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6 March 2023

The National Cyber Security launches "Cybersecurity Educational Curriculum" in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Higher Education

Under the patronage of His Excellency Sheikh Khalid Bin Khalifa bin Abdulaziz Al Thani, Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, the National Cyber Security Agency, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, launched "Cybersecurity Educational Curriculum" today, Monday March 6, 2023.

The ceremony was attended by Her Excellency Ms. Buthaina  Bint Ali Al-Jabr Al-Nuaimi, Minister of Education and Higher Education, and His Excellency Mr. Mohammed Bin Ali Al Mannai- Minister of Communication and Information Technology and His Excellency Eng. AbdulRahman bin Ali Al-Farahid Al-Malki, President of the National Cyber Security Agency, in addition to a number of ministers, undersecretaries, senior officials and a number of officials from different countries.

The “Cyber security Educational Curriculum” project aims to achieve a number of goals, the most important of which is to familiarize society in general, children and adolescents in particular, with the concept of digital citizenship, which is represented in the responsible, ethical and safe use of information and communication technology, in addition to educating society about the dangers of the Internet and protecting personal data, in addition to raising awareness of general concepts related to cyber security and digital safety, and preparing a future generation of Qatari youths capable of dealing efficiently and safely with technological tools.

On this occasion, His Excellency Eng. Abdulrahman bin Ali Al-Farahid Al-Malki, Chairman of the National Cyber security Agency, said: "This project comes within the framework of the National Cyber security Agency's keenness to promote awareness of cyber security risks, based on its vision to build a cyber-safe society to face the future challenges that accompany the rapid technological revolution that the world is witnessing."

"Our partnership with the Ministry of Education and Higher Education has resulted in this pioneering national project, which is the first of its kind in the region, in terms of targeting students in schools, disabled students, parallel education and literacy in order to ensure the dissemination of cyber awareness in the entire community," he added.

Al-Maliki stressed that the project includes launching a digital platform that includes all information about the project, to be available to students at any time, pointing out that the educational cyber security curriculum is presented in a smooth and enjoyable way, consolidating the information to the recipient, and making him look for more.

The ceremony included launching a digital platform that has visual content related to the curriculum, in addition to showing introductory videos about the project, and honoring the work team that contributed to the implementation of this project, which is the first of its kind in the region.

For her part, Mrs. Dalal Abdulaziz Al-Aqeedi, Director of the National Cyber Excellence Department at the National Cyber security Agency, indicated that the Agency seeks to build a safe and digitally empowered local community through several initiatives and projects aimed at raising the level of digital safety.

She added, "Today, we are launching one of the most important partnerships and projects, which is the educational cyber security curriculum, which target school students, teachers and parents, and is presented in a smooth and enjoyable way inspired by the Qatari national identity, to introduce society in general and children and adolescents in particular to the concept of digital citizenship, and raise awareness of general concepts related to cyber security and digital safety."

"The Agency also pays attention to the extra-curricular activities and their complementary role in the educational process, thus, it launched the Cyber Eco initiative, which is based on producing cyber awareness content through site visits to public and private schools, and conduct workshops that include awareness presentations, competitions, activities and applications designed according to international best practices,” she said.

A step in the right direction

Ms. Maha Zayed Al Ruwaili, Assistant Undersecretary for Educational Affairs at the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, said: "Cyber security curriculum is  a step in the right direction to ensure that students know the risks that may result from the use of technology, as everyone in this era is increasingly benefiting from technological resources, so the basic steps to keep these resources and their users safe, is through considering cyber security as an important pillar in the educational plans ".

Al-Ruwaili expected that this project will contribute to spreading the required awareness, through innovative and reliable content, pointing out that both sides look forward to developing it continuously in order to produce content that contributes to enhancing the level of students in information security, and enabling them to protect systems, property and programs from cyber-attacks that may usually aim to access, change or destroy personal information.

A Side by Side Forum

On the sidelines of the ceremony, a discussion forum was held that included three sessions, the first entitled "The Role of Educational Curriculum in Enhancing Cyber security", the second dealt with "Prospects for Change in the Future of Cybersecurity", and the third focused on international experiences in enhancing cybersecurity.

