Seminar told cybercrimes have gone up considerably

PESHAWAR: A seminar was told on Friday the number of cybercrimes had increased by 600 per cent during the pandemic and they mostly related to defamation, hacking and unauthorized access to information.

Akram Mughal, Deputy Director, Network Security, Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) said this while giving an introduction on the national Cybercrime Laws.

The one-day awareness seminar on cybercrime, digital forensic and cyber security was arranged in collaboration with FIA and National Centre for Cyber Security (NCCS), University of Engineering and Technology Peshawar. UET Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Iftikhar Hussain addressed the audience as chief guest.

Tahir Khan, Deputy Director Cybercrime, FIA briefed the audience about cybercrimes and their various forms. He appreciated the NCCS, UET, Peshawar, for working effectively in addressing cybercrime and offering solutions for ensuring cyber security. The official said more than 4000 cybercrimes cases had been reported in 2021 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa that included fake online accounts, hate speech, hacking, online financial fraud and illegal SIMS. Tariq Pervez, Additional Director FIA Cybercrime Wing and Faqir Hassan, Lab In-charge FIA Cybercrime Wing, gave presentations.

He said the UET Peshawar is aimed to excel in research-based education as part of the university’s mission where its faculty and researchers are actively engaged in applied research at the state-of-the-art facilities.

“With the rapidly changing world, the cyber security environment has become more vulnerable to cybercrimes, adding, it is a matter of pride that the FIA and NCCS UET Peshawar are collaborating to look into possibilities for joint ventures and controlling cybercrimes”, he added.

Dr Sadeeq Jan, Director, NCCS, UET Peshawar, said NCCS is a joint initiative of the Higher Education Commission and Planning Commission to develop capacity in the field of cyber security in leading Pakistani universities. He said the Innovative Secured System Laboratory established at UET Peshawar under the NCCS Project is addressing issues and developing solutions related to IoT devices, developing products in the cyber security testing and blockchain by using state-of-the-art genetic algorithms.