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Cabinet approves broadband policy
THE cabinet has approved a broadband policy last week to help spread affordable high speed internet access and create an environment for efficient business transactions and economic and social development for higher productivity.
“With the policy, Pakistan has leaped frog from many countries of the region even from India,” Information Technology Minister Awais Ahmed Khan Leghari said while unveiling internet broadband policy here at the IT ministry.
PTCL will also reduce its IP bandwidth rates from $3,950 per E1 (2 mega bites) per month to $2,000 per E1 per month, monthly copper rental for DSL (digital subscriber linkage) to Rs250 ($4.21) per month from Rs771 per month, monthly primary rate interface rental by 50 per cent and domestic bandwidth rates by 25 per cent of the existing prices to facilitate peering services.
The one time up front cost, after such drastic cuts, would be reduced to Rs2,000 from Rs8,000 while the monthly internet service fee would be less than Rs1,000.
The speakers at a seminar on cyber security underlined the need for strict implementation of the existing laws including Pakistan Electronic Transaction Ordinance for safety of computer networks and secure transactions over internet.
The speakers ,at “Pakcon-2004,” a cyber security convention organized by PakCon last week, elaborated on various aspects of security over internet and informed the participants about risks involved in financial transactions over internet.
Javed Wadood, an IT professional, pointed out that hacking over internet is very common all over the world. Quoting a survey in the USA, he said that in the USA more than 50 per cent of young people working on internet were involved in some sort of hacking. In Pakistan, he said, the figures were much higher although its awareness is too low.
Stressing the need for creation of an information technology security department in every organization, he said many banks have now gone online, but they are still not so safe, so steps be taken to protect them.
Moreover, stock exchanges and other financial institutions are highly relying on network systems, so security is imperative for them.
President PakCon 2004, Faiz Ahmad Shuja, grouped hackers in three types: white hat hackers who hack computers for research or to create methods to protect data, black hat hackers who enter computers and steal or corrupt data, and grey hat hackers, and grey hat hackers who are involved in both the activites. He informed that most of Pakistani websites and computer networkes were hacked from Romania.
Lawyer Javed A. Sarwana spoke on el-commerce and cyber crime laws in Pakistan. He told that Pakistan started taking steps against cyber crimes much late as the Pakistan Electronic Transaction Ordinance was promulgated in September 2002. This law mainly promulgated to regulate and develop e-commerce in Pakistan. Despite having a law, people still do not rely on transactions over internet, he added.
He quoted a recent survey conducted by an IT magazine and said that most of the people, who do some sort of financial transactions on internet do not rely on transactions in Pakistan.
Sarwana said the government had introduced Electronic Crime Bill, but it yet to be enacted. He regretted that the laws were not implemented in Pakistan.
Emmanuel Gadaix of Telecom Security Task Force, speaking on “Phreaking: past, present and future,” said before hackers became a media fixture, there was a time when phreakers were the rage, abusing phone switches was open to anybody with a blue box.
A hacking competition among young computer users was also held.
Nanotechnology, clean and green technology, tissue engineering and nanomaterials would bring major breakthroughs in the emerging fields of science and engineering in future.
This was claimed by the experts while expressing their views in the one-day seminar on “nano-bio-materials and clean technologies” at the Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology on Dec 23.
Dr Jawwad A. Darr of Queen Mary University of London highlighted the various aspects of research in the field of bio and nano materials, saying it has wide range applications, including advanced materials and biomedical engineering and more and more people are expected to join this field. Mr Darr discussed the stages of processing of nano-materials synthesis, nano-disposition, nano-characterization, nano-modeling and nano-composites.
He also threw light on analytical and related techniques, supercritical fluids applications for growth of carbonated bone-like ceramics, visualization of implants, bio-mimetic coatings, coating methods and nano- ceramics and bio-ceramics. — Muqaddam Khan
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