Under the patronage of His Excellency, the President of Jouf University, Prof. Mohammed bin Abdullah Al-Shaya, and within the activities of the "Wa'ei" (Aware) initiative, the Department of Intellectual Awareness, in cooperation with the College of Computer and Information Sciences, held a symposium entitled: "A Safe Cyberspace for All", which revolved around the concept of Cybersecurity and Artificial Intelligence and their importance in reducing extremist thought, and the Kingdom's role and efforts in Cybersecurity.
The College of Computer and Information Sciences hosted the meeting, in which Dr. Hisham bin Khalaf Al-Lahem and Dr. Ibrahim bin Rashid Al-Rashidi spoke, moderated by Dr. Ghada bint Nayef Al-Waked.
During the meeting, the spokespersons emphasized that Cybersecurity and Artificial Intelligence have become essential elements in combating the extremist thought and limiting its spread. Governments and security institutions around the world resort to adopting modern technologies to confront digital threats that promote extremist ideologies online.
With the extremist groups' increasingly using social media platforms and websites to recruit individuals and spread their ideas, Artificial Intelligence has become an effective tool in tracking and blocking harmful content before reaching the target audience. By analyzing huge data, smart systems can quickly identify recurring patterns in extremist discourse with quick reaction to prevent their spread.
The meeting spokespersons pointed out that society must understand the concept of Cybersecurity and Artificial Intelligence, and that Cybersecurity is based on protecting networks, computers, software applications, systems, and data from potential digital threats, and adopting Cybersecurity measures and tools to protect sensitive data from unauthorized access and limiting the impersonation of personal accounts.
The Kingdom's efforts to provide a safe environment for data and digital operations were referred to through a robust security system to reduce the risks of crimes of theft or impersonation of official or personal accounts on social media platforms. This is clarified in the role of the National Cybersecurity Authority in developing policies and controls for data protection, governance, and personal data protection, implementation, and supervision. The Kingdom ranked second globally in the Cybersecurity Index for 2022 (SPA), and the Kingdom achieved a rate of (100%) in all criteria, which made it classified as a leading model in the highest category of the United Nations Cybersecurity Index and achieved the first place globally for the year 2024. The Kingdom also paid great attention to enhancing digital security and protecting the privacy of citizens, residents and various electronic systems.
Jouf University is playing its assigned role in the field of Cybersecurity. With the great acceleration in the digital transformation processes, the rates of cyber-attacks, data breach risks and personal account impersonation have increased.
