Ashraf El-Araby, President of the Institute of National Planning, has said that there is a connection between cybersecurity, sustainable development, and inclusive growth. He added that protecting information is extremely important for all sectors and in all dimensions of sustainable development in terms of food security, health security, education, and all resources and sectors.
This came during the activities of the Information Security and Cybersecurity Conference “Caisec 23” in its second session.
He explained that the Global Risks Report for the year 2023 confirmed that the top risks facing the global economy, including cybersecurity, ranked fourth among all the risks facing the world, most notably in the short and long terms. Nearly five billion people use the Internet, representing 64% of the world and about 6.3% of the population.
He revealed that 25% of cyberattacks were in the manufacturing sector, and the financial sector accounted for about 20% of cyberattacks, then the rest of the sectors, at the global level, incurred losses amounting to $8.4trn in 2022 and will reach $24trn by 2027.
El Araby stressed that Egypt was one of the first countries to pay attention to cybersecurity. It launched the national strategy for cybersecurity. Article 31 of the Egyptian constitution stresses the importance of paying attention to cybersecurity, and the Egypt document that was launched by the state in February 2016. This vision is constantly being updated, and the vision clearly indicated that there are large gaps in the digital and regulatory environment, which represents a major challenge in Egypt’s endeavor to transition towards a digital economy.
For his part, Ayman Ashour, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, said that higher education is an environment rich in information and in need of cybersecurity.
This came in his opening speech for the second day of Caisec 23.
He explained that the concepts of the fourth generation of universities have begun to be developed, and scientific research has been introduced to link education outputs to the labor market. The ministry has made strong investments in this direction and in fourth-generation universities. More than EGP 11bn have been spent on new investments to provide cyber security and a shift towards electronic management and dealing with information in a safe and advanced way.
He stressed the importance of making cybersecurity a top priority for universities. Therefore, the strategy of higher education for cybersecurity has several axes. The first of which is ensuring compliance with the highest standards of cybersecurity for all levels. The second is promoting awareness and training among faculty and students to safely deal with technology. The third is training workers in the field of technology.
