National Cybersecurity Agency set to grant licenses to cybersecurity service providers

The National Cyber ​​Security Agency (“NCSA”) recently announced that it is set to begin licensing cybersecurity service providers to ensure industry-leading quality. Prior to this decision, NCSA held several meetings with the Ministry of Trade and Industry and the Qatar Finance and Business Academy, during which it was agreed that through licensing, NCSA could improve the quality services provided by cybersecurity providers.

Under this program, NCSA will require private cybersecurity companies to obtain accreditation to ensure the reliability of the services provided. To ensure compliance, NCSA recently held meetings with cybersecurity company executives to inform them of the agency’s goals for cybersecurity supply chain governance.

NCSA recently updated its accreditation standards, the most recent being accreditation for penetration testing. Accreditation standards are available on the official NCSA website under the National Information Security Compliance Framework accreditation and certification framework.

The licensing decision was made in accordance with Decree No. 1 of 2021, which stipulates the standards and controls for licensing cybersecurity service providers.