Local police working with external forces to tackle hacking and bring culprits to justice

The Barbados Police Service has joined forces with their international counterparts to track down and prosecute cyber criminals who are preying on local citizens and businesses online.

Minister in the Ministry of Finance Ryan Straughn said Tuesday this collaboration must now be stepped up and continued to ensure that not only the data of individuals and entities in the public and private sectors is protected from foreign hackers in particular, but that the perpetrators can face the law courts in Barbados.

“Anyone, anywhere in any part of the world can attempt to hack any system. But I must tell you that the Barbados Police Service along with other agencies, we work closely with other international police organisations, to collaborate to find the perpetrators of hacking and work with those authorities in those jurisdictions to provide the evidence to be able to bring people to justice,” Straughn told Barbados TODAY.

“It is that collaborative effort within law enforcement internationally, that has to be stepped up and continued to make sure people’s ability to be able to conduct business online and store data within their businesses or on personal computers, is supported by the legislation which permits law enforcers to hunt down the perpetrators,” he added.

Straughn explained that government was doing its best to beef up its own cybersecurity against domestic and foreign penetration.

“I know that the private sector is equally doing the same. Therefore, once there is no gap between the public sector and the private sector, then I know that we would be in a good place,” the minister said.

Regarding last week’s data security breaches of some local commercial bank and credit union customers by what is believed to be an overseas source, Straughn said investigations into that matter were progressing, but that government would prefer if the person or persons responsible can be tried in Barbados.

“There was an issue and the investigations are still ongoing. When that person (or person) is found, we will work, with those jurisdictions to be able to see those persons come before the law courts within the jurisdiction, and where possible, we will seek to have it done here,” the minister announced.

Straughn said the government is taking cybersecurity so seriously, that it has also established a special cyber security working group with links overseas aimed at protecting the assets of the public and private sectors in the digital space.

“There is an active working group of professionals from both the public and private sectors domestically and resources that are available to Barbados internationally that have allowed us to form a Cyber Working Group to address a number of the issues that obviously would be confronting Barbados in a highly digital and globalised world,” Straughn revealed.

The minister said one of the issues that will confront Barbados relates to the increasing use of “cloud” computing.

“If you look by extension to cloud computing, if you look at WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, all of the social media platforms, they are all driven by data-gathering algorithms and therefore, the ability for data and information to be shared on those platforms to collect information on persons that you don’t ordinarily want to collect, these are issues that we are confronted with,” he stated.

He said even on the mobile phone, there are apps that are capable of tracking data without the knowledge of the owner or user.

“You would appreciate that as individuals, we interface in a very digital way and therefore, the ability to ensure the appropriate systems are in place, not only at the regulatory level, but also at the private sector level, challenges us to make sure that, as we build out an indigenous framework for the country, everybody is equally strong and not equally weak,” Straughn contended.

“It is something that is clearly concerning to all, both in the public and private sectors and we are working collaboratively to solve this problem,” the minister disclosed.

Straughn added: “At the end of the day, the kind of inconvenience that is caused to customers or to individuals, especially when there are data breaches that lead to fraudulent activity, obviously creates areas of concern, that, within the Ministry of Finance we are concerned about. We have been working with the financial institutions to be able to protect their systems.

Straughn revealed that the government was also working on how the complete network of persons should treat to the data, who has access to it and when and how.

However, he cautioned that this can only be achieved through collaboration between Barbadian and foreign data gatherers for the purposes of cybersecurity discussions.

The minister also issued a word of warning to Barbadians against exposing themselves unnecessarily to having their identity stolen or their computer systems compromised.

“I will take this opportunity to remind you that you must not exchange information with persons purporting to offer grants and these types of things whether on the internet, on social media or otherwise…cause often times they are data-gathering exercises. If you volunteer your information to persons, even though they use it for the purposes, and they did not indicate they wanted the information, clearly it is fraudulent. The reality is that by the time the fraud is discovered by the individual, their lives have been so offended, that it takes quite a bit of time to be able to remedy that,” he declared.

Last week, the local bankers’ association said in a statement the data violation had indirectly affected “a very small percentage” of commercial bank customers and that the breaches did not result from unauthorised access to customers’ personal information held by the commercial banks in question.

“Rather, it appears to be related to a small number of online retailers whose websites are used by customers for online shopping,” it said.

In any event, TBBA said “Whether a breach is as a result of unauthorised access to a local bank’s systems or occurs when their clients are engaged with a third party, our members are committed to working with their customers to address impacts.” emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb