Stabroek News published a post on August 24, 2019, about Guyana not having a comprehensive cybersecurity strategy.
After observing the steps taken by foreign nations, Guyanese citizen proposes institutional investigation to help curtail gap in cybersecurity skills necessary for national development.
Key points:
- Through the United Kingdom (UK) Chevening scholarship program many Guyanese youths receive excellent workforce skills development, an investment that benefits the individual, the government, the society and economy. Various countries that invest in our youth has identified a workforce skill gap.
- In observing the programs offered to students studying under the Chevening and Cyber Security Engineering scholarship programs, national development areas tend to standout. These observations concluded that cybersecurity is a driving economic factor which must be capitalized on.
- The UK’s Cyber Security Strategy, developed through extensive research, protects and promotes the UK in a digital world. According to the Cabinet Office (2011), the top priority was to enhance the knowledge, skills and capability needed to satisfy their cybersecurity objectives.
- Nether Guyana nor any CARICOM state have a comprehensive cybersecurity strategy which includes workforce skills development. Though the CARICOM Cyber Security and Cybercrime Action Plan identified the University of the West Indies and the Organization of American States as potential partners for developing cybersecurity capabilities, neither offers the skill development needed to protect the social and economic interest of our country.
- The Organization of American States and Symantec indicates massive cybersecurity challenges in our region and to confront this, the root is understanding the skill gap. Superior research and development are needed to advance our emerging economy. The research will explore training programs to enhance our workforce. Benchmarked against international cybersecurity skills, development frameworks and correlated with the required roles and responsibilities across functional departments in the public sector.
Reference: stabroeknews.com
Contributed by: Contributed by Kyle Sterling from Jamaica. Kyle is a member of our Caribbean Cyber Support Team (CCST) initiative on Discord. CCST is a collaborative group on the Discord platform for Caribbean people interested in IT, from beginners to experts.
If you’re from the Caribbean, learn more and join the group by visiting caribbeancst.org.