Barbados will create a laboratory to fight cybercrime, a growing problem in the Caribbean nation. The lab will assist police in preventing credit card cloning and other offenses.
Barbados is creating a laboratory to fight cyber crime, such as credit card cloning and other offenses – growing problems in the Caribbean country. It will be a cooperative effort between the Royal Barbados Police Force and an international security force.
“We are currently working with an international agency to establish a cyber lab and training center where we train and perhaps expand our current crime unit,” Acting Assistant Commissioner of Police Erwin Boyce said during a panel discussion on the theme, “The Internet, the Law, and the Public: How Cyber Secured Are We?” held March 26 at the Central Bank of Barbados, the website Barbados Advocate
reported on March 29.
Though Commissioner Boyce did not say when the the lab is scheduled to open, the Cyber Crime Unit of the Royal Barbados Police Force faces an array of challenges, including the evolving tactics used by cyber-criminals who adjust to law enforcement efforts.
Center will protect information and children
When it does open, the cyber security center will cover four main areas: protection of security information, greater surveillance of the flow of finances to and from the Caribbean, protection of personal data, and protection of minors online so they are not vulnerable to exploitation by child pornography networks, said Armando Rodríguez Luna, a Mexico City-based security analyst.
The laboratory will also protect government computer structures and will provide better tools to the police to fight transnational criminal organizations which use technology to support a variety of illegal enterprises, such as money laundering.
Current security solutions leave “a hole in the coverage of the analyses they conduct,” said Doug Clare, Vice President of Cybersecurity Solutions at FICO, a California-based analytics software company that measures consumer risk for lenders. “It’s like having a burglar alarm that doesn’t go off until the thief has left your house. This gap must be covered using analytics technology to detect and halt malicious activities that happen online at the time they happen,” Clare said.
Businesses also have a stake in solving the problem, and are seeking the best methods to protect themselves from cyber-criminals. Authorities expect that the policy framework for the cyber crime laws will be implemented this year, Commerce Minister Donville Inniss said on April 8 at a conference on “The Impact of E-Commerce on Entrepreneurs and Small Businesses,” the Gisbarbados
website reported.
“Every day there are stories of businesses that had to halt their operations, or lost millions of dollars in revenue because someone hacked into their server,” Inniss said. So it is important that companies do all they can to protect their data, IT infrastructure, and customer information, he added.
Fighting cyber crime through international cooperation
Providing such security is a cooperative endeavor.
Barbados recently attended a U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM)-sponsored workshop on Command, Control, Communications, Computer Systems, and Cyber Security. Joining 18 partner nations in the Americas, participants shared lessons learned and plans on preparing to thwart cyber and information security threats.
Erskine Wickham, the information security officer in charge of Barbados’s Regional Security System, took part of the group presentations and panel discussions with regional counterparts at the three-day event in SOUTHCOM. Participants agreed that joint collaboration is the key to moving forward.
Barbados is also working with other countries in the region, as well as with the Caribbean Telecommunications Union (CTU) – based in Trinidad and Tobago – and the London-based Commonwealth Telecommunications Organization (CTO) to organize a model for cyber security governance in creating new, shared standards.
The Organization of American States (OAS) said the country’s Telecommunications Unit is collecting data on cyber attacks and incidents in government departments. Reports indicate that several cyber security incidents affected various departments of the government at the beginning of 2014 and have been communicated to the office of the Prime Minister. The new data will lead to a critical analysis of the types of attacks and their frequency, as well as the mitigation techniques used and their effectiveness.
In August 2013, Barbados joined the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) in a global effort to strengthen cyber security, detect threats of cyber attacks, and coordinate a timely response, according to Jentel
.
The Geneva-based ITU provides services and resources to its 193 member states, and provides assistance to agencies of the United Nations to protect IT structures.
Caribbean countries depend heavily on international cooperation. Rodríguez Luna said it is likely that the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) will provide the financial, infrastructure and human resources for the cyber security laboratory.
The Paris-based FATF is an inter-government agency created in 1989 by the Group of Seven (G7), which issues recommendations on preventing and battling money laundering, terrorism funding, and funding for the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Currently, the FATF consists of 34 members from 34 jurisdictions and two regional groups (the Gulf Cooperation Council and the European Commission).
Providing cyber security is important for Barbados, since the vast majority of its population is connected to the Internet.
With a population of approximately 276,000, Barbados has an Internet coverage rate of approximately 73.3 percent, where 23 percent of subscribers use broadband, according to the report “Cyber security trends in Latin America and the Caribbean,” issued by the Organization of American States (OAS) in June 2013.
