✿*SALWA NAJJAH*✿

Thursday, 2 August 2012

MAMPU Gives High Marks to UKM ICT Strategic Plan

By Saiful Bahri Kamaruddin
Pix Shahiddan Saidi

BANGI, 11 May 2012 – The Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit, MAMPU has given high marks to The National University of Malaysia (UKM) as an agency leading the charge in research through Information and Communications Technology (ICT).

MAMPU Director-General, Dato' Mohamad Zabidi Zainal said he was impressed with UKM's commitment to working with the agency in raising the stakes of research in the university through its ICT strategic plan.

He took pride with the support and involvement of MAMPU as the consultant to UKM’s ICT experts to come up with an ICT strategic plan for institutions of higher learning in the country.

He made the remarks at a brief ceremony for the submission of UKM's 2011–2015 ICT Strategic Plan at Cancellory meeting room today. The document was handed over to UKM Vice-Chancellor, Prof Tan Sri Dato' Wira Dr Sharifah Hapsah with a copy given to Dato’ Zabidi.

The plan takes into account the development, planning and implementation of ICT in UKM's main campus in Bangi as well as at its other campus in Kuala Lumpur and the UKM Hospital in Cheras.

Dato' Mohamad Zabidi said the processes used had helped raise awareness and expertise for all those involved. The UKM ICT Strategic Plan began in August 25 2010 and is all-encompassing.

Prof Sharifah Hapsah said that ICT is the key to the core business of UKM, that is teaching, learning and research saying since ICT became widespread on the main campus, UKM became more efficent and speedier including among students and the teaching staff as can be seen all over the campus in Bangi.

The in-depth development of the ICT Strategic Plan was carried out by a team led by Prof Ir Dr Othman Abdul Karim as the project director.

Consultancy for the project was provided by a team of strategic ICT consultants at MAMPU led by Dato' Dr Zahari Othman.

The plan is a long-term one that determines the direction of planning, strategic development and implementation of ICT projects to support the achievement of UKM's vision and mission.

The plan, which is part of the public sector ICT strategy, details the objectives of the ICT policies. It is aimed at ensuring that ICT management in all agencies are in line with the public sector ICT strategy.

Also present at the ceremony were the Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Academic and International Affairs, Prof Datuk Dr Noor Azlan Ghazali; Prof Ir Othman who is also Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Student Affairs and Alumni and Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research and Inovation, Prof Dato' Dr Rahmah Mohamed.

MAMPU is tasked with taking the lead role in implementing modernisation strategies for the Malaysian Public Service.

In implementing its responsibility, MAMPU says it focuses on initiatives that can upgrade the quality, efficiency, effectiveness, and integrity of the Public Service.

All these initiatives encompass the areas of quality acculturation, organisational development, integrity management, ICT development and enhancing relationships between the public and private sectors.

The modernisation initiatives implemented by MAMPU have to be conveyed widely to all government agencies by all available channels in order ensure accurate and updated information are readily available.

NEWS FROM :UKM

SALWA NAJJAH

UKM To Set Up An Academy for Cyber Security

Pix Courtesy of Faculty of Information Science and Technology (FTSM)

BANGI, 22 Mac. 2012 – UKM will set up a Cyber Security Academy in collaboration with CyberSecurity Malaysia (CSM) to provide profesional programmes that will produce the expertise needed in the field.

It is aimed at meeting market demand for such professionals both locally and globally apart from helping to produce a future generation who are highly skilled in cyber security for the benefit of society.

Senior Manager of Technology Transfer of the Centre for Collaborative Innovation UKM, Encik Muhamad Nasir Raki told UKM News Portal that the UKM-CSM Global Cyber Security Academy hopes to begin providing various programmes on cyber security this June. It is scheduled to be fully operational by the end of the year.

En Nasir, who is also a member of the UKM-CSM committee to set up the academy, said it will make UKM a versatile institution of higher learning and further enhance its reputation internationally.

A three day workshop was organised by The Faculty of Information Science and Technology (FTSM) in Seremban last Friday to discuss the establishment of the Academy. It was attended by teams from UKM and CSM.

The 16 member UKM team was headed by FTSM Dean, Prof Dr Abdullah Mohd Zain and include members of the faculty. The CSM team of 16 was headed its Head of Innovation and Commercialisation, Encik Anwer Yusoff. CSM is an agency under the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation.

The workshop discussed the strategic plan for its implementation as well as developing its academic curriculum and profesional training.

Deputy Vice Chancellor (Student and Alumni Affairs), Prof Ir Dr Osman A.Karim when opening the workshop on behalf of the Vice Chancellor, Prof Tan Sri Datuk Wira Sharifah Hapsah Syed Hasan Shahabuddin said the advancement of technology in addition to bringing about benefits had also spawned negative elements which were found to be difficult to control.

“As a result we, our family, society, organisations and national security have been exposed to various types of cyber crimes. We thus cannot be complacent and has to be prepared to meet such threats. “

He said among the measures needed to face the threats was to have an effective data rescue system should there be damages to the main data depositary, due to breaches or to natural calamities.

