Barbados Today published an article on August 1, 2019, about an IT professional warning private and public sector entities to strengthen cybersecurity, in light of recent data breaches. Here’s a quick summary just for you.
With recent data breaches of banks and the regional government in Barbados, an IT expert, Ashish Uttamchandani, local sales and business development manager with technology solutions company Group PBS, urged governments and businesses to pay more attention to cybersecurity. And just as lawmakers are moving to implement a law to protect personal data, Uttamchandani is warning people about how much personal information they post on social media.
Key points:
- The warning came after the occurrence of many recent incidents, including a recent hacking of several Trinidad and Tobago government websites and local ATM fraud, where the perpetrators hacked into customer accounts and stole an unknown amount of money.
- And just as lawmakers are moving to implement a law to protect personal data, Uttamchandani is warning people about how much personal information they post on social media.
- Uttamchandani suggested firms make regular penetration testing a priority to ensure that they were always ahead of the hackers.
- Using phishing, the practice of soliciting information under the false presence, as an example of how data can be manipulated or misused, Uttamchandani said businesses should play a more significant role in educating customers and employees. As far as ATM fraud is concerned, he encouraged both individuals and institutions to use a “multi-layered approach” to data breaches.
- He further recommended that as companies become more proactive, companies should also implement some form of a cybersecurity incident response, so that when an incident occurs, we are prepared in terms of public dialogue and know the steps to be taken from the business side.
- Having regard to the introduction of the draft data protection law, which lawmakers say complies with the recent General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) of the European Union, the PBS executive said he welcomed the move.
Reference: barbadostoday.bb
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.