The Ministry of Defence, National Security and Immigration, in collaboration with the University of the South Pacific, will co-host a two-day National Cyber Security public consultations workshop.
The workshop will be held at the USP ICT video conferencing centre from Thursday, May 9 to Friday, May 10.
The objective of the public consultation is to focus on the national strategy, policy and legislation and therefore, seeks all sectors of government including civil society.
The Minister for Defence, National Security and Immigration, Mr Joketani Cokanasiga will officiate at the opening of the workshop.
The workshop, therefore, will be considered the final public consultation and members of the public are encouraged to attend the Open Forum on Friday May 10 from 8:30am – 10:30am.
Cabinet in 2011, endorsed and commissioned a working group to be established by the Ministry of Defence comprised of the private and public sectors to conduct an empirical research on the level of cyber activities in Fiji.
The working group has co-ordinated two awareness trainings in 2011 and 2012 respectively to appraise stakeholders of the scourge of cyber-crime in Fiji.
Fiji has developed its ICT capability over the years and this is a sign of economic growth. On the flip side of things, the increasing number of cyber-crime cases and the absence of such law is a concern, let alone the lack of technical expertise to investigate and deal with such crimes with our law enforcement agencies.
Today, computer hacking is no longer driven by personal desires but it is becoming a source of living and hobby as well. It is really difficult to trace computer hackers and also other means of cyber activities in Fiji.
The evolving technology in the computer revolution is fast adaptable globally and its associated threats will be a defining issue of the 21st Century.
There is evidence that criminals have accessed technology such as the usage of mobile phones, laptop computers and network servers in the course of committing their crimes and such is termed as “Cyber Crime”.
People access internet everyday in internet cafes, offices and homes and it can be used to deliver a threat via e-mail; to launch hacker attacks against a vulnerable computer network, disseminate computer viruses; or to transmit images of child pornography which is prevalent in Fiji.
At a larger scale, technical challenges can be equally disruptive, as one country’s method for blocking a website can cascade into a much larger, international network disruption.
In view of the situation, there is need for a standalone legislation, national strategy and policy to effectively regulate service providers in Fiji.
MINFO