Sri Lanka CERT, ICTA join CBSL to fight cyber crime

Sri Lanka Computer Emergency Readiness Team - Coordination Centre (Sri Lanka CERT-CC), a subsidiary of ICT Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA), joined the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) recently to help banks mitigate computer and internet related crime.

This combined effort to combat cyber attacks and financial frauds took place when a Computer Security Incident Response Team (CSIRT) for Banks was launched recently.

Bank CSIRT will provide cyber security to all of Sri Lanka's 23 banks through a common platform to handle information security related incidents in the banking and finance sector.

The chief guest was President's Secretary Lalith Weeratunga. Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal and ICTA Chairman Prof. P. W. Epasinghe, Central Bank Deputy Governors Ananda Silva and Dr. P. N. Weerasinghe, Sri Lanka CERT, CEO Lal Dias, LankaClear (Pvt) Ltd, CEO and GM Sunimal Weerasooriya, ICTA Director and Legal Advisor Jayantha Fernando, Director IT, Central Bank, R .A. S. M. Dayaratne and CEOs and CIOs of banks and senior officials of CBSL were also present.

The event was hosted by LankaClear (Pvt) Ltd, Sri Lanka's national payment infrastructure provider. The platform was initiated in 2008 and managed under the guidance of CBSL.

Weeratunga said the government has been doing much work to protect Sri Lanka's cyber space.

The Government has made a call for accession to the Budapest Convention on Cyber Crime.

This will help Sri Lanka to be in line with international statutes and frameworks while allowing it to access systems and networks of other countries.