Tarutia: Cyber-attack a national security concern

Protection from cyber-attacks is not a risk mitigation concern for just individual organizations, rather it must be a national security concern for the country.

President of PNG Chamber of Commerce and Industry Ian Tarutia made this statement following ABC's news article which stated that the PNG's Internal Revenue Commission was hit by a cyber-attack.

Ian Tarutia says it is a concern for business houses, particularly if confidential data from institutions like IRC is exposed.

He says it is assumed the IRC has a good Disaster Recovery Plan [DRP] and Business Continuity [BCP] plan to resume operations soon.

This is not the first time, as it is a trend now where several organizations in the country are a target of cyber attacks.

The President of the PNG CCI says PNG is now a soft target for hackers, as a country we are vulnerable.

Mr. Ian Tarutia adds that protection from cyber-attacks is not a risk mitigation concern for just individual organizations, rather it must be a national security concern for the country.

Representing the business houses, he says, PNG needs to address this very real threat seriously and have minimum standards of cyber protection for all management information systems across the board.

He further adds one cannot operate if an adequate firewall for instance in place.

Employees need to be educated on taking precautions to avoid being used or tricked unknowingly into introducing a potential threat into their operating systems.

PNG Chamber of Commerce and Industry looks forward to hearing from the IRC their plans to recover and resume business-as-usual operations once again.

Meantime, several attempts by this newsroom to get comments from Commissioner General Sam Koim were unsuccessful.