LONDON: Major improvements in Saudi cybersecurity are increasing the Kingdom’s attractiveness to investors and seeing it develop a reputation as a specialist in the field, the BMG Economic Forum was told on Wednesday.

Faisal Hameed, vice president for innovation enablement at King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology, said Saudi Arabia had climbed from 46th to second place in the Global Cyber Security Index since the 2017 launch of the Vision 2030 reform plan.

“The Cyber Security Authority and Cyber Security Act have both been big changes that leave us only second to the US,” he told the forum, which was held at the London Stock Exchange and attended by Arab News.

“We’ve come a long way since a 2012 attack against Aramco turned thousands of computers into bricks.

“We have training camps and bachelor’s and master’s degrees in cybersecurity, which is building domestic expertise in the field and transforming investment opportunities.”

Hameed said improvements in cybersecurity are attracting startups from fields including artificial intelligence, quantum and post-quantum computing as the Kingdom pushes to diversify its economy.

David Webb, managing director of security risk management firm Valkyrie, said confidence in Saudi Arabia as an investment destination is increasing, and this can be seen in a change in the queries the company is receiving.

“Saudi was always bound up in the misconstrued notion that there were physical threats to investing there — tied to what one might term its ‘noisy neighbours’,” said Webb.

“But what we’re seeing more of now, especially in recent years, is a move from questions of physical security and whether it’s strong on cybersecurity, and we always say ‘yes’ as now is a great time to invest in the country.”

Gurpreet Thathy, Valkyrie’s director of cybersecurity, said when advising on cybersecurity the company always tells clients they must build it in and future-proof it.

He added: “There must be cybersecurity embedded in the design, not a bolt on, and employees need to be told about the cyber threats out there.

“In Saudi, we see that this is the mindset from the outset, rather than a bolt on, and it’s very good to see this.”

Both Thathy and Webb said no cybersecurity system will ever be impenetrable, and what is also needed is the expertise to react swiftly to breaches.

Webb added: “We also see a lot of companies not building this reactive expertise in, and it leads to the system come crashing down.

“But with what Saudi has done in terms of training and education, if ever there was a sector for youth employment, it’s cybersecurity.”