Government Moves to Provide Safeguards Against Cyber Crime

The Government is to develop a Cyber Security Strategy and Policy, and establish a complementary Cyber Emergency Response Team for Jamaica.

State Minister in the Ministry of Science, Technology, Energy, and Mining, which will spearhead the initiative, Hon. Julian Robinson, said that these activities, being done with the assistance of the Organization of American States (OAS), are intended to establish a framework to safeguard Jamaica against cyber crime.

Speaking at Thursday’s (February 27) Realtors Association of Jamaica (RAJ) meeting at the New Kingston Conference Centre (NKCC), Mr. Robinson said that the country needs some coordinated way to respond to the issue.

“We have to have some organized mechanism as a country to deal with that. You can bring a country to standstill by closing down their rail network or the transportation links or their banking network,” he pointed out.

While stating that Jamaica may not be seen as a target for cyber crime, the State Minister contended that there are unscrupulous persons, who can and will hack into the country’s technology framework “just to prove that they can get into your system.”

“So, you may be seen as a soft target and you might think you don’t need to do anything, but because you are (deemed) a soft target, it actually makes you a target,” he said.