Caribbean playing cybercrime catch-up

Lack of resources has been one of the challenges facing Barbados and the region in its efforts to fight cybercrime considering that criminals are presently a step ahead.

Speaking about the situation Attorney General and Minster of Home Affairs, Adriel Brathwaite said, “the cyber criminals have been working harder at accessing our systems than we have been trying to prevent them. So we’ve actually been playing catch up over the last couple of years!”

He made this disclosure while identifying “some capacity issues”, “some financial issues” and “some knowledge gaps” as other issues impeding efforts.

He was at the time speaking at Wednesday’s official opening ceremony for the 3rd America Working Group Meeting on Cybercrime for Heads of Units. Twenty-nine representatives from countries around the world are in attendance at this three-day session being held at the Hilton Barbados Resort.

Brathwaite also underscored the seriousness of cybercrime in the region.

“I recognise… that cybercrime is a serious challenge for us given our resource capacity or lack thereof etc. Our challenge then is accelerated because we lack the necessary resources to address the issue as frankly as we would like.”
He added, “Within the last couple of years, there is probably no country in the English speaking Caribbean that has not been attacked by cybercrime, whether it be in the private sector or public sector, whether it be Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, St. Vincent, none of us have been saved from the attack. It is estimated that it has cost us billions of dollars worldwide, certainly millions of dollars throughout the region.”

The Attorney General also spoke to the significance of the three-day event. He stated, “it is important to us in the bigger and small developing nations to have this kind of experience, to be able to hear and share from those in the more developed countries who have more experience in the area such as cybercrime that will then fill the knowledge gap.” (MG)