Organisations urged to implement cyber security steps

Addressing a seminar on cyber security at Sir Syed Ahmed Khan Centre of Excellence (SSAKCE) on Monday, Vice Admiral (retd) Syed Arifullah Hussaini, a member of the prime minister task force on IT and telecommunication, said using computer technology without cyber security in today’s world was dangerous as the present scope and repercussions of cybercrimes were more than what the people could think of.The aim of the event was to highlight the importance of cyber security and teach students and participants how to avert cyber threats in order to produce trained professionals who would be capable of handling cyber security threats in the most effective manner.Hussaini said that before sharing data on social websites, a person must know what to share and what to hide. “I never opened my Facebook account until I retired from my service because I was the custodian of national security and I did not want any kind of possible leakage of data.”He said cyber warfare was a more appropriate terminology than cyber security. We need more computer technology experts who are capable of doing the jobs they have been assigned, he added.Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology Chancellor Jawaid Anwar said on the occasion that the SSAKCE offered a comprehensive multidisciplinary training, research and development and an entrepreneurial unit that drew on the expertise of researchers in social sciences, business, computers, engineering and sciences.He said that in this cyber world none of us could ignore cyber security. “We are living in a far more technologically advanced world than we were as recently as a decade ago. There are so many hacks and data breaches in recent years that it is easy to produce a laundry list of household name brands and organisations like Facebook, Yahoo that have been affected.”Citing ISACA’s data, Anwar said 69 per cent of security department heads say they are understaffed and 58 per cent of them have open positions for cyber security.K-Electric Cyber Security Director Inamul Haq Siddiqui said hackers have gained access to hospital systems by logging in with a third-party vendor’s credentials into the remote access portal.He called for ensuring anti-malware software and updating signatures. Access to computers should strictly be provided on a need-to-know basis, he added.

from The News International - Karachi https://ift.tt/2OIRztG