[ISN] OIC Members Should Cooperate To Ensure Cyber Security

[InfoSec News]

http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v3/news_business.php?id=140926

By Santha Oorjitham
June 22, 2005 

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?'"