BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Thursday May 17, 2018 – With cyber attacks on the rise across the Caribbean, Chief Executive Officer of the Caribbean Israel Centre for Cyber Defense (CICCD), Andre Thomas, has recommended that authorities in Barbados and the region make provision for enhanced legislation and law enforcement capacity, to counter the issue.
“They’ve been major hacks recently in the last six weeks. There was a major hack in St. Maarten, another one in Guyana….We’re aware of hacks taking place all over the region. And they’re mostly underreported,” he revealed yesterday.
Thomas did not identify which entities came under attack, however.
But he noted that the region is viewed as an easy target by hackers, given its limited cyber security infrastructure.
While expressing concern about the reluctance to report such incidents, the CICCD official maintained that insufficient training and legislative provisions were among some of the hindrances.
“[Hacks] are underreported because our law enforcement agencies, though very passionate and very willing to make a difference in this area, still have areas of development in terms of being able to deal with cybercrime.
“Most of the jurisdictions do not have cybercrime legislation. Most of the police departments do not have forensic cyber detection capacity. There’s so much that has to be done,” Thomas explained.
He pledged the organization’s support to assist regional countries, particularly as the General Data Protection Regulation, introduced by the European Union, goes into effect on May 25.
Under the regulations, a company or organisation would be held liable for personal information belonging to an EU citizen or business stolen via a cyber-attack. Included in the stipulations would be a financial penalty, which means the entity would have to forfeit four per cent of its global turnover, or be fined a maximum of 20 million Euros (US$23.6 million).
