BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN

THE Authority for Info-communications Technology Industry (AITi) will hold the Cybersecurity Awareness Week from November 10 -11 to promote “appropriate behaviour” on social media, especially among the youth.

Hj Zailani Hj Abd Malik, senior manager of AITI’s Information Security Corporate Strategy Group, said the event seeks to promote public awareness on what is acceptable and not allowed on social media.

Speaking on the sidelines of a press conference yesterday, he said there had been serious cases of cyberbullying in Brunei, but could not give statistics or case studies.

He said AITI chose the theme “The Future, Our Responsibility Together” for the event because everyone has a duty to teach the youth on how they can protect themselves.

“They (children) are the main users of the online media today and they use this medium to do research for their studies and even to communicate socially. Because of this our children has a higher risk of being vulnerable to online perpetrators,” he added.

The Cybersecurity Awareness Week will hold talks on proper etiquette for children to protect themselves online.

The Ministry of Education’s Counselling Unit will be present to advise children on the negative effects of using the Internet and social media, he said. Parents will also learn how to monitor their children’s online activities.

The Royal Brunei Police Force, Attorney General’s Chambers, BruCERT will also deliver awareness talks.

AITI has invited Martin Khoo and Angela Tay from Singapore’s Infocomm Development Authority to share their experience, approaches and challenges on cybersecurity issues.

Hj Zailani further said the students would not only learn from hearing the talks, but also by delivering presentations on them.

“We set up a creative presentation competition that focuses on the subject of cybersecurity for the children,” he said.

“This way, the children must do an in-depth research to deliver their presentations and they can learn from the research. They also get to practise their presentation skills.”

“This will also be a prelude for awareness to parents. More seminars for parents will commence starting in January 2015. Calendar of events will be shared once we have confirmation of the venues and event partners.”

The senior manager went on to advise members of the public to think of the consequences of reposting a message or picture of victims, and their families such as deaths or accidents.

“Be careful when sharing information on social media because this can lead to identity theft. Your whereabouts can lead to perpetrators to track you down.”

Hj Zailani also advised the public not to take things for granted, such as ensuring their wireless network is secured, and changing their password regularly.

The Brunei Times