The Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development (ADDED) said it has selected the IBM managed security services solution to ensure protection of its information systems infrastructure and customer data.

Using sophisticated predictive analytics technology, the solution will help anticipate and mitigate threats and any possible breaches, providing higher efficiency and productivity to the department's operations, said a statement from IBM.

The IBM managed security services will facilitate around-the-clock monitoring and alerts to investigate and escalate incidents effectively while delivering threat assessments of the severity of potential issues and enabling optimization software to enhance the information security levels for ADDED, it added.

Ghanem Al Fandi Al Mazrouei, the executive director of Support Services Sector of the Department of Economic Development said, "With the increasing shift to digital technologies and the proliferation of digital data, the security of information and electronic systems became an increasingly crucial issue for individuals as well as organizations and government bodies."

"The protection of confidential information and data from clients and partners of the Department of Economic Development is one of our important priorities, so we engaged with IBM to ensure a higher level of security and improve services provided for our strategic partners," Al Mazrouei said.

The department represented by Abu Dhabi Business Center, co-operates with over 40 local and federal government entities to provide services for business owners, allowing them to establish, run and develop their organizations.

Previously, owners often had to visit different entities to start their businesses. To efficiently support its customers, the department wanted to build a single point of contact and a more efficient system, said the top government official.

This however created the challenge of managing vast amounts of data from multiple sources and ensuring confidentiality and compliance with government security regulations.

To achieve its goals, ADDED collaborated with IBM to design, build and operate a managed security services solution that will allow the department to consolidate data from all related systems and devices, delivering high visibility of security incidents, it added.

Amr Refaat, the general manager at IBM Middle East and Pakistan said: "Security threats and targeted attacks are on the increase in the region and globally. Therefore it is important for organizations to take a proactive approach to protect their infrastructure and information."

"IBM's security solution for ADDED is an excellent example of how organizations can improve their IT security in ways that not only allow innovation but help accelerate it."

"IBM will leverage its X-Force Protection System managed security services infrastructure to assist analysts with the aggregation, correlation, analysis and prioritization of security logs and events. IBM will also use its Q1Radar security solution, which gathers information from multiple sources and using analytics identifies potential threats and breaches," he added.-TradeArabia News Service