Governments must facilitate cybersecurity specialists

Thursday, 5 July 2018 00:50 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

By Maleesha Sulthanagoda

Countries need to emphasise their stance on cyber security and facilitate for more cybersecurity specialists, Secretary to the Minister of Telecommunication and Digital Infrastructure Wasantha Deshapriya said yesterday.

Speaking at the Youth Cyber Summit organised by the Daily FT and CICRA Holdings Ltd., the Secretary who attended the event in place of the Minister of Telecommunications Harin Fernando, said, “It is clear to us that countries need to emphasise their stance on cyber security and to facilitate for more cybersecurity specialists.

- Pix by Ruwan Walpola and Lasantha Kumara

We need to think far ahead from where we are at now. So I think that this is a very good opportunity created by CICRA for inviting the representatives of our future, the students to attend this event and to get to know about the current developments within the field of cybersecurity. I believe that cybersecurity specialists will become one of the most sought-after professions in the world in the future.”

He also spoke on the importance of cybersecurity in the modern era and how foreign nations are acting on it. “I think cybersecurity is now a global matter. The UN has announced that cybersecurity is global issue demanding global recognition and co-operation. In 2017, half of the countries were shown to be aware but they don’t incorporate it in national planning. In the same report, they highlight that out of the 193 countries that are a part of the UN, only about 38% of the countries have a strategy to address cybersecurity. The same report highlighted that developed countries are spending billions of dollars to address this issue but the Govt. specially are falling behind in their target achievements,” he added.

Secretary Deshapriya also mentioned that there were a few issues in the cybersecurity sector that needed to be resolved. “There is a concern that cybersecurity could hinder or prevent the democracy being established in countries. When you look at the basic human rights, the access to information is one of them. This is devastating, especially in the modern era because everything is connected and everyone is depending on the reliability of the internet and the services provided by it to live a comfortable day to day life. Any incident preventing such access to information would be in a way preventing democracy. This also imposes restrictions on the basic human right that is the right to access public information. Cybersecurity has also become an issue that is addressing all the aspects of social life. There will be an increase in the need for cybersecurity specialists, especially in developing countries such as Sri Lanka,” he elaborated.