GEISHA KOW­LESSAR-ALON­ZO

Se­nior Re­porter

geisha.kow­lessar@guardian.co.tt

The IDB Lab, the in­no­va­tion and ven­ture lab­o­ra­to­ry of the In­ter­Amer­i­can De­vel­op­ment Bank (IDB) Group, has en­tered in­to a part­ner­ship with lo­cal en­ti­ty Pre­ci­sion Cy­bertech­nolo­gies and Dig­i­tal So­lu­tions Ltd to bol­ster cy­ber­se­cu­ri­ty for mi­cro, small and medi­um en­ter­pris­es (MSMEs) in T&T.

The IDB Lab’s blend­ed fi­nance op­er­a­tion in­cludes loans and non­re­im­bursable tech­ni­cal co­op­er­a­tion fund­ing for Pre­ci­sion to sup­port the es­tab­lish­ment of the Caribbean’s first Se­cu­ri­ty Op­er­a­tions Cen­tre (SOC).

It will pro­vide rel­e­vant so­lu­tions to re­duce vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty and in­crease the re­silience of MSMEs to cy­ber­se­cu­ri­ty at­tacks through mon­i­tor­ing, de­tec­tion, and rapid re­sponse to threats, en­sur­ing busi­ness­es can op­er­ate se­cure­ly in the dig­i­tal age.

The in­au­gu­ra­tion of the cen­tre took place at the IDB’s of­fice in Port-of-Spain yes­ter­day.

Ca­ri­na Cock­burn IDB Coun­try Rep­re­sen­ta­tive T&T who spoke about the ini­tia­tive said there has been an ac­cel­er­a­tion in cy­ber­at­tacks, not on­ly on Gov­ern­ment in­sti­tu­tions but on pri­vate sec­tor en­ti­ties and in­di­vid­u­als as well.

“With­in this con­text, IDB Lab’s part­ner­ship with Pre­ci­sion Cy­bertech­nolo­gies and Dig­i­tal So­lu­tions is an im­por­tant and time­ly re­sponse that of­fers small and medi­um-sized en­ter­pris­es in par­tic­u­lar, a so­lu­tion to in­crease re­silience and bol­ster their cy­ber­se­cu­ri­ty pos­ture through ac­cess to 24/7 mon­i­tor­ing.

“For the IDB Group, this project un­der­scores our com­mit­ment to sup­port­ing SMEs in sus­tain­ing their busi­ness op­er­a­tions; in­vest­ing in dig­i­tal busi­ness­es; and ad­dress­ing one of the main im­ped­i­ments to dig­i­tal trans­for­ma­tion ef­forts,” she ex­plained.

By mak­ing cy­ber­se­cu­ri­ty ser­vices avail­able on a sub­scrip­tion ba­sis-from be­tween $60 to $100 per month-this part­ner­ship will fa­cil­i­tate the roll­out of cy­ber­se­cu­ri­ty ser­vices that specif­i­cal­ly tar­get the SME sec­tor.

The IDB’s coun­try strat­e­gy with T&T 2021 to 2025 has as its main fo­cus dig­i­tal trans­for­ma­tion in align­ment with the pri­or­i­ties out­lined in the coun­try’s post-pan­dem­ic re­cov­ery plan.

Chair­man of Pre­ci­sion Cy­bertech­nolo­gies and Dig­i­tal So­lu­tions Ltd Richard Smith shared that the ini­tia­tive would serve as a hub for col­lab­o­ra­tion, in­for­ma­tion shar­ing, and co­or­di­nat­ed re­sponse to cy­ber in­ci­dents across the re­gion.

“By bring­ing to­geth­er ex­per­tise from Gov­ern­ment agen­cies, pri­vate sec­tor or­gan­i­sa­tions, acad­e­mia, and in­ter­na­tion­al part­ners, we aim to fos­ter a cul­ture of cy­ber­se­cu­ri­ty re­silience and readi­ness that tran­scends bor­ders and sec­tors.

“Why is this ini­tia­tive so cru­cial? MSMEs form the back­bone of our re­gion­al econ­o­my. Yet, they of­ten lack the re­sources and ex­per­tise to nav­i­gate the com­plex land­scape of cy­ber­se­cu­ri­ty.

“By es­tab­lish­ing this ded­i­cat­ed mon­i­tor­ing and re­me­di­a­tion cen­tre, we are em­pow­er­ing both large or­gan­i­sa­tions and MSMEs with the tools and in­sights need­ed to pro­tect their dig­i­tal as­sets and safe­guard their busi­ness­es,” Smith said.

Mean­while, the com­pa­ny’s Man­ag­ing di­rec­tor Dr Ronald Wal­cott not­ed that in to­day’s in­ter­con­nect­ed world, the threat of cy­ber­at­tacks looms larg­er than ever be­fore.

From so­phis­ti­cat­ed na­tion-state ac­tors to op­por­tunis­tic cy­ber­crim­i­nals, or­gan­i­sa­tions world­wide are fac­ing an un­prece­dent­ed on­slaught of cy­berthreats, Wal­cott said.

“Ac­cord­ing to all our threat in­tel­li­gence, the fre­quen­cy and sever­i­ty of cy­ber­at­tacks con­tin­ue to rise, with no signs of abat­ing,” he added.

Fur­ther, Wal­cott said in the Caribbean, the cy­berthreat land­scape is rapid­ly evolv­ing, pre­sent­ing unique chal­lenges and vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties.

He not­ed that while the re­gion is as­sid­u­ous­ly tran­si­tion­ing to dig­i­tal economies and ad­vanc­ing tech­no­log­i­cal ini­tia­tives, it al­so faces in­creas­ing risks from cy­ber­crim­i­nals seek­ing to ex­ploit gaps in cy­ber­se­cu­ri­ty de­fences.

He said re­cent in­ci­dents have high­light­ed the grow­ing so­phis­ti­ca­tion and brazen­ness of cy­ber­crim­i­nals, tar­get­ing or­gan­i­sa­tions across the Caribbean, adding that it is im­por­tant to recog­nise that a cy­ber­at­tack on an MSME is un­pre­pared and can be cat­a­stroph­ic.