Exposing personal information online risky
Barbadians are being warned of the risks of exposing their personal information online.
Speaking in Parliament earlier this week, Minister of Maritime Affairs and the Blue Economy Kirk Humphrey highlighted, “I am talking about the dangers of putting your information on the internet, the fact that we expose ourselves almost daily in our interactions, in ways that have come home to haunt people physically, financially, and other ways.”
He pointed out that while persons may believe that the island’s small size protected it from online hacking, the opposite was true.
“Some people may think that Barbados is too small to be impacted by these issues in the world, that these players who seek to steal your data and steal your information only was to (handle) the big players. And, actually the reverse is true. It is because Barbados is so small that people feel that they can easily ease in and take your information and that Barbados has no defence system and that you could come to this country and almost do as you will and get away with it. That is why I feel we need to protect it. You don’t only see it in data, you see that kind of thing with criminals sometimes thinking they can come and ease through Barbados and do things whether on land or in the ocean, all kinds of things and think they can get away with it and end up in other countries because Barbados is too small to defend itself,” he outlined.
Speaking on his own personal experience of having his bank accounts emptied by hackers while in college overseas, Humphrey marvelled at the difference in the speed at which his money was returned by American banks compared to those in Barbados, and stressed that systems must be put in place to ensure there is a speedy recourse for individuals when businesses holding their personal information are breached.
“While the American bank blocked (the transaction), and put back the money in one, the Barbadian banks gave me hell to get back what was mine and when I got back trying to deal with them was hell. My own information was compromised, the American bank moved with haste and said ‘you are an important customer’, while the Barbadian bank did not. I am saying when we put these things in place. there has to be a responsibility on the people that we are doing business with to respect the integrity and dignity of Barbadians,” he said, claiming he had to “jump through hoops” to get back his money.