Leonardo and the Italian Embassy in Bahrain to shine a light on the protection of critical national infrastructure
The importance of the physical and digital protection of Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) has been the main topic of the Leonardo Cyber and Security Solutions Day, organised today in Manama by the Italian-headquartered aerospace and defence international company Leonardo, in collaboration with the Italian Embassy in Bahrain.
The theme of security concerns the whole of society, touching on government and defence organisations, national industry and businesses providing critical services as hospitals, banks, power plants, oil and gas platforms, water facilities, transport and TELCO. All of these services are integral parts of everyday life, and this means that any interruption – most of all those related to CNI – would severely harm citizens, businesses, the running of government and even national security.
The today’s event was opened by the welcome speech of HE Paola Amadei, Italian Ambassador in Manama, and enriched by a message from of HE Nasser Mohammed Al Balooshi, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Bahrain to Italy, and by the keynote speech of Shaikh Salman Bin Mohammed Bin Abdullah Al Khalifa, CEO of the National Cybersecurity Centre. Among attendees, many honourable members of governmental institutions, agencies and private companies of the country.
HE Amadei commented: “Leonardo is a global high-technology company and a worldwide recognised Italian excellence in the fields of aerospace, defence and security. Its expertise and innovative technologies are renowned all across the world. Italy and Bahrain share strong ties based on more than fifty years of friendship and cooperation, at institutional and private level. Increasing the dialogue and collaboration between our two countries, including sharing of experiences and competences on security and advanced technology – where Italy plays a leading international role – it is a further step in the growing of the bilateral relations.”
“Leonardo, which is ranked 12th in the top 100 defence companies globally, has a long-standing presence in Bahrain that dates back to 2011 – explained HE Al Balooshi. – While we thank them for their continuous services in Bahrain, we would like to see more Kingdom's entities benefiting from their success stories and their excellent technologies.”
Temesgen Foschi, Leonardo Bahrain branch manager, said: “With a strong convergence between the physical and digital world, it is key to enhance the so-called Global Monitoring, where application of advanced technologies helps decision-makings to enhance their awareness and speed up their reaction. We think that the collaboration between the governmental institution and private champions as Leonardo is the answer to the need of continuous development of technology and, most important, human skills. This allows being ready when the breach will happen. Because there is no single ‘silver bullet’, but rather a matrix of activities which, together, can avoid or mitigate the impact of an attack,” concluded Foschi.
Among key players in the physical and cyber protection, Leonardo offer includes the training of cyber security operators and the digital infrastructures’ resilience assessment against potential cyberattacks, thanks to its Cyber Range platform. Cyber Range is at the heart of Leonardo Cyber & Security Academy, the high-level training centre established by the company to provide Defense, public administrations, critical infrastructures and businesses the skills and capabilities necessary to support the digital transition and face threats to national security. In the context of cyber defence, Threat Intelligence plays also a crucial role, allowing the monitoring, identification and analysis of cyber threats, and providing support for immediate response, remediation and containment actions in order to minimise the impact of attacks. Cyber threat intelligence information and data coming from real-time cyber security monitoring and management can be integrated into Leonardo X-2030 platform, a ‘command, control, communication, cyber and intelligence’ solution capable of correlating vast amounts of data from disparate sources (such as satellites, drones, cameras, databases and social media) in real-time.
Leonardo has a long track record of significant partnerships in Bahrain, which dates back before the establishment of a branch in Manama in 2011. Key projects include the supply of two primary surveillance radars and three Mode-S secondary surveillance radars for Bahrain’s Civil Aviation organisation and Royal Bahraini Air Force, enhancing the safety and efficiency of national airspace management. Last year, Leonardo concluded the delivery of the sixth and last naval unit “Al Taweelah” part of the agreement for the upgrade of six Royal Bahrain Naval Force ships.
