On the evening of Sunday, 16 Sha'ban 1440H (corresponding to 21 April 2019), the Governor of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA), Dr. Ahmed Bin Abdul Karim Al-Khuleify, patronized the graduation ceremony of the second batch of SECURE 18 Program, launched by SAMA for training and qualifying a group of national cadres in the field of Cybersecurity in the financial and banking sector and other sectors, within the framework of the financial sector development program emanating from the Kingdom's vision 2030.
On this occasion, Dr. Al-Khuleify said in his speech: " Today, we celebrate the graduation of the second batch of the Cybersecurity program (SECURE 18) which includes (26) trainees who have continued training for six and a half months between Saudi Arabia and the United States of America". He also has pointed out that in light of the great challenges faced by central banks and regulatory authorities, especially with the acceleration in the growing demand for electronic banking and the increasing sophistication of banking products and services that require designing and implementation of regulatory strategies related to Cybersecurity in accordance with the best practices and global standards. Accordingly, SAMA had paid attention to Cybersecurity, making it one of its top priorities and focused on the training, prevention and protection aspects. In addition, it conducted ongoing inspection and risk assessment procedures. Eventually, this approach contributed to raising the Kingdom standing and its financial system to a high degree of compliance with the requirements and standards of cybersecurity.
Dr. Al-Khuleify clarified that this batch has targeted four training tracks including defense, protection, offensive, penetration testing, infrastructure, structuring, governance and risk management. The program was divided into four phases. The beginning started in the Kingdom envisaging training, which had taken five weeks and it was the foundation stone of the program. The principles of cybersecurity were introduced and explained, apart from the development of basic and personal skills. Phase II that took (16) weeks was the advanced training stage in the United States of America. It covered the construction of the technical specialization where the trainees were divided on the four tracks, each according to his specialization. This was followed by the concentrated experimental application phase, which focused on on-the-job training. It took three weeks. It included attending conferences and participation in in discussion sessions and guidance. During this phase, the trainees were encouraged to conduct research and enhance knowledge in cybersecurity, in addition to preparing trainees for the next stage through working with experts in this field. The four phases were concluded with the final phase where the trainees became aware of SAMA's Cybersecurity Framework. They were trained to manage the projects and practice facing real attacks through the simulated experiment, with visits to legislative and supervisory bodies in the Kingdom.
SAMA Governor pointed out that SAMA is constantly seeking to invest in the human resources and improve their skills and experience to acquire new experience. To this end, it has sent a number of employees on scholarships to obtain PH Degrees in this area in the best world universities. He emphasized in this regard that SAMA would not stop this approach, which is the most important task it carries out.
At the conclusion of the ceremony, SAMA's Governor delivered the certificates to the graduates of the Cybersecurity program (SECURE 18) at SAMA's Headquarters in Riyadh in the presence of a number of SAMA officials and success partners of this initiative of the government sectors and some banks. A number of officials of the financial and banking sector attended the ceremony.

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