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Doha - Qatar

The Ministry of Transport and Communications (MOTC) has recently hosted more than 200 IT specialists from various government entities at an interactive workshop that covered the mechanisms and tools that are available in MOTC’s Microsoft Framework Agreement for assessing to what extent the best practices for the information security of Microsoft software and platforms are followed in work environments.

Aiming at further improving how government entities function digitally, MOTC wants to make the most out of all its framework agreements with major universal technology corporations such as the one signed with Microsoft.

The workshop discussed the outcomes of an assessment MOTC has conducted in association with Microsoft over the past few months at more than 30 ministries and government entities. It also covered how to address and avoid information security threats through enabling Microsoft security controls and features.

Workshop attendees were also updated on the fast-paced world of sophisticated information system threats, attacks and data breaches and how to detect and recover proactively.

“Engaging the private sector in enhancing supply chain security is highly important as part of Qatar’s efforts to raise government entities’ information security efficiency. MOTC, through its framework agreements with major global technology companies, deploys the latest technologies and technical services to make the most out of world’s advanced software. It also provides training and awareness campaigns to technical specialists working at government entities to raise their information security expertise,” said Mr. Eng. Khalid Al-Hashmi, Assistant Undersecretary of Cyber Security at MOTC.

The workshop said government entities covered in MOTC’s Microsoft Framework Agreement are increasingly following an approach focused on regular upgrading and updating of the Microsoft technologies they use – an approach MOTC launched last March. It also said those entities were using the modern technologies the Agreement provides in their day-to-day functions, particularly cloud computing, document save and track and multi-factor authentication (MFA).