Cyber Security Specialist Asela Waidyalankara calls to expedite the passing of a Cyber Security Bill once the general election concludes in order to tackle the ever-evolving issues in Cyberspace.

Speaking exclusively to Indeewari Amuwatte at the '@HydePark' program on Ada Derana 24, Waidyalankara expressed the following.

“Laws are critical. Because the environment of Cyber-crime, data privacy, these issues keep evolving daily. Right now there is a vacuum in our legal system for that and this is why acts like the 'Cyber Security Act' needs to be there. It is timely, it is required and at least it is the first step to start to get cyber-security going because part of the Act talks about having security officers in state institutions. A person, a point of contact in charge of cyber-security and how are we going to tackle cross-border cyber-attacks.  I know we have signed the Budapest Convention (The Convention on Cyber-crime) already. But do we have the adequate laws to deal with that? If there is a ransom attack on a state entity how are we going to deal with that? So these are some of the open points in our laws. Hence, currently, we need a cyber-security law.  A very strong bedrock of that and we need a data protection law. I urge the new parliament once the elections are concluded that they take this matter as a pressing matter and get these acts passed.”

Meanwhile responding to a query on how to prevent fiction stemming from fake news he also expressed the following.

“Governments, Facebook and several other stakeholders really need to do ramp up and do their part but you and me as individuals we need to educate ourselves and my simple advice is “take the conversation offline”.

The full video can be seen below :