Under the patronage of H.E. Dr. Imad Al-Saboni, Minister of Communications and Technology, the 4th ICT Security Forum in Syria was organized by Al-Salam for International Conferences and Exhibitions in collaboration with the Syrian Computer Society on 1-2/7/2008, with the participation of H.e. Dr. Mohammad Suleimani, Minister of the ICT in the Islamic Republic of Iran. The Forum was attended by around 800 ICT experts and specialists from Syria and other Arab and foreign countries in addition to foreign and local firms specialized in ICT security. During the Forum, many lectures were delivered on the security of wire and wireless networks, Internet, e-signature, banking security and raising awareness of the importance of ICT security.
On behalf of the participants, the Organisers would like to thank all those who have contributed to the Forum success, particularly H.E. the Ministry of Communications and Technology, Syrian Computer Society, Federation of Arab Computer Societies, Arab Internet Services Providers Association, all the supporting bodies and the gentlepersons who chaired the sessions and the lecturers.

Speakers of the 4th ICT Forum

 H.E. Dr. Imad Al-Sabouni- Minister of Communications & Technology (Syria)
H.E. Dr. Mohammad Soleimani – Minister of Information and Communication Technology (MICT) (Iran)
Dr. Rakan Razzouk, CEO of Syrian computer Society (SCS) (Syria)
Dr. Miloud Ameziane –  Director of  Arab State - International Telecommunication Union ( Switzerland)
Mr. Maher Abdul Hak, GM of Al-Salam for conferences (Organizer)
 Mr. Jamal Al Jarwan - CEO International Investments, "Etisalat " ( UAE)
 Dr.  Bachir AL-MOUNAJED- The former Minister of Communications & Technology (Syria)
 Eng. Bassel Al Fakir –General Manager,INT Internet Services Provider( Syria)
 Eng. Anas Shbib – Advance German Technology "AGT" (German)
 Mr. Simon ford - network of National Contact Points (NCPs) (German)
 Mr. André Gholam –expert in ISMF (Lebanon)
 Dr. Rakan Razzouk, CEO of Syrian computer Society (SCS)
 Eng. Wail Obid- Ministry of Communications & Technology (Syria)
 Mr.Shafik Abdul Samad – SCS-net ( Syria)
 Eng. Hisham Abdel Wahab, Head of the E-Signature CA Licensing Unit -ITIDA - Ministry of Communication and Information Technology(Egypt)
 Eng. Fadi Moubarak - General Manager, CISCO Systems (Lebanon).
 Eng. Abdel Aziz Alhelayyel, Secretary-General, Arab Regional ISPs & DSPs Association (ARISPA)
 Mr. Robert P. Hilty – Swiss Government, Ministry of Economy ( Swiss)
 Mr. Mohd Noor Amin - Chairman, International Multilateral Partnership Against Cyber-Terrorism (‘IMPACT’) (Malaysia (
 Mr. Seyed Mohammad Reza Mir Eskandari - Expert of The Security of Networks from ITC (Iran)
 Dr. Fadi Aloul, Asst. Prof. of Computer Engineering American University of Sharjah ( UAS )
 Mr. Aladdin T. Dandis, MSc CBISInformation Security Compliance Officer
      Information Security Unit Ministry of Information and Communications Technology (Jordan)
 Dr. Mohamad Jalaly – Asst. Minister of Communications & Technology (Syria)
 Eng. Fadia Suleiman, IT Manager in- Ministry of Communications & Technology (Syria)
 Eng Ali Ali- IBU Director- Syrian Telecom.
 Mr. Patrick Reynolds-Digi sign (Ireland)
 Dr. Ammar Joukhadar - Faculty of Information Technology (Syria)
 Dr.Marwan Zbeebe - Vice President of the Board of Directors (INAN) Group
 Ph.D. Kheder Durah, ICT and Informatics Consultant ( Syria)
 Mr. Meier –CTO Lampertz (Germany)
 Eng. Nazem Bahsas - General Manager of Syrian Telecom.
 Mr. Erik Tetzlaff -Platinum Company (Syria)
 Dr. Eng. Sattar B. Sadkhan- Professor of Information and Communication Security
    &Director   of Iraqi Academicals Committee (IAC)
 Ahmad Elkhatib, Technical Manager -MENA, Utimaco (Germany)







Based on the delivered papers and discussions, the Forum has developed the following recommendations:

1. Continue the efforts aimed at disseminating awareness on the importance of ICT security and the issues of confidentiality and privacy, and focus on training in the field of information security to the different categories from the decision-makers to the end user.
2. Create a national team under the supervision of the Ministry of Telecommunications and Technology to develop a national IT Security Strategy, involving government, civil society organizations and educational institutions in collaboration with international experts.
3. Emphasize the contribution of the curricula and activities of different educational institutions in raising the awareness against the risk of hackers and means of protection.
4. Encourage the higher education sector to conduct studies and researches on IT security and protection of computer systems.
5. Encourage the government and private bodies to develop IT security policies in their institutions, and propose solutions to upgrade their information security.
6. Promote the development of standards and controls to protect the privacy and confidentiality of the data exchanged among the various government agencies.
7. Emphasize the need to study and establish security rules for computer systems at the government and private agencies during the analysis phase, before their implementation and exploitation start.
8. Call for the establishment of a body at the Ministries of Justice and Interior to start dealing with electronic crimes and receiving complaints on that; call the Ministry of Justice to cooperate with the Ministries of Interior and Telecommunications and Technology to issue the necessary legislation to combat electronic crimes.
9. Invite the financial and banking institutions to develop and standardize security standards and their monitoring and scrutinizing requirements in order to achieve the National Converter to connect among different banks.

The participants