Anthony Lewis published an article in December on partnership for Jamaica’s cyber defence. Here’s a quick summary.
As cyber security attacks continue to rise, the need for mitigation systems is becoming dire, especially for nations. The aftermath of cyberattacks results in liabilities incurred, tarnished reputations, and the exposure of sensitive data.
There was a Cybersecurity and Cybercrime Workshop for Latin America and the Caribbean at the Hilton Resort and Spa in St James hosted by the US Embassy. The difficulty of small countries to develop and maintain cyber defence was highlighted, making the decision to collaborate with other countries inevitable. An example of such a partnership is a collaboration between Jamaica Cyber Incident Response Team and the Organization of American States (OAS) Inter-American Committee against Terrorism. Jamaica has also partnered with Canada and the United Kingdom.
A strong emphasis was placed on having strong digitization of government and cyber defence activities in place. Additionally, the protection of data is critical for the security infrastructure of governance systems. The reduction of indirect foreign investment due to security risks is a factor if weak security measures are implemented and may discourage business and investments in the Caribbean. One way to tackle this is the finalization of a Data Protection Bill, which will, in effect, strengthen Jamaica’s overall cybersecurity infrastructure.
It was disclosed that the country has seen an increase in fraudulent e-mails requesting payments, debit and credit point of sale fraud, malware, and cyberbullying. The application of effective cybersecurity measures can be challenging in the current era of technology, especially seeing that attackers are becoming innovative. Due to this fact, it is immanent that our systems are miles ahead of being compromised by the various threat actors.
Reference: jamaicaobserver.com
Contributed by: Racquel Bailey from Jamaica. Racquel 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.