Barbados Underground posted an article on July 20, 2014, about how Caribbean are losing money to cyber criminals. Below are some key highlights:
- The Caribbean Cyber Security Center (CCSC) continues to urge the Caribbean region to take the growing threat from cyber criminals and hackers seriously
- While we are pleased to see justice served in the recent sentencing of the ATM scamsters in Barbados, ATM scams represents only one front of the multi-front cybercrime war we face as a region
- Our belief is based on the extremely low level of regional cyber security awareness, non-adherence to cyber security best practices and standards, and the time it takes an average person, business, organization or government to realize they have been “hacked or compromised”, which can be as long as 2-3 years
- The region has been largely unresponsive to this threat due mainly to (1) a cultural norm to be slow at act while discussing topics to their outer limits. This slow to act cultural norm is playing right into the hands of cyber criminals and hackers who are using our low level of cyber awareness and preparedness to defraud us daily, (2) economic challenges being faced by many organizations, and (3) failure of public and private sector leaders to budget and investment in cyber defenses
- The last thing the Caribbean region needs in these challenging economic times is to be known as an unsafe region to do cyber/internet dependent business, or use credit cards in the case of the tourism industry
Reference(s):