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“Consider threats in the context of the most valuable resources in the organisation. Consider which threats are most likely to create significant risk and which could have considerable impact.”
Despite Sri Lanka being named the eighth most vulnerable country to online assaults on a list compiled by Kaspersky, the Governor is of the view that the country has done well. “We haven’t done too badly as far as our results concerned – organisations within Sri Lanka have been able to protect themselves, which means there has been suitable risk management strategies put into place to deal with issues of cyber security.”
Delivering the keynote address at the EC-Council Cyber Security Summit was EC-Council USA President Jay Bavisi painted a rather grim picture of the world today and the plethora of cyber threats that nations, corporates and individuals are exposed to on a daily basis.
“How hard we have worked on cyber security by increased IT budgets, introducing policies, procedures, and governance, and creating new positions that never existed – like the ethical hacker for instance. Yet, we are losing and we are losing big time.”
Bavisi added: “More money, more people, better governance and better compliance are not solving anything. We are in the middle of a cyber plague and most people don’t even realise it. Networks are dying, cyber attacks are causing large implication on life and negative social and economic effects. Countries being wiped out, companies being shut down – you are seeing a revolution.”
He stressed on the need for standards need to be adhered to, for internal motivation within organisations be built up, the hiring of ethical hackers and the implementation in-house security courses within organisations, reversal and creation of new laws and reviews of the global curricula on secure coding as ways of combating these threats.
“A country deals with cyber threats by dealing with offensive capabilities by creating cyber armies – the entire concept of having a cyber command will become a clear interface in the war systems of governments.”
“I think ICT is reaching out to give individuals much more power. You can’t sit in an ivory tower and have a business. Increased awareness, compliance, discipline and admission that this is not a sport but a serious way of life needs to become part and parcel of the DNA of organisations, and maybe next year we will be talking about personal cyber security and cyber health – it’s a new language and expert interventions and guidance are required,” noted Dialog Axiata Group CEO Hans Wijayasuriya. “We need to grow up – maturity is important. We need to realise that automation around us is not one-sided. We need to be disciplined.”
LIRNEasia Founding Chair Prof. Rohan Samarajiva stated: “There is a need to get a balance between the real threats and the real threat perceptions that require us to act, and the hope that is needed to get people to use the new technology which will make their lives better and improve not only their life conditions, but also that of our country.”
“For organisations to function, you need to have enough safeguards and communicate that you have these safeguards in order to create and maintain trust for users. About 50% of our population are affected by ICT-related transactions. 12.5% of Sri Lankans on the internet have made a calculation that the benefits of engaging in this space is better than the costs and risks and they are willing to manage those risks,” he added.
Samarajiva also stressed on the need to make security a high priority as trust cannot be engendered amongst users without building security into the very core of an organisation’s function.
