The Jamaica Information Service published an article on December 4, 2019, about the National Cyber Policy being developed to protect the citizens of Jamaica. Here’s a quick summary just for you.
The Minister of National Security Hon. Dr. Horace Chang was speaking at the Latin America and the Caribbean Cyber Security and Cybercrime Workshop at the Hilton Resort and Spa in St. James on December 3. He expressed that the Government is working towards the development of a National Cyber Policy in 2020 to further protect citizens from the evolving threat of Cyber Crime.
Key points:
- Chang has revealed that the proposed National Identification System (NIDS) Bill would further improve Jamaica’s cybersecurity framework and will not only promote the “modernization of our information and communications technology (ICT ) infrastructure” but will also encourage the implementation of a multi-layer technology protection program to resolve vulnerabilities associated with cyber activities.
- He also stated that data protection is essential to the security infrastructure of every governance system, adding that, for this reason, the Government has made great efforts to finalize the Data Protection Act.
- The Minister argued that in order to fully identify, analyze, and evaluate cyber-threats, “we must maintain strategic partnerships”. He pointed to the joint effort between the Jamaica Cyber-Incident Response Team (CIRT) and the Inter-American Committee against Terrorism (CICTE) of the Organization of American States (OAS), as one such partnership.
- He expressed that Jamaica is working through this collaboration to establish an early warning system that will include a security information and event management (SIEM) network that will allow for a more proactive approach to cybersecurity, enhanced cooperation between the OAS Member States and, in effect, “improve our cyber resilience.”
- Chang also noted that the need to develop a robust network infrastructure is increasingly unavoidable, adding that ongoing research at the regional level, through the CARICOM Cybersecurity Protection and Cyber Action Plan, is essential to this process.
Reference: jis.gov.jm
Contributed by: Sabrina Shim from Jamaica. Sabrina is a member of the WISC Discord group from the G5 Cyber Security Foundation Ltd. Learn more about WISC (Women in InfoSec Caribbean) at wiscaribbean.org. WISC is a non-profit initiative supporting Caribbean women and girls to develop a career in Information Security.