OAS assisting with National Cybersecurity Strategy
A key stakeholder consultation on the development of a National Cybersecurity Strategy was held yesterday at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre and led by two Programme Officers attached to the Organisation of American States (OAS) Cybersecurity Programme.
According to a Ministry of Public Telecommunication release, the one-day event was intended to create awareness in the private business community and the public service and to encourage their participation. The two strategists were in Guyana to lend their expertise to the development of a National Cybersecurity Strategy.
According to the OAS team leader, Cybersecurity Specialist Kerry-Ann Barrett, Guyana is now among the 30 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean which are benefitting from the expertise resident in the OAS.
She explained that a national Cybersecurity strategy is supposed to be country-specific, tailored for the cultural, economic and societal needs of each individual member country. “One size does not fit all,” she asserted.
The OAS specialist said that Cybersecurity is a big word with broad ramifications for protecting a nation’s economy and assets, as well as the well-being of its citizens, since Cybercrime is international and is not only directed at Governments and financial institutions. She described some of the simple scams and schemes, phishing and malware used by Internet trolls from around the world to steal money and assets from regular people.
Cybersecurity Manager, Murianna McPherson, stated that Guyana was already seeing an increase in Cyber-attacks which are being addressed by the Guyana Computer Incident Response Team (CIRT).
Barrett said that Cybersecurity is still ‘nascent’ across the Americas, and many countries like Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica only recently completed their policies and strategies to combat cybercrime. Many others have begun to draft their strategies, but a gap still exists in terms of citizens understanding the concept and the ways in which they could be affected by cyber threats.
The Stakeholder Consultation was organised by the Cybersecurity Unit of the National Data Management Authority. Barrett, an Attorney-at-law, was accompanied on this Cybersecurity intervention by OAS Programme Manager, Diego Subero, the release added.