The latest cyber security threat materializes in the form of 'cyber guerilla warfare' launched by Anonymous, the group of WikiLeaks supporters crashing the websites of top-notch credit card companies Visa, MasterCard, PayPal and the Swiss payment transaction firm, PostFinance. With an avalanche of denial of service (DDoS) attacks, the websites were knocked offline for several hours.

The group, Anonymous launched the attack dubbed 'operation pay back' when the said companies stopped processing donations to WikiLeaks following the controversy on the publication of confidential US diplomatic cables. The group pledged its support for "freedom on the internet" threatening several organizations that have allegedly stifled their effort to release the documents;
"We will find and will attack those who stand against WikiLeaks and we will support WikiLeaks in everything they need,".

Ironically, proving hackers themselves cannot escape, the Anonymous' website 'anonops.net' came under an attack by an opposing group highlighting that nobody is secure in this cyber environment.
With the menace of a cyber war looming overhead, the need to secure information systems is stronger than ever. In particular, banking and financial sector, seem to be the most vulnerable. At a time, online- related business transaction have gained momentum in the economy, information security has become a vital factor as it takes only one strike of a key to bring down a business or to cause a billion dollar loss.
The escalating number of cyber crimes in the financial sector, ranging from theft of credit card details to disruption of service as recent experience demonstrates, indicates it is no longer adequate to invest only on software and hardware upgrades. In today's cyber environment, the key to information security lies on highly trained professionals.

Recognizing this need, Singapore Informatics, a premier education solution provider in South Asia has launched the Certified Ethical Hacking (CEH) study programme in Sri Lanka. Catering to the increasing demand for professionals in cyber security, the course is designed to instil the technical know-how in identifying vulnerabilities, buffing-up of network integrity, and tracking and exposing infiltrations of the organization's information systems. Singapore Informatics offers this course at a nominal rate encouraging young blood to explore the career prospects in cyber security sphere.