ICT Sector in Pakistan Touching New Lows

By Munawar Iqbal

“The report of WEF must be an eye-opener for decision makers as it suggests that a coherent government vision on information and communication technologies, coupled with an early focus on education is keys to spur network readiness and to lay the foundations for sustainable growth. For a sustainable ICT sector, the people at the helm of affairs should have been working with close collaboration of the stake-holder. Thus, a balanced policy could have been envisaged. Unfortunately, it could not happen and this apathy has shaken the confidence of investors and destroyed the enabling environment of business as well.”
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A CIO’s Guide to Pakistan By Talha Ghafoor

I was recently assigned to work on a project for a financial institution in Pakistan and had to travel to Karachi for a few days. For someone who is so plugged into the system, travel outside the comfort of the digitally integrated world, always proves to be an interesting experience. Keeping this in mind, I thought I’d share a technology perspective of the trip – I’m not sure that some of these things are known by people who live there, which is why it makes for an interesting write up. So here we go! Read more

Pakistan at the crossroads of IT Revolution: Salim Ghauri

Pakistan is at the crossroads of Information Technology (IT) revolution. With the right emphasis at the budgetary level and proper implementation of IT friendly policies, we should very soon be among the leading IT destinations of the World. However, if faced with continued apathy at the hands of policy makers, the IT industry is bound to remain underdeveloped. The result would be that our economy will continue to suffer due to outdated practices in an environment of poor access to information for quick decision making and development. Read more

Making Dollars & Sense By Salman Ansari

E-Commerce, E-Banking, Mobile Banking – it’s really all the same to me now. I think we’ve had enough people talk about this and explain everything to us. The more I listen to lectures and conferences, the more ideas I get about where we need to be going. For example, I recently spoke at a Mobile Banking Conference and had a chance to tweak some ideas which I wanted to share with you.
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Politically Activating Pakistan Online

Like any country, Pakistan has had a tumultuous ride through history to come as far as it has. A quick shuffle through the history books reveals only a small, perhaps more glamorous side of politics, culture and socialism that makes it seem inconsequential. But the recent advances in technology platforms, development tools and infrastructure have made it possible to capture every action and move taking place on the ground, as it happens. And it is also very realistic to archive and create the library of history as it is made.

To better understand how technology is being used to do exactly this, we got in touch with the administrator of a political portal to follow its growth trend and how it links to the advancing technology.
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BCP Can Make Us Stronger

Recent high-wire tensions between India and Pakistan over recent Mumbai attacks have reactivated the urge to treat freedom as a blessing from God and take liberty to use it the way it deserves. Correlation exists between freedom and Business Continuity and though I admit that businesses are well aware and well educated regarding importance of Business Continuity, how many of them actually have a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) in place, is a whole different story. The million dollar question still remains, how ready are our businesses?

We all need to acknowledge the fact that both neighboring countries have been caught up in series of wars in the past and recently both acquired the status of being a “nuclear nation” thus, increasing threat levels. Logically, an increase in the threat levels should result in having a robust BCP. Unfortunately, however, the ground reality does not reflect the negative sentiment in the air. Although large businesses and multinationals take BCP seriously and local companies, especially banks and other financial institutions, are slowly moving towards accepting BCP as a critical part of the overall strategic goals however, the story takes a bitter turn when we take a birds view picture of what Business Continuity processes are in place in Pakistan, as a whole.

The answer is simple: “NO PLAN!” We are responsible and accountable to acknowledge our freedom in the right way and take measures which can benefit the entire community.

We need to broaden our thoughts and accept that we are fighting two wars – war on terrorism and war against economic crisis. As a nation, firstly, we need to be aligned with one objective – building Pakistan as an economic power. Sounds simple right? It demands honesty, devotion and commitment to get there. We cannot achieve anything by working in isolation nor can get out of liquidity crisis by levying financial punishments on the public. We all need to compete globally and gain exposure in the international market.

On the other hand, we have problems with almost everything: shortage of survival goods, shortage of electricity and sound infrastructure and more importantly shortage of true leaders and planners that can really work for a noble cause and give Pakistan an eventual facelift. It is a universal fact that, by enhancing the business productivity, all businesses will prosper. In other words, if we live within our means and act proactively by planning for disruptions before hand, it will surely result in fewer disruptions, ultimately resulting in higher profits, greater customer and employee satisfaction. And yes, you guessed it – the solution to how disruptions can be reduced is having the Business Continuity Plan in place.

