The Jamaica Gleaner posted an article on February 27, 2021, about Jamaica’s cyber security threat level being raised to high. Below are some key highlights:
- The Cyber Incident Response Team (CIRT) in the national security ministry yesterday raised the island’s cybersecurity threat level in relation to government systems to high.
- The heightened threat level comes on the heels of a number of weaknesses discovered within the JamCOVID app and website, which was being used to store critical data regarding travellers and COVID-19 patients in the island.
- There were unanswered questions such as that under the law, most recently amended on February 1, data gathered for electronic monitoring “shall be deleted upon the expiration of the [14-day] quarantine”.
- The vulnerability of the servers is believed to have stretched back to this time. In the recently tabled Estimates of Expenditure for the fiscal year 2021-22, a little over $1 billion to “continue the procurement of software and hardware to build out the cybersecurity capability of the security forces”.
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