Pillay To Control Spam With New Legislation

This statement was made by ICT minister Tassarajen Pillay Chedumbrum on the occasion of the sixth edition of Computer Security Day 2011, held on Wednesday at Swami Vivekananda International Convention Centre, Pailles.

The objective of the bill is to address the growing global problem of spam. “Many of us receive unwanted mails and it tends to tamper with other important incoming mails. We need to review our legislation to ensure that our system is fully protected from any possible cyber attacks,” explained the minister. He added that a model has already been designed and sent to the State Law Office. “We are now waiting for the SLO to give their green light to present in Parliament,” he said.

Computer Security Day, which was a full day conference was organised by the Computer Emergency Response Team of Mauritius (CERT-MU), a division of the National Computer Board (NCB). The event targeted business executives, senior management and information security professionals.

Under the theme ‘Information security is everyone’s responsibility’, the conference was a way to remind computer users that they should always protect their systems and information. The minister also highlighted the need to take appropriate security measures. “It is important to make use of security tools such as firewalls and users should also choose strong, secure and hard-to-guess passwords,” he stated.

NCB chairman Suraj Ramgolam outlined some cyber security events, which are becoming alarming nationally and globally. It is thus crucial to implement proper information management systems. “To be in line with international standard practices, CERT-MU will undergo an audit next month. Other initiatives such as training programmes and setting up of a national steering committee are being undertaken by CERT-MU in the area of cyber security,” said NCB chairman.