Current Lebanese efforts fall too short of what is required to deal with the high levels of cyberspace risks and threats. In fact:

• Lebanon has not yet developed a vision and a strategy for cybersecurity as there is no government entity to deal with cybersecurity issues;
• Lebanon has not yet established legislations related to cybersecurity. The e-transaction law does not clearly address cybersecurity issues, but could represent the basis for a solid legislative framework for protecting individuals and corporations, through the introduction of legislation to combat cybercrime;
• Lebanon lacks effective integral cybersecurity awareness plans and dedicated campaigns;
• The Lebanese Telecom Infrastructure is not totally immune against all kind of threats.

However, these challenges can be overcome. Cybersecurity is everyone’s responsibility and should involve all sectors:

Administration

Private and public administrations should join forces in order to:

• Develop a national cybersecurity strategy;
• Coordinate public and private sector’s collaboration
• Create national incident management capabilities with the establishment of a National Computer Incident Response Center to act against threats
• Establish the Cybersecurity Emergency response Team (CERT) with the help of the Lebanese University
• Promote a national culture of Cybersecurity
• Secure government cyberspace
• Improve regional and international coordination and cooperation

Industry and Businesses

Industry and businesses should:

• Give a higher priority to legal and security measures within their operation
• Ensure necessary dedicated resources to plan and implement multiple layers of security technologies to deter threats to their information systems and infrastructures
• Implement and enforce security processes and procedures and consider it as a mandatory task with a high priority.

Universities

Universities have a major role in providing the required academic support to promote cybersecurity science, through:

1. Advanced academic research about the different technical aspects of network and information security
2. The creation of new security protocols and algorithms
3. The integration of cybersecurity threats and counter measures, as well as legal aspects of combatting cybercrimes in university courses

Lebanese citizens

Lebanese citizens must become more aware (HOW?) and learn how to be vigilant in maintaining the security processes for personal use and those laid out by the organizations. They should also get familiar with the basic steps that are necessary to protect their personal information and the information related to their families and organizations.