ALKHOBAR, 14 October 2003 — Dr. Mohammed I. Al-Suwaiyel, Dr. Khalid Al-Tawil, Dr. Khaled Al-Ghoneim and Dr. Mohammed Al-Abdulkarim are just a few of the Kingdom’s IT heavyweights in town for the 9th Annual Gulf Internet Event being held at Le Gulf Meridien Hotel through Wednesday. The tutorials and the expo started Saturday with the symposium kicking off yesterday. The theme of the event this year is e-Security: Key to Success. Gulf Internet is held under the auspices of the Saudi Computer Society with Ahmed A. Ashadawi as chairman of the Organizing Committee and Dr. Bakr A. Hassan chairing the Technical Committee. While the event is focused on IT specialists, in an effort to reach out to the local community, two presentations have been opened to the general public. It must be emphasized that space has been allocated for women at both presentations.
Tonight at 7:30 at Le Gulf Meridien, Faisal Al-Naim will lead the forum on “Protecting our children from the dangers of the Internet.” He will be joined by Dr. Adel Rashad, Imam and Kateeb, Anas Ibn Malik Mosque, Dr. Abdullah Al-Mulhim, psychologist, and Yacoob Al-Najeedee, consultant, Internet network operations. Tomorrow at 3:30 at Le Gulf Meridien, Sheikh Mohammed Saleh Al-Monajid, imam and khateeb, Omar Ibn Abdulaziz Mosque will speak on “Information Security from a Shariah perspective.” Both presentations will be in Arabic with questions encouraged from the audience.
Discussing the event with Ahmed A. Ashadawi on Sunday, he explained that Gulf Internet is organized as a learning and networking experience rather than an exhibition.
“We aren’t promoting products here, we’re promoting ideas. In terms of business, most of our data is still on paper. Plus we don’t have a huge push from the military in the area of e-security as is the case in some other nations,” said Ashadawi. “We are making progress though in the area of network security, and for the Kingdom this progress is being led by the financial sector. It is only natural that as the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency and the banks are placing more emphasis on this topic, that the issues at the center of e-security are becoming of greater importance to businesses.”
He admitted that it has not been easy to convince the private sector of some of the advantages of cyberspace. However, as regional vendors have developed from being mere box pushers to offering integrated applications and services, interest in IT among the private sector has grown. Ashadawi hopes that the expanding use of IT will soon enable the dream of women working from home, to the benefit of both their families and the national economy.
Dr. Bakr A. Hassan emphasized that the Saudi Computer Society is a volunteer non-profit organization, working to increase awareness of IT and the issues surrounding it.
“The National IT Masterplan and the government provide the direction, regulations and enforcement of the Kingdom’s IT vision,” said Hassan. “The Saudi Computer Society does its best to provide the awareness needed by businesses, IT professionals and the public to utilize information technology in productive ways. We want people to understand the trends and new directions being taken by technology. This week’s event enables IT vendors, IT professionals and the public to have an opportunity to share news and views on information technology. We also endeavor to support the emerging IT industry in the Kingdom through training and networking opportunities.”
Hassan believes that the media must provide more support to IT awareness activities so that the general public comes to accept IT as a necessary part of daily life. He pointed out that most publications provide minimal space to IT issues, viewing IT as a specialty topic rather than as a subject of general interest. Yet, in reality, IT has become integrated into every field of endeavor. Unfortunately, utilizing IT effectively is a challenge that has yet to be embraced at all levels of Saudi society.
As a Saudi journalist I accept that the local media must do more to promote IT awareness. I am also of the opinion though, that the endless, often overlapping, conferences and symposia held around the Kingdom are in dire need of focus. Conferences rarely publish conclusions reached as a result of the event. There are also no lists of action items that require follow up. This means that all the talk at the events is just that — talk. In addition there is no follow-on in successive years to ensure that issues brought to the fore ever achieve resolution. I heard an attendee at a local conference claim that these events are a good way to “escape work and wife.” In the future for such events to be deemed a success they must become something more than that.
It is important to congratulate the organizers of the 9th Gulf Internet for including women at least as attendees of the event. It is ludicrous that in Saudi Arabia we are training thousands of women to be IT professionals and yet we do not allow them the same local continuing education experiences that are open to men. To see Saudi women sitting in on tutorials and lectures is welcome. Such opportunities should be the norm everywhere in the Kingdom.
I do want to mention one company that I discovered at the expo, which is offering a service that will be of interest to many. Information Management Technologies Co. Ltd. (imt.com.sa) has opened a data recovery laboratory in Alkhobar. This laboratory is part of their core business that includes IT forensic investigations, BS 7799 compliance audits, corporate governance implementation, technical surveillance counter measures and high-level security strategy development and framework.
So what’s in it for the average person? Just imagine that coming off a long-haul flight, groggy and exhausted, you punch in the wrong PIN three times to your mobile phone. Now the SIM card won’t unlock without the PUK. You might recall that the PUK came with the SIM when you first got it from STC. Where that number is now, you probably don’t know. You rush to STC hoping that they can give you the PUK if you just provide them with your ID. Forget it. They’re as clueless as you are. So you’re standing in the street and all your essential contact numbers are locked up in your SIM. In the past all anyone could offer you was sympathy but now, for a price, IMT can offer to recover your address book off the SIM.
“We started out working with the authorities in Europe on IT forensic investigations and that has spun off into data recovery,” said Vernon Fryer, head, information security & risk management, IMT. “A single 1.4 MB diskette can hold 483 A4 pages. A diskette could hold the only copy of a report that has taken months to produce. Or it could contain vital financial records. Our charges are not extremely expensive as we are catering to the main street and we only charge for actual data recovered. Our charges start at SR100 and we do all the data recovery locally so the damaged digital storage media never leaves the Kingdom.”
IMT can recover data from flash memory cards, SIM cards, hard drives, CDs, DVDs, tapes — basically any digital storage media. They handle some terribly damaged items. Scrunched, burnt, scratched, etched, filthy digital storage media are all a delightful challenge to the IMT technicians.
“Let’s say your computer caught fire and your hard drive was burnt,” said Fryer. “Bring it to us and we’ll help get your data back. Or perhaps a CD containing irreplaceable images from your child’s graduation became scratched. Bring it in. We’ll do our best to recover those pictures. We can’t get everything back, but it’s amazing how much can be recovered from damaged storage devices. Even if you think it’s hopeless there’s nothing to lose, because if we can’t bring back the data there’s no charge.”
IMT had some extremely damaged storage devices on display at their stand. Melted diskettes, badly scratched CDs and even a soot covered hard drive were all items from which they’d recovered data. Perhaps the most impressive was the scrunched and wrinkled film from the interior of a diskette. Fryer said that while damage to a storage device is often accidental, this isn’t always the case. IMT has seen that employees of some companies may damage storage devices in an attempt to hide wrongdoing or simply to be malicious after they have been terminated.
“Many companies can provide an accurate figure on IT investment, but few have any idea how much their data is worth,” said Fryer. “The truth is that the data is always far more valuable than the device in which it is stored. Sometimes the worst happens and a backup tape snaps or a computer is plugged into the wrong voltage and catches fire. That’s when it’s time to let us try to recover your often irreplaceable assets.”
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