Cybercriminals are busy in the Caribbean and yesterday a call went out for laws and regional strategies to catch them.
A Cyber Security Forum at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre heard that the United States and Canada are investing millions of dollars to defend the region against attacks from internet super highway bandits.
Stressing the need for a suitable legal framework and greater public awareness, the Secretary General of the Caribbean Telecommunications Union (CTU), Bernadette Lewis revealed that last June people in Grenada were alerted to the threat on Facebook and while it was brought to nought, it could easily have gone the other way.
Lewis did not go into details but noted that proceeds from cybercrime exceeded those of the drug trade and the Caribbean was not immune to threat.
“Cybercrime is happening in the Caribbean. It is not necessarily reported or observed because we do not have the mechanisms . . . [and] there is no obligation to report,” she said.
Lewis warned that criminal activity in cyberspace was expanding and that vigilance was the key.
She said the lesson from Grenada was the need to have a regulatory framework, since there was currently no protocol to deal with cybercrime. According to her, the key was to tailor the existing framework and develop what was currently available in the Caribbean.
“We need to see how existing laws can deal with the problem,” she said.
She said there was also a need to have cross-border collaboration and build relationships with relevant agencies.
Lewis sat on a panel, including Acting Assistant Commissioner of Police Erwin Boyce, that looked at the way forward for the Caribbean in dealing with cyberime.
They concurred with Lewis’ assessment that there was a need for legislative framework and the establishment of regional and international links to deal with the issue.
Boyce said that since cybercrime investigation was still relatively new, it was important to build capacity to create confidence in the system. (YB)
