Creating awareness in government on Information Security

The Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) and the Sri Lanka Computer Emergency Response Team (SLCERT) jointly hosted the 2nd Lanka Government Network Information Security Awareness Programme recently. Officials from District Secretariats, Divisional Secretariats and the Chief Secretariat of Western Province also attended the event.

Mr. Wasantha Deshapriya, Programme Director, Re-engineering Government, ICTA, provided an in-depth introduction on the Scope of the Lanka Government Network (LGN). Dr. Shahani Weerawarana, Chief Technology Officer, ICTA meanwhile described Security Methodologies used in LGN and Mr. Rohana Palliyaguru, Information Security Engineer, SLCERT educated the gathering on the Basics of Information Security.
ICTA has carried out some considerable research and developed a High-level Information Security Policy for the government of Sri Lanka. This policy was formulated, taking into account the views and recommendations of several independent IT security experts and security agencies within the country. Ms. Aruni Goonetilleke, Programme Manager, ICTA, spoke on the policy and mentioned that it can be customized according to the needs of specific organisations. The presentation made by Jithani Dayananda, Information Security Engineer, SLCERT was ‘An up-to-date computer is a risk-free computer.’

“The LGN Project which commenced in October last year, has completed nearly 200 sites and is on-track to complete implementation of the allocated total of 325 ministries, departments, provincial councils, district and divisional secretariats by year end to fulfil the vision of a ‘Connected-Government,’” said Dil Piyaratna, Senior Project Manager, ICTA..

SLCERT was established by ICTA to be the national centre for cyber security. SLCERT has been mandated to be the focal point for preventing, protecting against, and responding to cyber security threats and vulnerabilities in Sri Lanka’s ICT infrastructure. This workshop was initiated to raise awareness regarding Information Security among government sector ICT users. Future workshops are scheduled to be held in other provinces.