Ministry of Science, Energy and Technology published an article on January 2015 about National Cyber Security Strategy
The international recognition that Jamaica has received has been efforts to boost cybersecurity according to the Ministry of Science, Energy, and Technology after the country was ranked number one in the Caribbean on the Global Cybersecurity Index.
While Jamaica may be the number one country in the Caribbean for Cyber Security, it is believed that there’s still a lot more work to be done. The efforts of CIRT (Cyber Incidence Response Team), MOCA and Communications Forensics, and Cybercrimes Unit (CFCU) should be applauded.
As Jamaica embraces the benefits of ICT for socio-economic development and seeks to position itself as a regional leader, it must adopt and implement best practices in Cyber Security in all facets of its economic and social life. The role of cybersecurity in an organization is vital for the protection of its data and for ensuring that its services and projects will keep running without obstacles nor delays. If you think about, for example, the success of a Financial Department or Financial Service body, it is solely dependent on the computer systems that are put in place. Jamaica’s Cyber Defense structure is committed to building upon the CIA, which is the Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability of states of the data that they are protecting.
The National Cyber Security Framework consists of Technical Measures; Human Resource and Capacity Building; Legal and Regulatory; and Public Education and Awareness.
It is imperative to develop a technical platform that includes both physical infrastructure and human capacity. The organization is also as good as its infrastructure. Having the proper infrastructure in place will help Jamaica going forward to mitigate against current and future cyber threats.
With given support of the vision for building/creating a knowledge-based society, Human Resource and Capacity Building will seek to ensure that there exists an available cadre of highly skilled professionals in the area of information security.
Amongst the others, Laws including Legal and Regulatory frameworks should be implemented for legal protection in cyberspace. Privacy and other fundamentals of freedom should be preserved and protected because technology advances so do the cybercrimes.
Increasing the knowledge and awareness of the public is extremely important about cybersecurity threats and vulnerabilities and their impact on society. For example, when we educate the public about cybersecurity and telling them about taking the necessary precautions while surfing the net then we’ll better able to protect themselves.
Reference: mset.gov.jm
Contributed by: Daval Gregory from Jamaica. Daval is a member of the CCST Discord group from the G5 Cyber Security Foundation Ltd. Learn more about CCST (Caribbean Cyber Support Team) by visiting caribbeancst.org. CCST is a collaborative group on the Discord platform for Caribbean people in IT, from beginners to experts.