Copyright 2004 Business Recorder 23 December, 2004 SECTION: IT & Computers HEADLINE: "Government urged to strictly implement cyber security laws." BYLINE: Recorder Report, Karachi URL: BODY: Experts on cyber security have urged the government to strictly implement the Pakistan Electronic Transaction Ordinance 2002 for safety of computer networks and secured transactions through Internet. The experts while addressing at Pakcon-2004, an exclusive 'cyber security convention' organised by pak con in collaboration with the CyberNet Internet Services Limited, a leading Internet Service Provider, here on Wednesday spoke on various aspects of security over Internet and informed the participants that there are still risks involved in financial transactions which could be through Internet. The Country General Manager CyberNet, Javed Wadood, pointed out that hacking through Internet is very common, internationally. Quoting a survey conducted in the United States of America, he said that about 55 percent youths working on Internet were involved in some sort of hacking, whereas in Pakistan the figure of such crimes is much higher. He regretted that there is lack of awareness about Internet hacking in Pakistan, "but we are hopeful as slowly as well as gradually this awareness is increasing." Javed underlined the need for creating an information technology (IT) security department in every organisation. Many banks have now gone online, but they are still not so safe. So, steps should be taken to protect their network. Moreover, stock exchanges and other financial institutions are highly relying on network systems; so, security is imperative for them, he added. The President of Pakcon-2004, Faiz Ahmad Shuja, said that hackers are active everywhere in the world and they mainly target those computers or networks which are easily accessible and more vulnerable. He said that there are three types of hackers: white hat hackers, black hat hackers, and grey hat hackers. Black hat hackers are the notorious ones, who enter the computers networks and websites and either steal data or corrupt it, whereas white hat hackers are those who hack for positive purposes like doing research and collecting data or for creating modes to protect the computers from hackers. Grey hackers are doing both things, but they are very small in number, he said, adding that his organisation has been monitoring the hacking trends. It has been observed that most pakistani websites and computer networks are hacked by hackers of Romania. Shuja is the founder of Pakistan Honeynet Project, which offers various security services ranging from vulnerability assessment to managed security services. He said he has been involved in information security management, intrusion detection systems (IDS), firewalls, honey-nets, information security assessment, penetration testing, vulnerability analysis, forensic analysis, incident handling and reporting for the last three years. His specific research interests include honey-nets, penetration testing, intrusion detection systems and DoS attacks. Senior Associate of Abraham & Sarwana, Advocates, Javed A. Sarwana, briefed about Electronic Commerce and Cyber Crimes Laws of pakistan. Pakistan started taking steps against cyber crimes much later as Pakistan Electronic Transaction Ordinance was promulgated in September 2002, he said. This law was mainly promulgated to regulate and develop e-commerce in Pakistan. Despite having a law, people still do not rely on transactions over Internet, he added. He quoted a recent survey conducted by an IT magazine and said that most of the people who do some sort of financial transactions on Internet do not rely on transactions in Pakistan. He said the government has also introduced 'Electronic Crime Bill', but it has still not been made law. He regretted that the laws are not properly implemented in Pakistan. Emmanuel Gadaix of Telecom Security Task Force spoke on Phreaking: past, present and future. He said before hackers became a media fixture, there was a time when phreakers were all the rage and abusing phone switches was open to anybody with a blue box. Jamal Khan, founder of Haval Daar Inc, and Nazir Diamond Ali also spoke on the occasion. LANGUAGE: English