29th March 2018 10:26:44 Hours
“The specialty in the ‘cyber space’ and related activities is that it will not restricted only to militarily strong countries in the world but also any others who are interested becoming a dominant figure in the cyber space since any country in the today’s world is potential to multidimensional cyber threats. Hence, even Sri Lanka could develop necessary cyber skills to face the future trends and threats that are possible in all affairs. Accordingly, being in the midst of today’s context of globalization and technological advancement, I believe that Sri Lanka Army should further strengthen cyber security widely aligned with all the aspects of military involvements in the cyber space and related activities. For this purpose, Sri Lanka Signal Corps is the foremost body in the Sri Lanka Army to conduct C5I (Command, Control, Communication, Computer, Cyber and Intelligence) that are indispensable in the perpetual battlefront, which will ensure a capacity based sustainable Army in the future” said the Commander of the Army, Lieutenant General Mahesh Senanayake, attending as the Chief Guest of Logo and Web Launching Ceremony of the 75th Anniversary of the Sri Lanka Signal Corps (SLSC) and the Media Briefing conducted on Wednesday, 28th March 2018 at “The Blue” Conference Hall of Hilton - Colombo.
“Corps of Signals could take the lead in propagating new innovative improvements to the cyber space as the latest technologically and advanced 6th dimension of war, unlike in past warfare with land, naval or air troops. It is clear that changes in warfare are of different nature and Sri Lanka, though small in size should be prepared to take any challenge in cyber space which is also a form of soft power. Security to information, transmission of information, sensitive information is getting more and more prominence day by day. Hence unlike in the past we have to always mould an Army, based on 'capacity' rather than the 'threat' since Information Technology is ruling the day as the most powerful communicative tool. Media too can greatly contribute to this by making awareness in the public and emphasizing the importance of technology" the Commander further added during his remarks.
Major General Ajith Wijesinghe, Colonel Commandant SLSC and the Chief Signal Officer of the Sri Lanka Army making the inaugural contribution to the conference mentioned that “Corps of Signals as the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) arm of the Sri Lanka Army is now well structured and technologically poised to take on possible future challenges in cyber space, warfare or IT as the country's trailblazer in the field of signals”. He further added that “as a descendent of the Royal Signals Corps under the British in 1943, the SLSC being one of the oldest regiments had done a landmark service to the nation very silently, particularly during the times of internal threats and insurgencies. It is now a highly integrated organization extending from communication to ICT, and then to cyber having seven Field Signal Regiments, two IT Regiments, one Repair & Maintenance Regiment, one Cyber Security Regiment, one Electronic Warfare Squadron and the School of Signals. Therefore, SLSC is now poised to take on the challenges in C5I in the new millennium since the cyber space is the perpetual battlefront for future".
At the beginning of the ceremony, few key sponsors such as Dialog Axiata PLC (Gold Sponsor) and National Radio and Telecommunication Corporation (NRTC) of Pakistan (Gold Sponsor) were awarded with sponsorship acceptance parchments by Major General Ajith Wijesinghe. Representing Dialog Axiata PLC, Group Chief Technology Officer Mr Pradeep De Almeida received the parchment and the official representative of National Radio and Telecommunication Corporation (NRTC) of Pakistan Mr A.G. Bhatti received the parchment.
Commander of the Army Lieutenant General Mahesh Senanayake, Colonel Commandant of the Corps of Signals and Chief Signal Officer of the Sri Lanka Army Major General Ajith Wijesinghe, Director General of the Research, Analysis, Projection and Development Branch (RAP & D Branch) of the Sri Lanka Army Major General Renuka Rowel, Commander Signal Brigade Brigadier Thilak Waidyaratne, Director IT of the Sri Lanka Army Brigadier Prabhath Dematanpitiya, Brigadier General Staff of the Security Force (Jaffna) Brigadier Rasika Karunathilaka and the Military Spokesman Brigadier Sumith Atapattu chaired the panel of Media Briefing before a large crowd of local and foreign media personnel who represented leading printed and electronic media in the country and overseas.
This Official Logo and Web Launching Ceremony and the Media Briefing were held together as a pre-instigation to the Symposium “Wave” and the ICT Exhibition that are in process of arranging as main two events of the series of events aligned with the celebration of 75th Anniversary.
These two main events, the symposium namely: “WAVE”, focuses on a theme of “Cyber Space, Perpetual Battlefront for Future” and the ICT Exhibition has been incorporated to run in parallel at the BMICH Colombo. The Symposium will be conducted on 28th November 2018 at the Committee Room ‘Jasmine’ and will be extended to three sessions; namely Local (Sri Lankan), Regional (South Asian) and Global. The ICT Exhibition will be held on 28th and 29th November 2018 at the Sirimavo Bandaranaike Exhibition and Convention Centre of BMICH whereas these two key events will be an attraction for the ICT community starting from schoolchildren to university students, then from professionals to employees in ICT, and to boundary less ICT customers worldwide.
Considerable number of senior Signal officers too participated the occasion and Hilton Hotel Colombo sponsored the venue and refreshments as the hospitality partner of the event.
