An awareness webinar titled “Role of CERTs in 21st Century” to highlight the importance of Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERT) among the power sector entities was held at NEPRA headquarters.

The webinar was arranged by the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) at NEPRA towers, according to a press release received by WealthPK.

Notable officials spoke at the webinar including Chairman of NEPRA, Tauseef Farooqi; Ammar Hussain Jafri, former Additional DG (FIA); CEOs, Abdul Waheed and Rahim Ali, and Certified Information Security Managers from M/s Cybersecurity Experts.

Attendees at the webinar included Power Sector professionals, Trade and Business representatives and officials from NEPRA.

Chairman of NEPRA, Tauseef Farooqi, gave the commencement address in which he laid out the purpose of the webinar and said that “Computer Emergency Response Teams are the first line of defence against cyber-attacks. If these attacks are not thwarted we can sustain losses worth billions of dollars.”

He said that “establishment of effective CERTs should be a key goal for every power sector entity. We are entering the 4th Industrial revolution wherein power systems are transformed from physical to cyber-physical systems with the introduction of smart grids, AMI’s and Distributed Generations.”

Ammar Hussain Jafri briefed the participants about the roles and responsibilities of CERTs, international CERT standards and what should be the way forward for the establishment of CERTs in power sector companies.

He said that CERTs work on many levels which include National level, Sectoral level and organizational level.

Abdul Waheed and Rahim Ali briefed the participants about different types of cyber incidents, and objectives and technical requirements of CERTs. They highlighted the importance of cyber leadership and what business models should be taken into consideration when CERTs are established in an organization.

Credit : Independent News Pakistan-WealthPk