Managing Risk
Business Continuity, in simplest sense, is about making proactive and reactive plans to ensure that an organization, country as a holistic approach, can continue to operate regardless of any interruption. In the present day world, ‘Business Continuity Planning’ is becoming increasingly important. Today, we are faced with multiple internal as well as external threats. In this fast changing, yet highly vulnerable environment, ‘emergency preparedness’ deserves attention. There is a need for making comprehensive arrangements for BCP in the form of instituting physical security measures so that operational sustainability of individual institutions, as well as of our country, is ensured.

In my view, management supported Business Continuity programs do involve an exploration of organizational culture. Effective programs will utilize change management techniques to ensure that the organization encourages a culture where all employees are sufficiently aware of everyday risks and their individual responsibility to report, manage and mitigate risks. Once, we are effective by properly implementing Business Continuity at organizational levels, we can move a step further by embedding same resilient processes across nation and help Pakistan gain respect.

About the Author
The author is a Certified Business Continuity Professional and can be contacted at sohail.khimani@yahoo.com

Can You Manage It?

Everyone speaks of the Internet. Reminiscently referred to as the ‘World Wide Web’ or ‘the Cloud’ as some folks like to call it, the concept of collaboration and depending on others’ strengths comes to mind. The concept of ‘work what you’re good at’, ‘outsource what you can get done cheaper, or better elsewhere’; it’s all about globalization and bringing everything into play together. We all know this. We engage in this effort on a daily basis. While our reliance on technology increases and we put everything we know online, here’s the problem: where can you find the right resources to make all this happen? Read more

Can You Trust The Cloud?Should you? Could you? Would you?

There has been a lot of talk, maybe way too much talk regarding Cloud Computing. The fact that companies and individuals are willing to keep data on someone else’s servers is interesting.

It does, of course, address the disaster recovery aspect since your data will be at some off-site location. Any damage to company property does not imply that all is lost too. Also, since you are placing your files on someone’s hosting servers, obviously the hosting company too must be mirroring your data onto some other location so as to avert any loss of data if disaster were to strike their primary location. With Google on the map, most individuals and companies who lay their trust in them, have the advantage of a secure, reliable hosting service. After all they are Google!
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The Weakest Link by CSO Pakistan

Technology, at the end of the day, is only as secure as the person using it. You can have all the content filters and packet sniffing software in place across your network, but if there is someone viewing something he shouldn’t be, there is little you can do. Another example. Install all the anti-virus software applications you can get your hands on and spend day and night to keep them updated. Put in an outgoing quota on your email server so that nobody can send attachment or receive .exe or zipped files. But if someone sends a link to a site which will inadvertently install a small server on your machine, there is nothing you can do to stop it.

You can buy the most secure system in the world at your disposal, but if you have a disgruntled person in your IT department, it is as vulnerable as a sponge. Footprints, access codes, loop holes and exceptions can all be masked into any system, and altering the log so that the knowledge of that backdoor is only known to the person creating it, is all a reality.

You access all your web accounts and even plug into your enterprise network using your cellphone. Like most people, you have your passwords saved. God forbid your cellphone gets into the wrong hands and you will have trouble recalling which accounts you accessed and which passwords you need reset.

Do you see a trend here? You should, because we’re certainly not outlining the script from a movie. No matter what you deploy to secure your network and system, until you do something to secure and mobilize the human factor in any organization, you are going to always be vulnerable. And no, it doesn’t matter whether your organization is small or large. As long as you have people, you are going to have ways to get into the system.

Social Engineering
Social Engineering is something that gives true character and personality to a “smooth talker”. Someone who will use his or her social skills to get you to reveal critical packets of information which can be used to break down your business, is an increased risk in the corporate environment. Ever been in a situation where you divulged some confidential information to a friend or a confidante? Shown off a credit card that has your photo ID on it just so they can ‘wow’ at your smile? A casual conversation where you revealed some classified information to impress someone? In today’s age of increased corporate competitiveness, there are more chances that it will be used to get into a network, gain access through a firewall and exploit an organization.

People! The biggest risk, in this case, is also the biggest asset in any organization. You obviously can’t function without people in place. But security is not about code or software. It’s about seeing the people and noticing a change in their behavior. If there is a modification, debug and defuse it before the problem causes irreparable and irreversible damage to the repute of the organization.

You do need to enforce policies in place and while these policies are there to protect the business, they are also implemented keeping in mind the behavior of the company’s team members.

So next time you think about how secure your office or network is, take a moment to look at the office environment around you. The organization, network or security solution is only as strong as its weakest link.

The Way Things Are

Technology changes everything. Not just the size or the process, but it makes a resultant impact on the speed with which a decision can take place. How does Technology evolve the everyday workings of a CXO? Umair Naeem takes a look Read more

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