It was thus important that there should be professionals in cyber and information security to be ready to tackle any criminal threats lurking in the virtual world, Prof Osman said.

En Nasir said development of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has changed the lives of the people and has made the world borderless. The information revolution has also made it possible for almost any information to be retrieved at the fingertips.

This has also impacted the values people hold dear and at times brought about social ills and the degradation of values. Thus ICT needed to be monitored from being misused, he said.

En Nasir also said that the ICT infrastructure had been used to communicate ill intentions and had thus brought about social ills in a society. The cyber world had also brought about political instabilities and even assist in bringing down governments like in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt and Yemen.

Thus governments can be toppled and nations thrown into chaos by street demonstrations and unrest facilitated by ICT due to involvement of third parties and invisible hands with their own hidden agenda.

Moving under the banner of NGOs and the pretext of democracy and human rights, it had brought about instability to nations through the clever use of ICT such as Blogs, Facebook and Youtube to spread propaganda, slander and even false accusations that can easily ignite harmful sentiments among the people, En Nasir said.

They had brought about unrest which can easily go viral at an enormous speed and threaten peace and bringing about riots and civil wars in nations, he said.

NEWS FROM : UKM

SALWA NAJJAH

Thursday, 12 July 2012

TM CONTINUES ITS EFFORTS TO INCREASE ICT LITERACY AMONG COMMUNITIES

Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM) today contributed additional computers to SJK (C) Serendah for its computer lab and honoured excellent students from 4 schools in Serendah and active users of the Serendah Community Broadband Centre (Serendah CBC) in a ceremony held at Serendah CBC in Taman Seri Serendah, Serendah, Hulu Selangor.

TM, mindful of its role in boosting ICT literacy among the students and the local communities, today continues to play the role by giving away 2 computers for the computer lab of SJK (C) Serendah.

The contributions were handed over by YB. Dato’ Seri Utama Dr. Rais Yatim, Minister of Information, Communications and Culture. Also present at the event was Dato’ Kairul Annuar Mohamed Zamzam, Executive Vice President, Government, TM.

The 2 computers to SJK (C) Serendah are in addition to the 3 units of computers that were handed over to the school by YB. Senator Heng Seai Kie, Deputy Minister of Information, Communications and Cultureyesterday. Earlier last night, TM also handed over 2 computers to SJK (C) Khing Ming and 1 computer equipped with broadband Internet connection to Serendah Community Centre in a ceremony held at Sen See Yeh Temple in Serendah.

By providing the school with the computers, TM aims to encourage the younger generation to embrace ICT and be part of the information society by giving them a chance to be exposed to wider usage of the ICT facilities. It is hoped that the students of SJK (C) Serendah can acquire better computer skills while equipping themselves with better IT knowledge. With a three-pronged objective which is to introduce the use of ICT in education, to introduce schools as community centre for ICT knowledge dissemination and to bridge the digital divide, this initiative is yet another testament of TM’s commitment in supporting national aspirations of producing a knowledge community.

At the same event, TM also honoured 11 high-achieving students from 4 primary and secondary schools in Serendah who obtained excellent results in their respective examinations recently. The students were from the following schools:

a) SJK (C) Serendah – 3 UPSR students
b) SK Antara Gapi – 1 UPSR student
c) SK Serendah – 3 UPSR students
d) SMK Serendah – 3 PMR and 1 SPM students

In recognition of their excellent results, each student received cash incentive of RM300 and TM school bag. The incentive is hoped to serve as an encouragement for them to continue their excellent performance in their future studies.

In addition, TM also rewarded 6 “Most Active Users” of the Serendah CBC. The 6 individuals, with 2 individuals each under the primary school, secondary school and adults categories were recognised as the most active users of the ICT facilities available at the Serendah CBC. Each active user walked away with a brand new laptop, courtesy of TM. This recognition is hoped to drive even more active usage among the local communities in Serendah for them to fully utilise the facilities at the Serendah CBC. The initiative is also aimed at cultivating a generation of Malaysians who are ICT-literate, will assist in bridging the digital divide.

These initiatives form a part of TM’s larger Corporate Responsibilities (CR) initiative. TM champions a three-pronged CR approach, namely education, community as well as nation building and the environment.

Under the education platform, among the initiatives are the establishment of Multimedia University (MMU) as the first private university in the country. Besides that, Yayasan TM, the social arm of TM, has awarded scholarships worth RM30 million this year to 823 deserving students to pursue their studies at government schools and universities in Malaysia and abroad. Since its inception in 1994, more than 11,000 students have benefited from this scholarship programme which amounted to over RM390 million.

Under the Community and Nation-building platform, TM focuses on enriching the lives of the needy and less fortunate by bridging the digital divide between urban and rural communities and offering donations to welfare homes, charitable organizations and NGOs

ARTICLE FROM : TM

SALWA NAJJAH