Ignorance of cyber crime and cyber terrorism may lead to huge losses and endanger lives

(14/11/2008)

EC-Council hosted the inaugural Roundtable Forum at the Sunway Convention Centre in conjunction with the H@cker Halted Malaysia Conference on November 6, 2008. The objective of the roundtable forum is to let it be the platform for authorities and corporations to convene, discuss and develop strategies and defenses to ward off escalating cyber terrorism and cyber crimes.

“Everyone must be aware of the risks that cyber crime and cyber terrorism poses, as ignorance may lead to huge losses and even endanger lives” This was the unanimous response from the participants of the inaugural EC-Council Asia Pacific Roundtable Forum (ECC|RF).

Speaking at the press conference after the ECC|RF ended, The President of EC-Council, Jay Bavisi said, “Cyber Crime and Warfare are not just found in science fiction movies, in retrospect it’s a daunting reality that affects every individual connected by a computer or technology. You may not be a hacker but your computer is a potential weapon for criminals to use to attack and damage countries, corporations and even mastermind the destruction of human lives.”

“Information security is not simply the responsibility of network administrators only, it is the responsibility of every internet user as their ignorance may result in millions of dollars in losses and even the loss of lives,” continued Jay.

“In this part of the world, incident reporting and disclosures are not mandatory. Thus many incidents are not reported by various agencies or corporations, as they fear that it will cause negative publicity among the public and their investors. The lack of education among both the users and authorities often results in allowing criminals easy access to even the most high tech security areas. No one treats a cyber crime like a murder case, often evidence cannot be used legally as it has been contaminated by the victim or the incident handler, allowing these criminals to escape prosecution,” said Mr Paul Wright, Head of Cyber Crime Unit, City of London Police. “

“Legislation, awareness and education among all levels right from the top management level to even security guards in any corporation are required to ensure the eradication of cyber crimes. The demise of a large corporation can be classified as a collateral damage to any nation. It is our responsibility to safeguard the nations interest.” added Jay.

The roundtable was chaired by Mr Jay Bavisi, and co-chaired by Prof Dr Lech J. Janczewski, Associate Professor of the University of Auckland, New Zealand and Chairman of the New Zealand Information Security Forum (Cyber Warfare) and Mr James Aquilina, Executive Managing Director for Stroz Friedberg LLC who has served as the Executive Committee Member of the California Law Review (Cyber Crime). Both the co-chairs are members of the EC-Council Honorary Council.

Panelists included Mr Paul Wright, Head of Cyber Crime Unit, City of London Police; Maj. Scott Applegate Ex-Chief, US Army Red Team; Mr Anthony Fung, Senior Investigator Microsoft APAC and Mr Richardus Eko Indrajit, Chairman of Indonesian Security-Incidence Response Team on Internet Infrastructure (ID-SIRTII) and the participants included representatives from MIMOS Berhad; Ministry of Defense; Technology Park Malaysia (TPM); National Institute of Public Administration (INTAN); Malaysian Nuclear Agency; Royal Malaysian Airforce (RMAF); Ministry of Science and Technology; Malaysian Armed Forces (MAF) and Science & Technology Research Institute for Defense (STRIDE).

The findings and recommendations that are collated and tabulated from the roundtable forum will be made available for the public and relevant agencies as part of EC-Council’s campaign to create increased awareness towards cyber terrorism and cyber crimes.

Related topics:  Security management and policies 

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