Illuminating discourse on cyber security

No matter how much one tries to secure one’s Facebook account or guard the email id, there always remains an impending threat of someone snooping on us.

Technological advances have led to a tremendous increase in the number of cyber crimes. While it is a common sight to witness youngsters over-indulge in the virtual world, not always do they bother to understand the flip-side of the virtual world.  

Inside a room full of young minds at Institute of Information Technology and Management (IITM), panellists spoke on the theme of ‘Cyber Security: A Panoramic View’. The
occasion was the National Conference on Emerging Trends in Information Technologies (NCETIT).

Organised by IITM in colla­boration with Institute of Inn­ovation in Technology and Ma­nagement (IINTM), Jana­kpuri, the objective of NCE­TIT '15 was to provide a common platform to the aca­d­emicians, experts, resear­ch­-ers and industrialists to excha­nge their experiences and res­ea­r­ch ideas on the current state of security research, gov­erna­nce and implementation in various facets of cyber security.

In his address, chief guest, Dr B J Srinath, discussed how IT needs to undergo a change to improvise on various dimensions. “Cyber security in the current era has become an important issue of concern in matters of business as well as the security of the nation,” he said.

Dr P K Saxena, guest of honour, too highlighted the risks associated with the cyber space. “The major concern of the cyber security was to access the mechanisms required to handle bits and bytes of information on the web,” Dr Saxena said, emphasising on the importance of cryptographic protection mechanisms. These assess any attempt of security breach on our networks through regular auditing and monitoring.

In the first technical session, the talk marked differences between threat and vulnerability. Anu Khosla, scientist, SAG and DRDO said, “The systems and networks that make up the infrastructure of society are often taken for granted, yet a disruption to just one of those systems can have dire consequences across other sectors.

While this increased reliance on interlinked capabilities helps make the economy and nation more efficient, it also makes the country more vulnerable to disruption and attack.” Her thoughts were much appreciated when she suggested the counter measures that can be deployed in a systematic manner.

The second technical session was conducted in two stages. One of these was chaired by Prof Anand Nayyar, who created awareness about various softwares and websites available for security and hacking purposes. Other presentations also touched upon the varied aspects of cyber security and cyber terrorism. Experts are of the firm opinion that the latter is the latest threat to national security and needs immediate attention.