the patronage of HE Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani, the National Cyber Security Agency (NCSA) launched Tuesday the National Incident Management Framework, with the attendance of a number of Their Excellencies and senior officials in the country.
The National Incident Management Framework aims to enhance the country's readiness to minimize the direct consequences in the event of a cyber incident with national impact. It also provides an organized approach and guidelines to manage cyber incidents and reduce their impact through coordination between decision-makers and various involved entities.
In his speech, HE President of the National Cyber Security Agency Eng. Abdulrahman bin Ali Al Farahid Al Malki said that the National Framework aims to meet the evolving needs and challenges of the State of Qatar by establishing a comprehensive and coordinated approach to managing cyber incidents with national impact. He emphasized that this framework is an important initiative to strengthen the country's ability and its institutions to handle and respond effectively to cyber incidents.
He pointed out that the NCSA designed the framework in line with the best global practices in cybersecurity governance, ensuring the cooperation of State's entities when dealing with various types of cyber incidents, whether technical, operational, or security-related. This will protect the country's assets and resources and ensure the continuity of its operations, he added.
HE explained that implementing the National Incident Management Framework is a shared responsibility, requiring the joint efforts of all State's entities and the National Cyber Security Agency to protect and ensure the safety of the cyber space, contribute to meeting the requirements of sustainable national development, and support the State of Qatar's position at the forefront of leading countries in the field of cybersecurity regionally and globally.
During the inauguration event, Director of NCSA's Incident Response and Management department Eng. Majed Mohammed Al Sulaiti, gave a presentation outlining an overview of the National Incident Management Framework and its goals.
He noted that the framework is based on seven main elements: leadership and control, cyber incident detection and monitoring, investigation, national strategic response, recovery and system restoration, regulations, standards, compliance, and partnerships, and national incident review.
Al Sulaiti underlined that the framework includes five operational phases. The first phase involves reporting and classification; the second phase is the incident response; the third phase includes response and investigation; the fourth phase includes handling and recovery; and the fifth and final phase is closure and review.
The agency organized three important discussion sessions during the event about cyber Incidents and the role of law enforcement, the importance of Computer Security Incident Response Teams (CSIRT), and the Incident and Crisis Management Frameworks.
The National Incident Management Framework aims to provide a comprehensive approach to managing cyber incidents at the national level, clarifying the roles and responsibilities of partners in the event of a cyber incident with national impact, enhancing partners' understanding of NCSA's approach to handling cyber incidents, and facilitating cooperation between law enforcement authorities and the Agency for criminal investigations into cybercrimes.
Furthermore, the framework ensures a coordinated, appropriate, and effective response when a cyber incident occurs, facilitates the immediate restoration of services and operations after a cyber incident, and identifies and implements necessary improvements based on lessons learned
