The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, as part of the Saudi Vision 2030 has developed and promulgated the Essential Cybersecurity Controls (ECC). These measures aim to help government and government-affiliated organizations enhance their cybersecurity posture.
- Regulations
- Compliance
Essential Cybersecurity Controls
ECC Controls have been created with cybersecurity needs of all organizations and sectors in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in mind. There are a minimum cybersecurity requirements that must organization must comply.
The controls are designed to ensure the confidentiality, integrity and availability of an organization’s information and technology assets. They revolve around the four pillars of people, technology, processes and strategy.
The Essential Cybersecurity Controls are organized into five main domains:
- Governance
- Defense
- Resilience
- Third-Party and Cloud Computing, and
- ICS Cybersecurity.
Some important highlights and challenges of the Controls are the following:
- The cybersecurity controls represent the minimum standards with which “all organizations and sectors in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia” must comply.
- Not all controls are applicable to all organizations. The applicability of this framework depends on the nature of the business activities that the organization is carrying out. For example, an organization using a cloud hosted solution would be subject to Subdomain 4.2, Cloud Computing and Hosting Cybersecurity. Organizations are therefore advised to perform an assessment if they are subject to the provisions of the ECC controls.
Thales Guide to Saudi Arabia ECC
The development of the ECCs is a crucial and vital step towards increasing the cybersecurity posture of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Organizations subject to the Controls can take advantage of top-level industry solutions and use existing frameworks such as the NIST Cybersecurity Framework as guidelines.
Thales, a global leader in cybersecurity solutions and services, can help the Saudi Arabian organizations become compliant with the Essential Cybersecurity Controls.
Cybersecurity Governance Domain
Thales offers a variety of data protection professional services designed to help you effectively take your investment and ensure a successfully deployment. These services include:
- Best practices and awareness workshops for learning about the latest security trends and practices, managing governance risk and compliance and implementing data protection.
- Strategy and Design for identifying stakeholders and assigning roles and responsibilities.
- Implementation and Operations such as on-site product training, installation and customization of Thales products.
- Assessment to help your organization prepare for upcoming security audits while reviewing existing environment and business needs.