Islamabad: Senate Committee on Defence and Defence Production, in collaboration with Germany’s Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS), is holding the first ever training workshop for journalists in Pakistan on Cyber Security on today (Monday).

The day long workshop being held at Pakistan Institute of Parliamentary Services (PIPS) would be attended by about 50 senior journalists from the national media. Chairman Senate Committee on Defence and Defence Production Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed would chair the session.

At the workshop the journalists would learn about the basic skills for dealing with the threats they face while working on the internet or using digital devices. The journalists would be made aware of the possibilities of interception of their communications, the dangers of working on unsecured internet networks and the threats to their systems and data while working in hostile environment.

Journalists in Pakistan face enormous challenges while performing their professional activities. Threats to their security in the Cyber sphere have begun to surface, but little has been done so far to train them on keeping themselves and their sources safe while working online.

Experts say evidence of the threats to journalists’ security in the Cyber sphere is too stark to be ignored. A ‘Cyber Security Manual for Journalists’ would also be launched at the Workshop which lists steps that journalists ought to take for anonymous communications, data security and protection of their equipment.

After NSA Whistleblower Edward Snowden’s startling revelations earlier this year, which indicated that US had ramped up surveillance of Pakistan in the Cyber sphere, Senate Defence Committee took up Cyber Security as a major risk to national security among the emerging non-conventional threats.

A Cyber Security Taskforce has been constituted by the Senate Committee that is drafting National Cyber Security Policy and Cyber Security laws.

“With this media training workshop, we are going a step further by actively involving the media as not just a stakeholders but as a partner in our endeavour on Cyber Security because media would always be the first line of defence in this battle,” Chairman Senate Committee on Defence and Defence Production Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed said.

Meanwhile, Chairman Cyber Security Task Force Ammar Jaffri said: “The workshop for creating awareness in the media community is the first effort to engage journalists in this vital initiative of Cyber Security in Pakistan. Media may help to establish the required ecosystem of Cyber Security in shortest possible time”.

Source: http://www.onlinenews.com.pk/details.php?newsid=244355&catname=Business