Senator Kay McConney, Minister of Innovation, Science and Smart Technology.
AS the Government moves rapidly along with their digital transformation agenda, it is critical for more focus to be placed on cybersecurity.
This was highlighted by Senator Kay McConney, Minister of Innovation, Science and Smart Technology, as she spoke during Fortinet’s virtual forum that was hosted in association with the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Smart Technology (MIST) recently.
She stated that the recent global pandemic has driven many small and medium enterprises to transform and to transition to e-commerce platforms at an unprecedented pace and believed that this was also an indication of the importance of cybersecurity, as more than half of the global population was online.
“This highlights an important need for an increased cyber-protection. The number of persons using the internet will only increase as governments worldwide, including developing countries like Barbados, focus on building digital societies as a key component of our social and economic agendas. In this context, governments will be required to focus on e-governance security measures and national cyber-security policies that provide the right legislative framework to ensure a resilient IT infrastructure and services,” she said.
“Cybersecurity is one of the focus areas for Barbados. We are acutely aware of the work that still has to be done if we, like other Caribbean countries, are to improve our readiness and resources.”
McConney noted that Government did not plan to only undertake this exercise in an effort to improve Barbados’ position globally, but rather, their cybersecurity efforts were more about taking care of people and ensuring that their data, which is now an asset to them, is protected.
It is against this backdrop that she was proud of the fact that the current administration was able to pass data protective legislation, as this was an important step in the regulation of collecting, keeping and processing the use and dissemination of personal data and the protection of the privacy of individuals in relation to their personal data.