THREATS TO THEIR security online are real but, Barbados and its Caribbean neighbours are still not doing enough to prepare for cybercrimes.
Dr Lloyd Waller, head of the Department of Government at the University of the West Indies’ (UWI) Mona Campus, gave that assessment today at UWI’s Cave Hill Campus during a breakfast presentation sponsored by CIBC FirstCaribbean International bank.
The scholar, who is a senior lecturer in human social and behavioural sciences, was concerned that while he was observing a larger number of regional people becoming “internet citizens”, he was not seeing equal attention paid to anti-crime measures.
“The cost associated with dealing with cybercrime and cyber terrorism are substantive and even the last incidents in the United States, specifically as it relates to Sony, give an indication of the level of preparedness for the US Government. I am not seeing by way of conversation in the Caribbean about preparing for cybercrimes, what I am actually seeing is a lot of banks and institutions shifting to the online space,” he said.
“Certainly many of these banks have their own systems that they put in place, we don’t know much about it and there isn’t much marketing about it and as it relates to legislation only a few Caribbean countries have actually put in place legislation to deal with perpetrators.
“But certainly there needs to be a substantive conversation and preparation at the level of citizens, at the level of government, at the level of civil society about the challenge and the potential threat of cybercrime as we become more and more net citizens,” he added. (SC)
