By: Staff Writer
October 20, 2023
A regional Cyber Security expert said that there is a “big gap” between the government, private sector and academia on how to deal with Cyber Security threats and is mainly the reason why cyber incidence response between all stakeholders have been lagging.
Lieutenant Colonel Godfrey Sterling, head of Jamaica’s Cyber Incident Response Team (Ja-Cert) told the Organisation of American States (OAS) Cybersecurity Symposium 2023 that this gap is a “huge negative,” and is hindering the region from making progress on strengthening the cybersecurity regime.
Lt. Col Sterling also said on the flipside: “When you look at the CARICOM Cyber Security and crime plan it is a commendable set-up and on the plus side, it really presented a broad framework within which cybersecurity could be adopted and strengthened, and it facilitates the collaboration of all the nations.”
The CARICOM Cyber Security and Cybercrime Action Plan (CCSCAP) seeks to address the Cyber Security vulnerabilities in each participating Caribbean country and to establish a practical, harmonised standard of practices, systems and expertise for cybersecurity, to which each Caribbean country could aspire in the short and medium terms. It also seeks to build the required capacity and infrastructure to allow for the timely detection, investigation and prosecution of cybercrime and possible linkages to other forms of criminal activity.
Citing the biggest challenge is a lack of “collaboration,” Lt. Col Sterling also said: “There is within the Jamaican experience a trust deficit between government and private enterprises that has to be overcome and this presents the biggest challenge.”
Angus Smith, manager of the Trinidad and Tobago Cyber Security Incident Response Team (TT-CSIRT), also said trust can be built on the level of service provided to the stakeholders. “I think that’s one of the things that that has helped us over the time period is us just providing a high quality of service and ensuring that the customer is very much satisfied.”
The OAS Cyber Security symposium featured participants and panellists from the public sector, private sector companies associated with the cybersecurity program, academics from international universities, and specialists from the OAS. The event is intended for decision makers, specialists from cyberattack response centres, cybersecurity bodies and the general public interested in cybersecurity.