Towards a Qatar Cybersecurity Capability Maturity Model with a Legislative Framework

Abstract

In an age when cybersecurity vulnerabilities can be used as a pretext for a blockade, as in the case of Qatar prompted by a hack of the Qatar News Agency, it becomes incumbent upon states to consider legislating the capability maturity measurement and the development of their cybersecurity programs across the community. This paper proposes a Qatar Cybersecurity Capability Maturity Model (Q-C2M2) with a legislative framework. The paper discusses the origin, purpose and characteristics of a capability maturity model and its adoption in the cybersecurity domain. Driven by a thematic analysis under the document analysis methodology, the paper examines existing globally recognized cybersecurity capability maturity models and Qatar’s cybersecurity framework using publicly available documents. This paper also conducts a comparative analysis of existing cybersecurity capability maturity models in light of the Qatari cybersecurity framework, including a comparative analysis of cybersecurity capability maturity model literature. The comparative document analysis helped identify gaps in the existing Qatar National Information Assurance Policy and specifically the Qatar National Information Assurance Manual. The proposed Q-C2M2 aims to enhance Qatar’s cybersecurity framework by providing a workable Q-C2M2 with a legislative component that can be used to benchmark, measure and develop Qatar’s cybersecurity framework. The Q-C2M2 proposes the USERS domains consisting of Understand, Secure, Expose, Recover and Sustain. Each domain consists of subdomains, under which an organization can create cybersecurity activities at initial benchmarking. The Q-C2M2 uses the following five levels to measure the cybersecurity capability maturity of an organization: Initiating, Implementing, Developing, Adaptive and Agile.