Cyber-security incidents continue to rise. Accord-ing to PwC’s Global State of Information Security Survey 2015, attacks rose internationally by 48 per cent in 2014 resulting in huge remedial and reputational costs to the companies and governments concerned. Despite this, the Caribbean remains woefully unprepared with governments and parts of the private sector declining to take the matter seriously until subject to an attack.
The danger was borne out earlier this year when St Vincent and The Bahamas saw their government websites taken over by those claiming to support militant groups fighting in the Middle East.
These attacks, while seemingly matters of little consequence were far from it. They revealed not just the lack of appropriate security within government portals, but the existence of outmoded IT systems and software with the potential, some experts suggest, to have compromised government’s internal communications. They also demonstrated the potential vulnerability many if not most Caribbean states have to a cyber attack on critical infrastructure. Additionally they highlighted the absence of local expertise or financial resource to
