Staff Reporter

Technologies, policies, and procedures may be crucial for cybersecurity but the human factor is important to build safeguards against cyber threats.

“Be Cyber Safe –A step towards building the human firewall”, is the theme of Bhutan’s first Cybersecurity Week to create awareness about cyber security.

Studies show that 95 percent of cybersecurity breaches are due to human error, meaning unintentional actions or lack of action, such as downloading malware, failure to use a strong password, or use of insecure software

Cybersecurity awareness, building the capacity among individual users to spot common cybersecurity threats, and to adopt cyber security hygiene are very important, according to the Department of Information Technology and Telecom (DITT).




Records with the Bhutan Computer Incident Response Team (BtCIRT) under DITT show that there were 49 cybersecurity breach incidences in the country in the past six months.

The cybersecurity breaches were classified as abusive content, fraud, information security, intrusion attempts, intrusions, malicious code, and vulnerabilities.

“The Cybersecurity Week initiative is expected to provide better opportunities for the general public, students, and ICT Professionals to increase their knowledge throughout the week through the various events covering the full breadth of the cybersecurity ecosystem,” read the DITT press release.




The week-long awareness campaign that began on December 20 will include workshops on network security, web application security, and mutually-agreed norms for routing security.

On December 23, there will be a conference with international and national speakers presenting on a wide range of cybersecurity topics, as well as a discussion panel on cybersecurity preparedness.

Events on December 24 and 25 will target bank customers with live cybersecurity hygiene checks that will be exhibited to ensure basic health and security of hardware and software.