The Bahamas government is warning of a rise in digital threats and malicious cyber activities, including data breaches to public infrastructure, losses from digital fraud, and illicit financial flows, among other activities.
“Our collaboration with our friends and partners across the globe, specifically information sharing at the regional and sub-regional levels on cybersecurity capacity building and development, will better position The Bahamas to deal with increasingly sophisticated cyber threats,” Prime Minister Phillip Davis told the first-ever National CIRT Stakeholder Engagement Symposium.
He said the event is the first of its kind in the country, being organized by Digital Transformation to Strengthen Competitiveness Project, in partnership with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).
Davis told the symposium that the development of the cybersecurity posture in the country underpins the objectives for digital transformation, and the establishment of the CIRT (computer incident response team) is a critical resource.
“The National CIRT will serve as a focal point for coordinating cybersecurity incident response to cyber-attacks – providing cybersecurity support services to government, private organizations, and Bahamian citizens – particularly those in critical infrastructure and essential services in order to defend against malicious cyber activities.
“In our blueprint for change, we identified cybersecurity as one of the critical initiatives for accelerating the country’s economic growth and development. We also recognize that cybersecurity and cyber resilience are essential to developing a digital society and secure and protect every citizen of The Bahamas.”
But he told the event that cybersecurity is a journey that the authorities cannot take on alone, noting that it is a whole community effort and that government, industry, and individual citizens, all have a part to play.
He said the National Cybersecurity Strategy (NCS), which outlines the country’s cybersecurity strategic principles, guidelines, and objectives, is in its final draft and is being prepared for Cabinet’s approval.
“The strategic assessment was conducted with the engagement of cross functional stakeholders across the public and private sections. We expect that the implementation of the National Cybersecurity Strategy will improve the security of our digital infrastructure and ultimately contribute to its broader socio-economic growth.”
Davis acknowledged that in The Bahamas, “we have seen a rise in digital threats and malicious cyber activities, including data breaches to public infrastructure, losses from digital fraud and illicit financial flows, amongst other activities.
“Cybersecurity is the crucial foundation for advancing our utilization of ICT and managing cyber risks….and consistent with these advances will be our commitment to modernizing our legal framework to support our cybersecurity initiatives and to be strong and resilient against cybercrime.
“We are making big strides in our journey toward a digital society. The National CIRT and cybersecurity strategy will give us the protection and provide the safeguards that we all need in order to do business, transact, and learn in that space,” Davis added.
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