, Research and Development and Innovation in Cyber Security, Dr. Al-Kuwaiti served as an Adjunct Professor at Rabdan Academy, a board member of the Emirates ICT Innovation Center (EBTIC) at Khalifa University and a board member of the UAE University IT College. H.E published numerous studies and lectured at many conferences such as IEEE, RSA, Cyber Warfare Europe, Tele Strategies, ISS World MEA, IDEX, International Anti-Cyber Crimes Conference, Future War Summit etc., Dr. Al-Kuwaiti presented the UAE Cyber Security Framework at INTERPOL in Singapore. He organized various events such as National Cyber Security Exercise and Cyber Quest.
