Sri Lanka should identify the right people for a sustainable IT sector

As a developing nation Sri Lanka is doing well in the Information Technology (IT) sector. The growth in the IT sector is very fast. But the country should identify the right people in order to sustain the growth and achieve great milestones in going forward.

These comments were made by Indian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, Y.K Sinha at the recently-held Information Security Conference ‘Ground Zero Summit 2016’ at the BMICH in Colombo.

Adding to that Mr. Sinha noted that lessons could be learnt from India which has the fastest growing economy and rapidly growing in the IT industry.

Several industry experts attended the summit where discussions included cyber threats and measures to overcome them.

Minister of Telecommunication and Digital Infrastructure Harin Fernando, speaking at the summit, said, “On one side it’s interesting that the world is getting connected while on the other side the risks of cyber threats are increasing. 27 per cent of Sri Lankans are using Internet today. More the usage of Internet, higher the risks from hackers and cyber threats. It’s easy to educate the younger generation about the risks of cyber threats but in the case of the elderly people who are not tech savvy, simple errors can cause massive crimes and threats.”

Sri Lanka has to invest on IT security while criminals and hackers should be held to account. Cyber warfare is the next biggest issue we have to face in the future. He also noted, “India is our big brother and will always look after us (Sri Lanka).”

Indian Infosec Consortium (IIC) Chairman Shekhar Sinha said, “While India has the fastest growing economy, its neighbouring countries should also grow along with it towards success.” Internet penetration in Sri Lanka and India being 27 and 34 per cent respectively, the two countries are the largest Internet users in South Asia. Sri Lanka and India will soon become the nucleus of cyber security network in South Asia, he added.

Former High Commissioner of Sri Lanka to India, Sudharshan Seneviratne in his keynote address mentioned that cyber security is of real need to both India and Sri Lanka. “Technology is like a monkey that has a double edge razor in its hand. While digitisation, technology advancement and new cutting edge technologies and applications are evolving, it is important to consider cyber security as an important tool. Countries need to work on new modalities of applications to prevent cybercrimes. Our region is most affected by cybercrimes.”