Advisor to Lieutenant Governor, Rajeev Rai Bhatnagar today remarked that legal safeguards and frameworks should be established to deal with all aspects of cyber crime and cyber security besides common citizens should be enlightened about the ways and means by which they are protected online.

The Advisor made these comments after inaugurating the three-days workshop on ‘Information and Cyber Security’ at Convention Centre here today.

The workshop has been organised by J&K e-Governance Agency (JaKeGA) in collaboration with National Institute for Smart Governance (NISG) to sensitise and train senior civil and police officers of the J&K administration on the subject.

Addressing the inaugural session of the workshop, Advisor Bhatnagar lauded the efforts of the technical agencies for educating the officers in cyber security. He highlighted that Cyber Security is crucial for the increasingly digital nature of governance, at all levels— personal, organisational and national.

The Advisor also said that the officers need to be vigilant and capable of securely dealing with attempts of phishing and other modes of compromising of devices and leakage of digital information. “One is only as secure as the weakest link in one’s digital safety measures. It is always suggested to think twice before opening or responding to an unsolicited email, SMS or other forms of digital communication”, the Advisor underscored.

Enumerating on the importance of Cyber Security, Advisor Bhatnagar highlighted that Citizens are increasingly using smart devices and availing government services through digital mode and it is therefore imminent that citizens are digital savvy and well educated about using digital platforms.

The Advisor, in his address also quoted the quote of Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi on Cyber Security as “The IT sector is our great strength and the more we use this power the more confident we will be in our security. Cyber security is no longer limited to the digital world, it has become a matter of national security”

In her address, Commissioner/Secretary IT, Prerna Puri applauded the efforts of JaKeGA for successfully attempting to reach out to the grass roots  via digital mode through  Digital Village Centres in 44 Gram Panchayats across the UT.

Pertinently, the three day workshop on Information & Cyber Security would witness physical participation of six hundred senior officers, while it is expected that around nine hundred officers/officials will participate virtually from all over J&K. The people including youth and Village Level Entrepreneurs (VLEs) of CSCs from 44 panchayats have been targeted to get trained during the workshop through video conferencing using the DVC links.

Among others, the inaugural session of workshop was attended by Secretary Mining, Amit Sharma; CEO JaKeGA, Abhishek Sharma; Senior Vice President, NISG, Srinath Chakravarthy; senior officers of J&K Administration and other concerned officials.