In a move to boost cyber security, Sri Lanka reached an agreement with China to cooperate closely to face serious cyber threats and to share information on such threats in the future.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between China’s National Computer Network Emergency Response Technical Team Coordination Centre and Sri Lanka’s Computer Emergency Readiness Team (a subsidiary of the ICT Agency of Sri Lanka [ICTA]).
 
Accordingly both parties agree to actively promote project cooperation and carry out technical cooperation and joint research in the field of network security, so as to create a harmonious and secure network environment regionally and globally.

CERT|CC Chairman Earle Fernando said the MoU would help both countries to cooperate in ensuring cyber security because information networks have become important infrastructures in both China and Sri Lanka.

“In recent years, increasing serious cyber-attacks brought severe challenges on information infrastructure of both countries,” he said.
CNCERT|CC Director General Huang Chengqing said because Sri Lanka and China have a long history of co-operation and friendship this MoU will help strengthen the friendly ties in a specific way.

“We agree that CNCERT/CC and Sri Lanka CERT|CC should further reinforce the cooperation on network security and emergency response,” he added.
Speaking at the event CERT|CC Principal Information Security Engineer Rohana Palliyaguru said both parties agree to maintain communications on a daily basis to exchange information of cyber threats and attacks as well as experiences of incident handling.

Both sides also agreed to establish regular data exchange on situations at a time when large-scale or serious incidents occur and take opportunities of bilateral meetings and other events for face-to-face communication and exchange.

Most importantly with regard to ‘incident response’ both sides agreed to further strengthen the response capacities to network security threats and attacks. For incidents deemed by both to be of highest priority, the parties will mutually consult on the action to be taken as emergency response and the specific action plans. (Supun Dias)