Breaking Belize News published an article on August 12, 2020, about Latin American, Caribbean countries lack professionals; Belize developing cyber policy. Here’s a summary:
- The Inter-American Bank and the Organization of American States in its latest annual report in countries like Belize and others in the region are severely lacking in cyber-security.
- The citizens of Belize have internet access with a penetration rate of 47% as of 2017. Cybersecurity policies protect citizen’s digital rights, including privacy, especially in a time where online crime amounts to about half of global property crime.
- The economic damage from cyberattacks is estimated to be more than 1% of some nations’ annual gross domestic product (GDP) while some attacks on critical infrastructure could cause 6% of annual GDP.
- The Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region isn’t sufficiently prepared to handle cyberattacks. It was noted that only 7 of the 32 countries studied have a critical infrastructure protection plan while 20 have cybersecurity incident response teams. 22% of the studied countries have a very low capacity to investigate cybercrime and struggle in the criminal trial process.
- The report highlighted the lack of significant progress to a lack of skilled human capital, including cybersecurity professionals; only 20 of the countries had any professional training programs in cybersecurity.
- Belize is currently developing a national cybersecurity strategy through the National Cyber Security Task Force (CSTF). The I.T Unit of the Belize Police Department has made considerable efforts to improve its incident response capabilities by developing a forensic laboratory and has four laws relating to cybersecurity.
- The Іntеr-Аmеrісаn Dеvеlорmеnt Ваnk (ІDВ) is working сlоѕеlу with LАС governments and to tасklе the сhаllеngеѕ faced.
Source: breakingbelizenews.com
Contributed by Racquel Bailey from Jamaica. Racquel is a member of our Women in InfoSec Caribbean (WISC) initiative on Discord. WISC is a non-profit initiative supporting Caribbean women and girls to develop a career in Information Security. Learn more about WISC at wiscaribbean.org.