ISLAMIC CONFERENCE URGES MEMBERS TO ENSURE CYBER SECURITYMalaysian National News Agency :: BERNAMAOIC Members Should Cooperate To Ensure Cyber Security


By Santha Oorjitham

PUTRAJAYA, June 22 (Bernama) -- Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) members should set up Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERTs) and Computer Security Incident Response Teams (CSIRTs) to collaborate and prevent or reduce cyber terrorism.

National Information Communication Technology Security and Emergency Response (NISER) Centre director Lt Col Husin Jazri called on delegates at the 30th annual meeting of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) Board of Governors to pass a resolution tomorrow to set up the OIC-CERT.

CERT is a national or regional coordination centre, which tackles any emergency computer and network security incidents.

Husin was moderating a session Wednesday on cyberspace security at the Knowledge and Information and Communications Technology for Development (KICT4D) conference, a side event of the IDB meeting, which had standing room-only for participants from Nigeria, Tunisia, Senegal, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Pakistan as well as Malaysia.

Noting that only seven of the 57 OIC members have CERTs or CSIRTs, he asked OIC members (of which the IDB is the investment arm), to contribute to an OIC-CERT collaboration, setting up an OIC-CERT task force and an interest group forum.

(Malaysia has three CERTs: MyCERT for Malaysian Internet users; GCERT for federal, state and local governments, as well as statutory bodies; and Sabah CERT for users in the East Malaysian state.)

OIC-CERT could increase the dissemination of cyber alerts, provide a platform to exchange ideas and expertise, jointly develop measures to deal with large-scale network security incidents and address information security and emergency response across regional boundaries, Husin said.

Associate Professor Dr Ibrahim Kamel of the College of Information Systems at Zayed University in Dubai, UAE, noted that five West Asian countries (UAE, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Iran) are among the top 10 countries vulnerable to hacking (Symantec Report 2003).

Ibrahim pointed out that more nations are adding computer network warfare to their strategies, criminals are using cyberspace and critical infrastructures have become prime targets.

As NISER's Husin stressed, "It's not 'Will I get hit?' but it's a matter of 'When will I get hit?'"

-- BERNAMA