Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka

All arrangements have been made for the Cyber Security Week (CSW) 2010 to be held in the first week of September this year with a new look.

Organised by the Sri Lanka Computer Emergency Response Team (SLCERT), a subsidiary of the Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA), CSW 2010 will be a rare opportunity for awareness creation about cyber security issues.

The cynosure of the CSW 2010 will be a triduum, with the third Annual National Conference on cyber security on first September and the Technical Workshops 1 and 2 held respectively on second and third September.

Cinnamon Grand Hotel, Colombo will be the venue of the conference and the two workshops with the confab scheduled to begin at 8.30 and the workshops at 9.00 a.m. and end at 5.00 p.m. “New generation, new threats, be secure” connotes the theme of the conference.

While Workshop 1 will cover “Implementation of Secure Networks”, Workshop 2 will focus on “Making web application secure”. Placed in a full laboratory setup, supported by experienced resource persons with printed course materials and software tools including CDs to facilitate better focusing the conference and workshops are sure to offer a rare cyber exposure.

In addition to the three-day event SLCERT plans to run awareness messages across popular media with the support of its media sponsors.

“The objectives of the Cyber Security Week 2010 as with the previous two years are to increase awareness of information security and its importance in an ICT enabled society, build knowledge on emerging technologies and their security implications and provide a meeting ground for like minded individuals with a special interest in information security”, SLCERT Team Leader Lal Dias explained the objectives of CSW 2010.

Emphasising on the need for innovative thinking in meeting the challenges for cyber security Mr. Lal Dias went on to say: “This year’s theme, “New generation, New threats, Be secure”, as stated above, reflects the increasing pace at which technology evolves and the associated threats and their increased effects that impact user’s confidence in ICT-based services. Therefore, if ICT-based services are to receive wide acceptance, security practitioners need to fundamentally change the way they respond to threats -  that is, move away from the traditional security measures and start thinking innovatively to mitigate the occurrence of security incidents “. 

This year’s conference is planned to be a more interactive event, featuring quick fire talks, debates (Open forum) and live and video demonstration of security incidents.

SLCERT hopes to stimulate the minds of the participants to actively participate in security activities in the coming year. To ensure this, SLCERT will work with its partner organisations to develop a calendar of events, including workshops, awareness programmes and discussion groups for that period.

SLCERT appreciates the valuable support of its parent organisation, ICTA, and its partners and sponsors to make this year’s CSW programme a reality and to keep the programme alive in the coming years.

The Sri Lanka Computer Emergency Response Team (SLCERT), a subsidiary of the Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA)  is the single trusted source of advice about the latest threats and vulnerabilities affecting computer systems and networks. It is a source of expertise to assist the nation and member organisations in responding to and recovering from Cyber attacks. It was set up in June 2006, in collaboration with the Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) of Sri Lanka. As part of its activities SLCERT strives to educate the nation on the existence of information security threats and incidents and how to overcome them so that information technology can be used to its fullest potential safely. Further information could be obtained from www.slcert.gov.lk.
 

This article appears in Daily FT & Daily News of today (23.8.2010)

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