 The struggle between corruption and the digital economy: In 2018, Lebanon maintained its ranking within the upper range of corrupt nations, a situation held since the early 1990s and that can be attributed to the consequences of the sectarian war. An entire generation grew up living in a society that lacked structure and order. Instead of restoring the traditional, pre-war Lebanese culture built on integrity, respect, and competence, this generation came out of this war rationalizing its need to satiate its hunger in compensation for years of deprivation. Corruption and the digital economy are diametrically opposed since corruption is the major threat against the implementation of Cyber Security, while the digital economy can potentially destroy or at best disrupt corruption patterns. Corrupt agents could become implicated in active or passive, direct or indirect, and internal or external cyber-attacks intended to disable the services provided through the digital infrastructure of the national digital economy. Their aim could be to allege the inefficiency of the digital services provided in order to fall back on the previous manual operations, under which corruption schemes could not be tracked.  The multi-faceted socio-demographic context: The Lebanese Constitution is based on a democracy that preserves the equity of rights amongst its multiple religious communities. Multiplicity is a unique and distinctive component of the nation which may be used to destabilize every single area of the public and civic life. As a consequence, cooperation, sharing of means, and the use of appropriate qualifications can be hampered if the multiple entities that make up the Lebanese society veer towards isolationism and individualism, which would in turn drain the nation from the necessary skills required for well-functioning institutions and affect the overall resilience built on collaboration across agencies. To avoid this end, individuals appointed to positions of responsibility should possess expertise or be required to obtain a certification in the related business area. This directive reflects mandatory Cyber Security requirements. Cyber-Attacks are similar to a virus infecting an organ of a living body. If left untreated or treated inadequately, it will endanger the entire body, and could spread to other individuals, to contaminate and potentially decimate an entire population. To eradicate the spread of such a potential threat to the entire nation, action should be coordinated through involving all relevant stakeholders, using a wide range of enforcement tools and reliable expertise. In summary, the state must ensure that people appointed for the implementation of the Cyber Security Strategy shall be competent, reliable, experienced, June 2019 LEBANON NATIONAL CYBER SECURITY STRATEGY 9

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