Intelligent CIO Middle East Issue 04 | Page 12

NEWS OMAN Omantel signs pact with BP Oman to provide telecom services at Omantel Business noted, “Our partnership with BP highlights Omantel ‘s deep experience in meeting the needs of clients in the oil and gas sector, who are often located in very remote regions of Oman. “Deploying our technical experience and expertise on this project means that BP Oman will be able to conduct instantaneous well monitoring, while onsite staff will be reliably connected with high quality mobile and fixed solutions, and Internet broadband. Omantel has announced a strategic partnership with BP Oman to deploy full suite of fixed, mobile and broadband solutions. The agreement calls for a comprehensive telecommunications network to be constructed for the Khazzan Gas Project located between the Al Dhahirah and Al Dakhiliyah Governorates, and provides for a communications network spanning an area of 2,800 square kilometres. Commenting on the scope of the Khazzan Gas Project, Ahmed Mohammed al Nasri, General-Manager of Sales Omantel ‘s project scope is to design, deploy and maintain a comprehensive suite of telecommunication systems, ensuring seamless voice and broadband connectivity to cover the populated Khazzan gas field catchment area. Once operational, the network will be delivering the highest quality of fixed and mobile voice and high-speed broadband solutions (LTE and GPON) for BP Oman and its contractors on site. During the project startup phase, telecommunication services will be initially supplied through a series of microwave links due to its high flexibly in providing connectivity without getting impacted by the massive project work on ground. This setup will then transition to a permanently installed fibre optic network in a self-healing rings topology, with the microwave links retained as a system backup. Oman’s 2nd National Cyber Drill kicked off The Information Technology Authority represented by Oman National CERT organised the 2nd National Cyber Drill at the Crown Plaza Hotel – Muscat. A number of experts and specialists from various government entities as well as national infrastructure organisations including representatives from financial, telecommunications, transport, education, ICT providers and Oil and Gas sectors. Topics and discussions of the workshop for the first two days of the drill to begin with an overview on realities of today cyber security landscape, tools, techniques, and threats utilised by cyber criminals, focusing mainly on the theoretical part. The drill featured incident response framework, including incidents types and classifications, as well as process and methodology in which hands-on-exercise on information gathering and threat analysis to conclude the agenda of the first day. An array of various topics to be also covered including incident handling (SPAM), Phishing, Malware and Web defacement with a practical exercise at the end. 12 INTELLIGENTCIO At the third and last day of the drill, a practical exercise on the mentioned topics to be carried out exposing participants to various scenarios based on case studies and real-life situations, which provides them with an opportunity to test their skills and knowledge in responding to such attacks. www.intelligentcio.com