Sri Lanka Tourism awards cyber security contract to Sri Lanka CERT|CC

Sri Lanka CERT, the national computer emergency readiness team, has been entrusted with the task of providing a wide range of cyber security services for the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA), the apex body of Sri Lanka Tourism.

SLTDA Chairman Kavan Ratnayaka awarded a contract in this regard to Sri Lanka CERT Chief Executive Officer Lal Dias, at a brief event held at the SLTDA premises, in Colombo, recently.

The cyber security measures are aimed at strengthening the ICT arm of Sri Lanka Tourism, which is currently on an ambitious three-year mission to double its revenue and job creation.

Under this agreement, Sri Lanka CERT will provide cyber security advice and services covering multiple IT platforms of the SLTDA, which include websites, networks, cloud services, e-services and software applications. 

“In this day and age, cyber security threats can jeopardize the credibility and the reputation of some of the world’s most trusted organisations and Sri Lanka Tourism wants to ensure all our systems and data including customer data are protected against cyberattacks,” Sri Lanka Tourism Director ICT Udana Wickramasinghe said, explaining why his organisation decided to strengthen the IT infrastructure on the cyber security front.

“In 2018, we will surely see increased sophistication and more targeted where the cyberattacks are concerned. At the same time, as the industry is booming, the risks are huge and the stakes are high. That is why we felt the need for a dedicated cyber security-managed service and we selected Sri Lanka CERT as it is the fully government-owned national organisation for cyber security,” he added.

Sri Lanka CERT, a fully-owned subsidiary of the ICTA, which is under the Telecommunications and Digital Infrastructure Ministry, has functioned for nearly 12 years and worked with many state and non-state partners.

Dias said the contract with the SLTDA was a reflection of the strong relationships that they had established with the government departments and agencies in Sri Lanka over the years and expects to expand this service to other like-minded government departments.

“We are committed to strengthen this partnership and to bring our advanced cyber technologies and deep understanding of today’s global security threats to assist Sri Lanka Tourism and its stakeholders,” Dias explained.

“In the current global context, cyber attacks come in many forms, such as denial of service (DoS) attacks, website defacement and unauthorized access to systems. 
These are committed by a wide spectrum of individuals and organisations such as fraudsters, terrorist groups and even thrill seekers,” he said.

Sri Lanka CERT CEO added that it was why organisations needed robust security systems as an essential part of their IT infrastructure.