If you spend more on coffee than on IT security, you will be hacked. What’s more, you deserve to be hacked’, said Richard Clarke.
On 18th November, NPCERT (Information Security Response Team, Nepal) together with Co-organized ICT frame Magazine held a conference successfully. It covered an emerging issue and a significant subject matter in Nepal, i.e., Cyber Crime and Banking Sector in Nepal.
The event as a matter of fact, served as a platform to discuss, share the problems related to the cyber problems and threats and presenting with solutions. While the main objective of the program was to create awareness regarding Cyber security threats. Itstarted around 2 pm at Dining Park Restaurant and Lounge in Baneshwor.
Around 60 like-minded people gathered from different sectors in the hall for discussing these issues, and if you did not attend the event, that’s your loss. Most of the topics revolved around ransomeware attacks, dark web, bitcoin, cryptocurrency, cloud computing, SQL injection, IPV4 problem, phishing, ATM theft, risks associated with open WiFi, Donald Trump’s twitter account hack and lots more.
The highlight of the event was Dr.Pramod Parajuli, a Cyber Security Expert of Nepal although he was the last speaker. Besides Dr. Parajuli, there were other five key speakers, (Abartan Dhakal, Nabin KC, Shreedep Rayamajhi, RamKrishna Pariyar & Dr. Pramod Parajuli). He is a specialist in Risk-Based Approach consultant at Datum Systems Pvt. Ltd.
Each keynote speaker had their own story to tell and each was interesting in their own way as they were shared by people from different fields with their specialized knowledge. Unlike most of the events where you find that there is only a one side interaction, in this event, there was both side interaction.
One of such participants was Srijan Malla, CIO of Siddhartha bank who stole the spotlight from the speaker, Rayamajhi. He did not agree with the view of the ICT journalist and consultant, Mr. Shreedep Rayamajhi on bank requiring unnecessary information without reasons.
According to Srijan Malla, the bank requires detailed information from three generations because unlike other countries like the U.S, Nepal’s system is not so developed. So banks had to collect this information which supposedly would be future data for the government. Furthermore, he said that people always complain about banks for requiring this and that whereas in reality the regulations are created by NRB. Banks simply are forced to follow these rules hence become scapegoats.
Malla also added regarding recent NRB’s ban on Bitcoin operation in Nepal. He admitted that one of the reasons they shut it down was Nepal leaders’ inadequate knowledge on the subject matter regarding cryptocurrency and its risk.
Another young and inspiring speaker was an ethical hacker, Mr. Abartan Dhakal. He represented an ethical group called Pentest Nepal, and FYI, he had just passed his higher education. According to him, ethical hackers are still seen as criminals in Nepalese society and that should be changed. He shared his sad story.
Sometimes, when they find some bugs in some sites and they report it to the associated parties, they, in turn, threaten them with police complains. But there are some organizations and institutions who reward them and say thank you for pointing out faults and vulnerabilities on their site or system.
Finally, the program ended with Dr. Pramod Parajuli’s speech. He explained why a risk-based approach for businesses should be used as a preventive measure towards cyber-attacks and that compliance is not only enough. His speech included bits of humour.
A participant when asked if the event was useful, she told, ‘I found the conference quite insightful.’ She did not know that hacking could also be done via your monitor.
She said, ‘It gave me chills when I found out that people can hack through your monitor. Now I will be more careful. I learnt a lot of things today. Thanks to this event. Events like this should reach out to more people.’ The Chief Guest of that Program was DG of DoIT Mr. Birendra Kumar Mishra. The program’s Chair by Chiranjibi Adhikari & concluded around 6 PM.