Saudi Arabia National Cyber Security System: Specificity and Development Risks

Abstract

The research featured the national cybersecurity system of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The cybersecurity standards developed by the International Telecommunication Union of the United Nations made it possible to reveal the institutional and legal foundations of the digital security system, as well as the degree of involvement in international cybersecurity cooperation. The analysis demonstrated the key risks of the development of the Saudi cyber model. The assessment by the International Telecommunication Union standards gave quite positive results. However, Saudi Arabia proved to adhere to a catching-up development model and still experiences some problems with national cyberspace security. Some are of global nature, e.g. legislation gaps, while others result from the specifics of the national model of state governance. The most obvious risks include the imbalance between the civil and military sectors, the disagreements between various regions, and the poor integration of the local hacker community into the overall structure of national cybersecurity. Saudi Arabia plans to eliminate these imbalances in the medium term in order to build an integrated cybersecurity system by expanding its international cooperation.