His Excellency the UQU President, Dr. Abdullah Bafail, in his office today, launched the Skills Development Center affiliated to the Deanship of E-learning and Distance Education. The center obtained an accreditation certificate from a training center at the global Cisco Company and the International Council of E-Commerce Consultants, in the fields of ethical hacking and cybersecurity. The center was launched in the presence of the General Supervisor of the University Vice Presidency for Educational Affairs, Dr. Ahmad Babalghaith.

His Excellency the UQU President expressed his thanks and appreciation to the University Vice Presidency for Educational Affairs and the work team of the Deanship of E-learning and Distance Education for their efforts to enhance the effectiveness of education at the university through fruitful partnerships. This is undertaken through the establishment of accredited international scientific centers, providing educational opportunities for the nation's male and female students and enabling them to easily obtain a specialized professional certificate in their home country.

On his part, His Excellency the Dean of E-Learning and Distance Education, Dr. Khaled Al-Mutairi, said that these accreditations by international centers come within the efforts of Umm Al-Qura University to strengthen its effective partnerships with leading global companies in the service of the nation's youth. These efforts became fruitful with the establishment of the Skills Development Center by the deanship. The aim of this center is to govern procedures for obtaining professional certificates and specialized programs, both locally and internationally. The center is also concerned with overseeing the implementation of these procedures through electronic platforms to serve the university and community sectors, and with contributing to upgrading the level of the skills of the promising youth in line with the requirements of the labor market. Dr. Al-Mutairi stressed that the current accreditation is the first step towards similar accreditations for other centers with several international bodies.

Cisco is a global educational platform for information technology and cybersecurity, which in turn cooperates with international scientific and educational institutions and centers to enable the nation's young talents to obtain specialized professional educational opportunities.

The accreditation of the EC-Council Certified Ethical Hacker for cybersecurity is concerned with the graduation of specialists and technicians who are able to discover weaknesses and gaps in the target systems. This can be achieved using the same knowledge and technical tools used to penetrate these vulnerabilities, through the means, methods, and legislative laws for computer systems and by assessing the security situation of the target systems.