Each session hosted a group of local and international experts in the fields of cyber security, education and academic curriculum.
Sheikha Latifa Khalid Al Thani, Executive Director of Education at Microsoft Qatar, participated in the first session and addressed "The Importance of Educational Curricula in Enhancing the Reality and Indicators of Cybersecurity and Digital Safety at a national Level". Eng. Khalid Mohammed Al Hashimi, Director of National Cyber Empowerment and Excellence Affairs at the National Cyber security Agency, spoke about: "The Experience of the National Cyber security Agency in the Educational Curriculum".In addition to that,  Dr. Noura Hamad Fetais, Associate Professor at Qatar University, and Founding Secretary-General of the Arab Association for Cyber security at the League of Arab States, spoke about "Educating children about the dangers of the Internet, and the role of family in promoting a culture of cyber security among children." Dr. Haitham bin Hilal Al-Hajari, Cyber security Executive at the National Center for Information Safety in the Sultanate of Oman, participated and spoke about "Training on the Responsible and Safe Use of Information Technology".

UNICEF was represented by Ms. Brenda Hiplick, Regional Education Advisor at UNICEF Middle East and and North Africa disussed “The role pf educational curriculum in dealing with the evolving cyber threats”.

 The second session was hosted by Eng. Khalid Al Hashemi, Assistant Undersecretary for Cyber security Affairs at MCIT, who spoke about “Foundations of Dealing with the evolving Cyber Threat Tools". Mr. André Regoni, Global Cyber Leader for Government and Public Services at Deloitte, spoke remotely about the "Requirements for Confronting Cyber Threats in the Light of Advanced Technologies and Artificial Intelligence".

Eng. Badr bin Ali Al-Salhi, President of the Regional Cyber security Center and Director l of the National Center for Information Safety in the Sultanate of Oman, focused on "the size of the global cybersecurity market". In addition, Dr. Gabriel Oligre, Professor at the College of Science and Engineering (CSE) at Hamad Bin Khalifa University, spoke about "Modern Cyber Threats and Mechanisms to Deal with Them through Specialized Curriculum"

Dr. Ayman Irbid, Associate Professor in the Department of Information and Computing Technology at HBKU's College of Science and Engineering, addressed "the rise of cyber threats targeting different segments of society." Dr. Mashael Al-Sabah, a senior researcher at Qatar Computing Research Institute (QCRI) at Hamad Bin Khalifa University, spoke about "The Future of Cyber Threats." The third session hosted Professor Roberto Di Pietro, Lecturer in Cybersecurity at the College of Science and Engineering (CSE) at Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU), who discussed "the most important experiences of developed countries in enhancing cyber security." Dr. Rayan Ali, Professor in the Department of Information Technology and Computing, College of Science and Engineering (CSE), Hamad Bin Khalifa University, spoke about "The Human Factors and Cyber security"

Dr. Mohammed Abdulla, Associate Professor at the College of Science and Engineering at Qatar Computing Science Center, spoke about "The Most Important Arab Efforts in Enhancing Cyber security". Dr. Huserv Senkar, a senior cybersecurity scientist at QCRI, spoke about “The Technological Revolution and Cyber Threats."

Visual content

It is noteworthy that the educational cyber security curriculum project includes visual content that provides more than fifty educational animated videos approved by the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, and are presented in an enjoyable and smooth way inspired by the Qatari national identity.

The videos target students of the three educational stages primary, preparatory and secondary, and consider the difference in the cognitive level of students according to each age group.

In addition to that, the curriculum includes a set of posters and infographic designs. The National Cyber security Agency has been keen to formulate a clear vision, and select a qualified and experienced team in preparing this kind of educational content.

The content of the curriculum was supervised by cyber security experts from the National Cyber security Agency in cooperation with a group of experts from the Ministry of Education and Higher Education.

Guidelines

The curriculum project includes a guide for parents and another one for teachers and a roadmap for parents and supervisors to raise awareness of the methods of dealing with cyber awareness content, and raise digital literacy among children of all ages.

Cyber Eco

Based on the role of the National Cyber security Agency in building a cyber-safe society, it was keen to contribute to raising awareness of cyber security among school students, through another pioneering initiative that comes as a complement to the educational cyber security curriculum, which is the Cyber Security Awareness Initiative "Cyber Eco", which aims to promote awareness of cyber safety concepts and values through extra-curricular activities within the school environment.

The initiative is based on producing educational cyber content through a range of targeted activities and events based on site visits to public and private schools, conducting workshops that include educational videos, cyber competitions, activities and applications as well as distributing gifts to students.

The program used international references like The National Center for Cyber security in the UK and the Agency for Cyber Security and infrastructure security in the United States while building its content

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