Marketing department of Virtual University of Pakistan organized an online “International Conference on Digitalization and Cyber Security: Challenges, Opportunities and Way Forward” 10, 11, 12 August 2020.
His Excellency, President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, Dr. Arif Alvi graced the occasion as Chief Guest of the Closing Ceremony of the Conference. Federal Minister for IT & Telecommunication, Syed Amin ul Haque was the Chief Guest of the Opening Session and Federal Secretary for IT & Telecommunication, Mr. Shoaib Ahmad Siddiqui was the Guest of Honor of the Conference.
The conference was attended by a huge number of audience from all over the world.The eminent Guest Speakers who participated in this conference included Dr. Naveed A. Malik, Founder-Rector Virtual University, Special Adviser Technology & Innovation Common Wealth of Learning Canada, Mr. Ahmed Saleh AlBalooshi, Managing Director Fintech It Consultations, Mr. Alfonso Perez, Founder of IT related startups, John Brady, Finance and IT Risk Professional, Mr. Veqarul Islam, Director and CEO, Jaffer Business Systems Limited, Mr. Azhar Zia Ur Rehman, Member Presidential Committee on Emerging Technologies at Government of Pakistan, Mr. Mehmood ul Hassan, Deputy Director FIA Cybercrime Wing, Dr. Zunera Jalil, Assistant Professor Department of Cybersecurity Air University, Mr. Umer Saeed, Consultant Security and Collaboration at Future Now and Director at ISACA, Lahore Chapter, Mr. Sohail Syed, Cyber Security Consultant and Advisor, Dr. Faisal Kamiran, Chairperson CS & IT Information Technology University (ITU), Mr. Malik Mudassir, CEO, Appsgenii Technologies, Ms. Bushra Hashmi, Business Analyst Professional, Mr. M Shahmeer, Founder Velliux, Mr. Kashif ul Haq, CGM, Cisco Pakistan, Dr. Hafiz Malik, Professor Electrical and Computer Engineering Department University of Michigan, Mr. Joseph Kellegher, Lecturer University of Dublin, , Dr. Rafi us Shan, Chief Cyber Security, KP Cyber Emergency Response Center, KP IT Board, Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Mr. Ammar Jafferi, DG (CIT) and Mr. Badar Khushnood, Co-Founder & VP of Growth at Bramerz and Fishry.com (Ecommerce Platform).
On the last day of conference, a panel discussion was organized to discuss the core issues of the sector. Panelists included Mr. Waqar Ahmed Chauhan, Director Cyber Crime Wing (CCW), Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), Dr. Rafi us Shan, Chief Cyber Security, KP Cyber Emergency Response Center, KP IT Board, Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Mr. Raza Ahmed Sukhera, Project Manager (IT/IA), Ignite National Technology Fund, Ministry of IT & Telecom, Government of Pakistan, Mr. Badar Khushnood, Co-Founder & VP of Growth at Bramerz and Fishry.com (Ecommerce Platform), Mr. Khawaja Faisal Javed, President – ISACA Lahore Chapter, Member of International GRA Committee – ISACA, USA, Mr. Yayha Ghaznavi, CEO at AKSiQ, Mr. Muhammad Masood Haider, CEO of IT Connect and Unity, Mr. Umer Saeed, Consultant Security and Collaboration at Future Now and Director at ISACA, Lahore Chapter, Mr. Joseph Kellegher, Educationist at Technological University, Dublin.
While addressing the conference President Dr. Arif Alvi said that educational institutions should pay special attention to the IT education for enabling the country to jump the bandwagon of digitalization and cyber security for creating job opportunities and meet future challenges. The President said, there had been tremendous demand of IT graduates in the world and Pakistan being a youthful country, could fill the gap.
President congratulated Virtual University to organize such a fruitful and high level international conference on such an important topic. Minister for IT and Telecommunications, Syed Amin ul Haq said that the IT sector has also created ample opportunities even for the women to work from home and earn revenue. He said though the COVID-19 pandemic had created immense loss to lives and economies, it has simultaneously dragged the world into a virtual domain creating immense opportunities for Pakistan and many other countries.
Secretary IT and Telecom, Mr. Shoaib Siddiqui emphasized on modern trends in the field of IT like faster communication, exponentially increased data storage, use of artificial intelligence and modern research in medical and drug sector, he said all the modern developments are linked to each other.
Rector, Virtual University Mr. Naeem Tariq said, as IT has assumed a central and enabling role in the emerging dynamics of a knowledge society, this Conference has provided an opportunity for highlighting the challenges and solutions in the domain of Digitalization and Cyber Security which would lead towards consideration of technological advancements along with achieving the goal of a better Digital Pakistan.
He thanked all the guest speakers, officials from MOITT and Marketing Department of VU for organizing such a successful conference.