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#OpSriLanka is ‘incredibly unwise, unhelpful’ 

22 Apr 2022

  • Asela Waidyalankara says requesting help of Anonymous is not wise
By Imsha Iqbal  Sri Lankans welcoming Anonymous, the international “hacktivist” collective, to launch cyber attacks targeting websites of the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) is an “incredibly unwise and unhelpful”, as it may cause harm to the national cyber security resulting cost on taxpayer money, stated cyber security consultant Asela Waidyalankara yesterday (21).  Speaking to The Morning Business, Waidyalanka stated: “Requesting the intervention of Anonymous is not a wise move, as it will cause damage, because it is not an external factor; but people themselves have asked them (Anonymous) to commence operations in Sri Lanka.” He assumes that some Sri Lankans have been misguided, as their requirement is to expose the financial transactions of the politicians pressuring the existing Government to resign; however, this is not how Anonymous operates, noted Widyalankara, as they go after state-owned cyber assets. He reiterated the fact that the intervention of an external pressure would, in fact, “do more harm than good, as it affects the national cyber security and it will affect the robustness of the stability of a system”. He noted that the structure of local systems and government websites would sometimes prove outdated and “fragile”, as the hackers are targeting a list of government services.  The impact would ultimately be felt by Sri Lankans, and not the ruling Government, because the public will not be able to access certain sites and government services and have to face inconveniences due to such cyber attacks, he said. Waidyalankara stressed that since these services are maintained through taxpayer money, any impacts would accordingly require taxpayer funds to be utilised to fix the cyber security issues. “We are in a difficult financial position at the time as a country. So I do not think we should be burdening our information infrastructure and cyber security infrastructure with unnecessary expenses. There might be a requirement of expenses to be spent on fixing the cyber-attacked websites.” Thus, the cyber security consultant said that such a move would not be helpful, and that exposing cyber security holes would not contribute at this point, while providing the example that “if someone is a heart patient, we do not ask the patient to run 100 metres merely to find out about the heart’s functioning, as that might be a fatal threat to the patient. In ethical terms, cyber security matters need to be fixed by the consultation of a professional”. Responding to our inquiry on the impact of #OpSriLanka on private sector IT firms, Waiyalankara said: “Certain private telecommunication companies in Sri Lanka are also being targeted, but not affected at this point.”  Further, the list of sites with LK domain registry with potential risks has been released as a document by Anonymous. In exposing corruption, investigative journalists in Sri Lanka, as with the Panama Papers, the Pandora Papers, and other whistleblowers, have contributed greatly, while peaceful protest is the right of the people, he highlighted. Anonymous announced that they launched their hacker operation targeting the ruling Government of Sri Lanka, under the hashtag #OpSriLanka, along with their ongoing operation against the Government of the Russian Federation under the hashtag #OpRussia, against Russia’s occupation of Ukraine.   


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