Interior Minister Prince Muhammad bin Naif patronized the first workshop on cyber security and information exchange, which took place yesterday at the Internal Security Forces Officers Club in Riyadh.

The event was organized by the Interior Ministry’s National Center for Electronic Security, which is the body that deals with electronic attacks and works to secure the electronic infrastructure in the Kingdom.

Specialists from relevant ministries and departments attended the workshop, as well as companies and entities involved in the country’s electronic infrastructure. The role and responsibilities of the electronic security center were discussed during the workshop, in addition to the importance of unifying efforts to combat cyber crime and exchanging information in a secured manner.

In May, unidentified hackers had attacked the websites of several Saudi government bodies, including the Ministry of Interior.

The attackers attempted to shut the sites down. The Interior Ministry’s website was down for one hour but the electronic security center succeeded in restoring it rapidly. “Government websites were subject to coordinated simultaneous attacks,” said an official from the center at the time, adding that the site was hit by a large number of service requests.