RIYADH: With cybersecurity coming to the fore in Saudi Arabia after a recent spate of breaches, the Kingdom has stepped up efforts to further strengthen defense against cybertattacks and thwart any such attempts by hackers.

Some government websites were breached in August for about two hours. The attacks did not harvest any data and according to officials access to most of the hacked sites was restored soon after the breach occurred.

In order to avoid such occurrences in the future, the government has approved greater investment in cloud computing and analytics to reinforce security systems against cybertattacks.

“To make the system free from cybertattacks, the government has substantially increased cybersecurity spending,” said an official at the National Information Center, which provides IT solutions and services to ministry sectors and other government agencies.

Earlier speaking to Arab News, Mohammed Alabbadi, general manager of Cisco Saudi Arabia, also indicated that the government is stepping up efforts to cement cybersecurity by increasing spending for foolproof security as security agencies need to offer capabilities for detecting, preventing and recovering from cybertattacks.

Cisco has also come up with a report that calls for putting in place integrated threat defense and effective, sustainable and trusted security solutions and professional services.

According to global market intelligence firm IDC, spending in cybersecurity in the Kingdom is expected to rise by 4.6 percent this year, climbing to nearly $37 billion.