October celebrated as the cyber security awareness month

With the development and technology and the internet came global connectivity, ease of access to information and creation of awareness. While some may say it was one the best things humans have created, this creation has also been the one single thing that has caused the downfall of many. Because with the invention of ease of access meant that it became easier for strangers to access the private information of third parties.

History of cyber security

While cybersecurity was created way back in the 1970s with the invention of a program named ‘Reaper’ developed with the sole purpose of chasing and deleting a virus named the ‘Creeper’ that hacked into people's information, leaving behind a creepy message “I’M THE CREEPER: CATCH ME IF YOU CAN.”

Since then, people learned the importance of building a security wall to protect their information and cybersecurity started to develop. However, it really took off with the introduction of the internet in the 90s- with the development and popularity of the internet, the need for cybersecurity grew as well. 

One tap, one click, one bad link: that’s all it takes for a hacker or a scam artist to get access to all your information from your social security number, bank account details, address and anything else imaginable. The ‘hey I think this I saw your pictures on this site’ attached with a link was one of the most common lines used by hackers to get access to people's social media accounts until recently.

The victims who fall for this easy trick, often end up getting blackmailed with the private information hackers find in their messages and end up losing a big sum of money in hopes of keeping their information from being leaked to the public. 

While you might think cyber-attacks and losing precious information is something for big companies to worry about, this threat is bigger than one might think. Even when it comes to the small island nation of the Maldives, people lose their money and personal information to hackers more often than one can imagine.

It could happen to anyone these days, as attackers have gotten smarter since their ‘Hey is this you’ message- it appears that they have started faking messages from important bodies such as the bank. As recently as 2022, the Bank of Maldives (BML) has had to put out several warnings to their customers due to fraud and hacking taking place in the name of the bank.

Customers get sent links from someone pretending to be the bank, and if the link gets pressed by the customer the fraudsters withdraw and drain all the money from the customer's bank.

Cyber-safe Maldives

Since hacking, phishing and other fraudulent activities have become so common in the Maldives, the Ministry of Environment, Climate change and Technology of the Maldives along with the National Centre of Information Technology (NCITmv) launched a ceremony named ‘cyber safe Maldives’ on October 4, 2022,  in an effort to raise awareness regarding cyber security on a national level.

Under this initiative, October has been marked as the cyber security awareness month for the Maldives in order to create safe cyberspace for all users. During this event, sessions were conducted in order to raise awareness surrounding cybersafety for teenagers and young adults.

Signing MoU between Bahrain and the Maldives

While the cyber safe event along with announcing October as the cyber security awareness month might be one of the biggest steps that have been taken to ensure safety for all internet users, the initiative did not just stop there.

On October 8, 2022, an MoU was signed between the Government of the Maldives, Bahrain telecommunications company (BATELCO) and Dhiraagu. 

The MoU which was signed on President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih’s latest visit to Bahrain was signed in an effort to take further steps to ensure safe cyberspace being developed in the Maldives.