Data centre to open new tech door, boost cybersecurity – Caddle

he government’s planned Data Centre will play a critical role in unlocking new technological opportunities for the industry as well as boosting the island’s cybersecurity infrastructure, Minister of Industry, Innovation, Science and Technology Marsha Caddle has said.

The centre, which was outlined in Monday’s Budget speech by Prime Minister Mia Mottley, will play a key role in economic growth in the technologies and services available on the island, she told a conference on data protection hosted by the Data Protection Commission, the Financial Services Commission and the Central Bank, at Hilton Barbados on Wednesday.

Caddle said: “We realise that we very much have to create a data and technology industry that is at the centre of the country’s and the region’s growth. We are exploring more and more the issue and the idea of data as a commodity. It is for this reason that we have determined we need to establish a National Data Centre. A new – by the time we are finished –Tier 3 data centre that is at the centre of all the data and the technology services that we deliver.”

A Tier 3 data centre has layers of redundancy to serve mission-critical computing environments, allowing for maintenance without having to shut down. Caddle added that in addition to the vast array of economic possibilities that the centre can unlock, its true value will lie in the area of cyber security, which, according to her, needs to be taken more seriously.

“For years we have been telling Barbadians that we should set aside this notion that God is Bajan when it comes to hurricanes and hurricane preparedness, and prepare ourselves for what might occur. Similarly, when it comes to cybersecurity threats, the answer is not to do nothing. I understand the anxiety when governments come up with new legislation and determine that it must extend itself to be able to protect citizens. But if we do not have the conversation now, we leave ourselves open to threats.

“At the core of Barbados’ digital transformation is the establishment of this new data centre, and the idea is that it sits at the centre of an ecosystem and an industry in which data is a commodity; in which data can be used to help create a high-value, high-income economy for future generations of Barbadians. We will see, through this data centre, improvements in modernisation of sectors relating to health, relating to immigration and border security . . . police and a modernisation of how they do their work,” she said.

The minister told stakeholders at the conference that there will soon be a broader national discourse about the balance between data-sharing demands and privacy expectations in the new economic environment.

Warrick Ward, CEO of the Financial Services Commission, said that given the stark rise in cybercrimes over the recent COVID-19 crisis, appropriate measures must be taken by all stakeholders to reduce the scourge of these crimes.

“According to data, alerts from cybercrimes increased by over 600 per cent during the COVID-19 crisis, and as companies sought to accelerate the adoption of more advanced technological tools within their businesses, some [did this] without the appropriate mitigants to protect the personal data of their customers,” he said. “As financial customers, we take privacy very seriously, and the impact of cybersecurity, given the hack that is felt not only in the infected organisation but also with each consumer, both directly or indirectly.”

(SB)