By Mariam Sankanu
American International University West Africa’s (AIUWA) College of Management and Information Technology, Tuesday held a seminar on cyber security at the college’s building in Brusubi.
The course was designed to raise awareness among users of the internet on how best to protect themselves and their data online. The meeting also discussed techniques of protecting computers, networks, programs and data from unauthorised access or attacks that are aimed for exploitation.
“We enlightened them [students and other participants] on how to remain safe whenever they use the internet, especially on WhatsApp, facebook and others social media sites,” Kara Jange, president of the computer science association of Aiuwa and secretary general of the students union, explained.
According to him, most Gambians “easily fall for scams” because they have the notion that “this is Gambia, no one will scam me.”
“When our friends send us links to vote for them for example, we do not even question it. You should be very careful because sometimes links sent to you are scams,” he warned.
Amadou Bah, president of Cyber Security Alliance, said in his speech: “Why are we still behind when all the resources needed to build highly sophisticated technologies come from Africa? We can’t grow if we don’t promote ICT. I was watching one of the sittings in the parliament and one of the members said the budget allocated to ICT development is too much because ICT can’t take us anywhere. I was very disappointed.
“Why will you use a service you do not know how to control? Do you ever ask yourself why you use social media platforms? In The Gambia, it is very easy to hack in to systems because they are not secured properly.
“The Gambia will soon have its first ever cybercrime division. Currently some people are being trained,” Amadou announced.
He advised the students to organise more seminars of similar nature in future.