Barbados is creating a laboratory to fight cyber crime, such as credit card cloning and other offenses – growing problems in the Caribbean country. It will be a cooperative effort between the Royal Barbados Police Force and an international security force.
“We are currently working with an international agency to establish a cyber lab and training center where we train and perhaps expand our current crime unit,” Acting Assistant Commissioner of Police Erwin Boyce said during a panel discussion on the theme, “The Internet, the Law, and the Public: How Cyber Secured Are We?” held March 26 at the Central Bank of Barbados, the website Barbados Advocate
reported on March 29.
Though Commissioner Boyce did not say when the the lab is scheduled to open, the Cyber Crime Unit of the Royal Barbados Police Force faces an array of challenges, including the evolving tactics used by cyber-criminals who adjust to law enforcement efforts.
Center will protect information and children
When it does open, the cyber security center will cover four main areas: protection of security information, greater surveillance of the flow of finances to and from the Caribbean, protection of personal data, and protection of minors online so they are not vulnerable to exploitation by child pornography networks, said Armando Rodríguez Luna, a Mexico City-based security analyst.
The laboratory will also protect government computer structures and will provide better tools to the police to fight transnational criminal organizations which use technology to support a variety of illegal enterprises, such as money laundering.
Current security solutions leave “a hole in the coverage of the analyses they conduct,” said Doug Clare, Vice President of Cybersecurity Solutions at FICO, a California-based analytics software company that measures consumer risk for lenders. “It’s like having a burglar alarm that doesn’t go off until the thief has left your house. This gap must be covered using analytics technology to detect and halt malicious activities that happen online at the time they happen,” Clare said.
Businesses also have a stake in solving the problem, and are seeking the best methods to protect themselves from cyber-criminals. Authorities expect that the policy framework for the cyber crime laws will be implemented this year, Commerce Minister Donville Inniss said on April 8 at a conference on “The Impact of E-Commerce on Entrepreneurs and Small Businesses,” the Gisbarbados
website reported.
“Every day there are stories of businesses that had to halt their operations, or lost millions of dollars in revenue because someone hacked into their server,” Inniss said. So it is important that companies do all they can to protect their data, IT infrastructure, and customer information, he added.
Fighting cyber crime through international cooperation
Providing such security is a cooperative endeavor.
Barbados recently attended a U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM)-sponsored workshop on Command, Control, Communications, Computer Systems, and Cyber Security. Joining 18 partner nations in the Americas, participants shared lessons learned and plans on preparing to thwart cyber and information security threats.
Erskine Wickham, the information security officer in charge of Barbados’s Regional Security System, took part of the group presentations and panel discussions with regional counterparts at the three-day event in SOUTHCOM. Participants agreed that joint collaboration is the key to moving forward.
Barbados is also working with other countries in the region, as well as with the Caribbean Telecommunications Union (CTU) – based in Trinidad and Tobago – and the London-based Commonwealth Telecommunications Organization (CTO) to organize a model for cyber security governance in creating new, shared standards.
The Organization of American States (OAS) said the country’s Telecommunications Unit is collecting data on cyber attacks and incidents in government departments. Reports indicate that several cyber security incidents affected various departments of the government at the beginning of 2014 and have been communicated to the office of the Prime Minister. The new data will lead to a critical analysis of the types of attacks and their frequency, as well as the mitigation techniques used and their effectiveness.
In August 2013, Barbados joined the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) in a global effort to strengthen cyber security, detect threats of cyber attacks, and coordinate a timely response, according to Jentel
.
The Geneva-based ITU provides services and resources to its 193 member states, and provides assistance to agencies of the United Nations to protect IT structures.
Caribbean countries depend heavily on international cooperation. Rodríguez Luna said it is likely that the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) will provide the financial, infrastructure and human resources for the cyber security laboratory.
The Paris-based FATF is an inter-government agency created in 1989 by the Group of Seven (G7), which issues recommendations on preventing and battling money laundering, terrorism funding, and funding for the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Currently, the FATF consists of 34 members from 34 jurisdictions and two regional groups (the Gulf Cooperation Council and the European Commission).
Providing cyber security is important for Barbados, since the vast majority of its population is connected to the Internet.
With a population of approximately 276,000, Barbados has an Internet coverage rate of approximately 73.3 percent, where 23 percent of subscribers use broadband, according to the report “Cyber security trends in Latin America and the Caribbean,” issued by the Organization of American States (OAS) in June 2013.
to those (6) six who said no I would like to hear their reasoning. Is something wrong with securing the Internet for the consumer.I found the article to be refreshing we all need to be protected when ‘we’ go ONLINE.