T&T's energy-based economy and the foreign energy companies that operate on the island are potential targets of international terrorist groups said Dr Darren Hayes, assistant professor of Information Technology at Pace University, New York.
"From a terrorist perspective, they can get on to the network of a gas company like they have done in the past. From a United States perspective they need to increase security and President Obama has this new initiative to increase security for utility companies and energy companies because they do not have adequate network security today. This is critical for T&T," he said.
Hayes spoke yesterday spoke to the Guardian at a seminar hosted by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) at the Hilton Hotel, St Ann's.
He said countries must work together to deal with the threats that exist.
"There is a big gain from being collaborative. Countries in Europe are working with the US and I think that everyone is willing to collaborate and to identify those who are joining ISIS. Again it is a global phenomenon and because of cyber crime, more countries are involved and more countries need to collaborate. The United States has huge resources but it does not have all the answers," he said.
Hayes said criminals now have modern communication devices and social media which they use to carry out their crimes.
"Organised criminal gangs today have cyber capabilities. Traditional organised criminal gangs are involved with drug trafficking, car theft, burglary. All now seem to have hired hackers to be also involved with credit card fraud and no country will be left unscathed because of this.
"T&T needs to be aware of these types of groups that are involved with payment card theft and how to mitigate this type of risks," he said.
He said new mobile devices come out everyday and the United States is still coming to grips with new areas like mobile forensics and mobile examinations.
