ISLAMABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi on Tuesday underlined the importance of cyber security in all fields, including defence, industry, politics and culture.

“We need to develop the ability to fight cyber warfare and defend ourselves,” he said addressing a two-day Annual International Conference on Cyber Warfare at Air University in Islamabad.

The president said cyberattack could be faced in any field, therefore, there should be trained people in every sector to defend it.

Emphasising over paradigm rethinking at the higher education level, he said: “We need millions of trained people for this job.”

Dr Arif Alvi said it was the need of the hour to disseminate awareness regarding the security of institutions from cyber-attacks.

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He urged educational institutions to prepare the youth as per the requirements of the market.

Talking about the use of electronic voting machines in the general elections, he said the government was trying to introduce a system that could easily be protected from cyber-attacks.

On November 22, State Bank of Pakistan Governor Dr Reza Baqir had chaired a meeting with FIA Director General Sanaullah Abbasi to strengthen and coordinate efforts of the SBP, banks and FIA to fight money laundering, cyber-attacks and online frauds.

The meeting was also attended by the presidents of banks and senior officers of the FIA and the central bank.

The SBP governor had emphasised the need for close cooperation among the banks, SBP, and FIA so that white-collar crimes were expeditiously investigated and fraudsters were apprehended and prosecuted.