Sri Lanka Army Commander says Cyber War still continues

Sri Lanka's Army Commander Lieutenant General Jagath Jayasuriya today said although the physical war waged for 30 years has come to an end, the warfare has not come to an end by eliminating terrorists from this country as the 'cyber war', the war on information highway, is still continuing.

Delivering the keynote address at the Galadari Hotel in Colombo on "Strategic Dimensions of Cyber Warfare", at the 'Cyber Warfare Workshop - 2011,' the Army Commander said the Cyber Warfare is an emerging threat to the entire world.

The workshop was organized by the department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Moratuwa and the Information Technology and Communications Engineering Sectional Committee of the Institution of Engineers, Sri Lanka.

Describing various cyber-attacks around the world, the Army Commander said during the humanitarian operation the Army web site also encountered a web defacement attack.

"Even at present there are continuous efforts been made to hack into our network which we have successfully defended up to now," he said.

Lieutenant General Jayasuriya warned of anti-Sri Lankan forces and pro-LTTE activists around the world.

The number of pro-LTTE websites launching false propaganda is thousands in numbers he said adding that "..and even at this moment there may be hundreds of thousands of people reading them and looking at this country with an awful eye."

The Army Chief assured that no one can launch any physical attack on Sri Lanka but warned that they can attack in cyber space.

"Though they do not have any room in the physical space, they have plenty of room to launch attacks on the cyberspace," he said.

He alerted the audience to the possibility of attacks on the computers with vital information such as financial networks of the country and emphasized the need to properly maintain updated security systems and to continuously monitor those systems externally and internally to ensure that there are no loopholes or vulnerabilities.

The Commander pointed out that countering the physical war with the terrorists was the responsibility of the armed forces but to counter the cyber war every sector is responsible.

"In combating this, all of us, service providers, banking sector, manufacturing sector, government sector together with armed forces must become soldiers and warriors before been victims of it," the Army Chief said.