Google Cloud, Haboob Partner to Strengthen Saudi Arabia's Nationwide Cyber Defense

Haboob announced its partnership with Google Cloud to deliver Chronicle CyberShield to Saudi Arabia. (SPA)
Haboob announced its partnership with Google Cloud to deliver Chronicle CyberShield to Saudi Arabia. (SPA)
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Google Cloud, Haboob Partner to Strengthen Saudi Arabia's Nationwide Cyber Defense

Haboob announced its partnership with Google Cloud to deliver Chronicle CyberShield to Saudi Arabia. (SPA)
Haboob announced its partnership with Google Cloud to deliver Chronicle CyberShield to Saudi Arabia. (SPA)

Haboob, a leading cybersecurity service provider owned by the Saudi Federation for Cybersecurity, Programming and Drones (SAFCSP), announced its partnership with Google Cloud to deliver Chronicle CyberShield to Saudi Arabia.

This marks the first time Chronicle CyberShield will be offered in a managed services model in the Kingdom, aiming to bolster cybersecurity services for public sector organizations, said Haboob in a statement on Tuesday.

The news was revealed at Black Hat MEA in Riyadh.

“Chronicle CyberShield is a comprehensive solution that provides technology, processes, capabilities and resources to deliver situational awareness of the cyber threat landscape. It is uniquely designed for government entities to share threat information, help accelerate investigations and initiate a united response against persistent and ever-evolving threats proactively and rapidly,” said the statement

Haboob and Google Cloud are addressing the rising demand for cloud services in the Kingdom in alignment with the Saudi Vision 2030 digital transformation goals.

Running on Google Cloud's infrastructure, Chronicle CyberShield is capable of ingesting large amounts of data and conducting analytics within seconds. This can be a crucial factor when protecting one of the top 20 global economies and dealing with diverse data sources across various organizations and industries.

Haboob is spearheading the nationwide implementation of this solution, including the launch of a modernized Government Security Operations Center in Saudi Arabia, with advanced threat intelligence capabilities, enabling proactive detection and response to threats and incidents.

As part of the partnership, Haboob will also have access to a range of services from cybersecurity leader Mandiant, part of Google Cloud, including incident response capabilities, compromise and cyber defense assessments, and red teaming, in order to help protect key customer assets.

CEO of Haboob Eng. Saleh Alhaqbani underlined their keenness to provide their services to a wide range of clients in government and private sectors, which reflects great confidence in their ability to meet their needs in the cybersecurity sector, said the statement.

He stressed the importance of managed security monitoring services, which are growing significantly due to the legislation and security controls of the National Cybersecurity Authority, as well as the great risks resulting from cyber threats and new and complex methods of Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs) to bypass and penetrate technical systems.

Alhaqbani added that Haboob is delivering a managed security monitoring service in partnership with Google Cloud using Google Chronicle CyberShield, which is supported by artificial intelligence (AI) technologies that help it detect complex cyber threats. Haboob is seeking to contribute to creating a safe cyberspace and achieving its strategic goals that have been worked on to align with Saudi Vision 2030's strategic goals.



TikTok Must Face Lawsuit over 10-year-old Girl's Death, US Court Rules

A view shows the office of TikTok after the US House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bill that would give TikTok's Chinese owner ByteDance about six months to divest the US assets of the short-video app or face a ban, in Culver City, California, March 13, 2024. REUTERS/Mike Blake
A view shows the office of TikTok after the US House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bill that would give TikTok's Chinese owner ByteDance about six months to divest the US assets of the short-video app or face a ban, in Culver City, California, March 13, 2024. REUTERS/Mike Blake
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TikTok Must Face Lawsuit over 10-year-old Girl's Death, US Court Rules

A view shows the office of TikTok after the US House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bill that would give TikTok's Chinese owner ByteDance about six months to divest the US assets of the short-video app or face a ban, in Culver City, California, March 13, 2024. REUTERS/Mike Blake
A view shows the office of TikTok after the US House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bill that would give TikTok's Chinese owner ByteDance about six months to divest the US assets of the short-video app or face a ban, in Culver City, California, March 13, 2024. REUTERS/Mike Blake

A US appeals court has revived a lawsuit against TikTok by the mother of a 10-year-old girl who died after taking part in a viral "blackout challenge" in which users of the social media platform were dared to choke themselves until they passed out, Reuters reported.

While a federal law typically shields internet companies from lawsuits over content posted by users, the Philadelphia-based 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday ruled the law does not bar Nylah Anderson's mother from pursuing claims that TikTok's algorithm recommended the challenge to her daughter.

US Circuit Judge Patty Shwartz, writing for the three-judge panel, said that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 only immunizes information provided by third parties and not recommendations TikTok itself made via an algorithm underlying its platform.

She acknowledged the holding was a departure from past court rulings by her court and others holding that Section 230 immunizes an online platform from liability for failing to prevent users from transmitting harmful messages to others.

But she said that reasoning no longer held after a US Supreme Court ruling in July on whether state laws designed to restrict the power of social media platforms to curb content they deem objectionable violate their free speech rights.

In those cases, the Supreme Court held a platform's algorithm reflects "editorial judgments" about "compiling the third-party speech it wants in the way it wants." Shwartz said under that logic, content curation using algorithms is speech by the company itself, which is not protected by Section 230.

"TikTok makes choices about the content recommended and promoted to specific users, and by doing so, is engaged in its own first-party speech," she wrote.

TikTok did not respond to requests for comment.

Tuesday's ruling reversed a lower-court judge's decision dismissing on Section 230 grounds the case filed by Tawainna Anderson against TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance.

She sued after her daughter Nylah died in 2021 after attempting the blackout challenge using a purse strap hung in her mother's closet.

"Big Tech just lost its 'get-out-of-jail-free card,'" Jeffrey Goodman, the mother's lawyer, said in a statement.

U.S. Circuit Judge Paul Matey, in a opinion partially concurring with Tuesday's ruling, said TikTok in its "pursuit of profits above all other values" may choose to serve children content emphasizing "the basest tastes" and "lowest virtues."

"But it cannot claim immunity that Congress did not provide," he wrote.