[July 04, 2011] IFM in Drive to Curb Cyber Crime Tweet Dar Es Salaam, Jul 04, 2011 (The Citizen/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) -- Tanzania faces stiff challenges to curb escalating waves of crime ranging from child labour, armed robbery to the deployment of highly developed technologies to break the cyberspace and rob individuals, government and corporations of mega fortunes. Despite the fact the country is not ranked in the overall list of global online crime perpetrator nations, but this must give the government enough reason for concern. It has therefore, become expedient for the government to unleash all the machinery at its disposal to ensure that the activities of these faceless criminals are brought under control. For this reason, the Centre for ICT Research and innovation of the Institute of Finance Management (IFM) has organized a three-day workshop to be held between July 11 -13 this year on cyber security and data protection for managers that aims at providing awareness, understanding and techniques on cyber crime and data protection within organisations. Speaking to The Citizen recently, (IFM) assistant lecturer, computer science department Mr Mohamed Saleh said that the country has not given first priority to security and technology issues. He says that implementation of security and technology usage was still behind and cyber threats are increasing at an alarming rate every year, therefore the training would increase awareness on cyber crime issues. According to Mr Saleh, cyber threats are increasing at an alarming rate every year whereby ability of organisations and individuals to defend themselves against these attacks or threats is effectively becoming more and more difficult. "Security issue is every one's responsibility, statistics show that 60 to 70 per cent of the people are ignorant on issues that they could stay away from," he said adding that currently majority of people use mobile phones in their daily work therefore the training will include teaching people on how to defend themselves by using mobile phones. He reveals that employees in various organisations have been collaborating with outsiders to steal because they do not know the effect of cyber crime to the nation. He adds that the workshop will cover most current and emerging security issues on cybercrime, the insider threat, ethical hacking and laws or legislation. Further more data privacy and protection have become of more concern in organizations. "Recently incidents of data breaches have heightened the need for data protection, the incidents range from loss of laptops or other data storage devices, misuses of personal data by banks or government institutions, failing to safeguard data on company's system and breaches of e-marketing and unsolicited e- communication" he says. He however, explains that attendees of the workshop will gain awareness of the global perspective and the challenges of cyber security in today's connected world and will also understand various fundamental issues contained within the data protection. The workshop will also provide information on how to achieve data protection compliance designed for basic understanding of cyber security issues and data protection rights, responsibilities in the country. However, it is also designed to be a guide for those who handle information about clients and the general public. One objective of the workshop is to gain in depth knowledge of most cyber security in our ever increasing digitized world, develop effective strategies to improve the national security posture and understand what needs to be achieved to attain organizational security data protection compliance. On retrospect, Institute of Finance Management(IFM) lecturer, computer science department and workshop coordinator, Mr Bajuna Salehe adds that national security in its holistic sense is equivalent to national prosperity therefore, the era of paying lip service to tackling crime; especially cyber crime must be over. "We believe that it will be in the best interest of the country and its citizens, for the government to provide a national data base that will register the bio-data of every Tanzanian to ascertain identity when necessary" he says. This will definitely spur better behavioral attitudes among Tanzanians. In addition, it will help security operatives in the discharge of their duties and enhance proper economic planning," he says.. The National identity card project should be revisited as this would provide the required solution to solving this puzzle. Cybercriminals have become very sophisticated in their tactics as they often target businesses through official, looking emails that appear to be sent by government agencies, business partners or even company executives. Many of the top phishing-prone industries are regulated and subject to compliance rules, so well meaning that employees can be tricked into clicking a link if they believe an email was sent by a government or law enforcement agency, or by someone they know and trust. And with just one click, one can be instantly uploaded to a system - bypassing both antivirus software and IT firewalls. A cyber heist can be underway within minutes. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]