Saudi Arabia sets up national e-security center to prevent hackers

Saudi Arabia has started to set up National e-Security Center, a national authority for information security to protect the country's e-system from hackers, local Al Sharq Al Awsat newspaper said Tuesday.

Many hackers have been managing to attack Saudi government's websites to steal data by planting undetected viruses for months, the center's Director, Abdulrahman Al Mueeqal said.

The center is supposed to review e-security system and set criteria for software to immediately stop the use of unlicensed program, he went on saying.

In May, Saudi Interior Ministry said that a series of governmental websites were exposed to coordinated hacking attacks, according to official Saudi press agency.

Among them, the Interior Ministry's website, which had been off for an hour, was hacked by hundreds of IPs from various countries.