During a Cyber Security forum yesterday at the Island House, National Security Minister Marvin Dames revealed an 80% increase in online hacking of businesses.
“Last year, approximately 771 instances of cyber-crime were reported in The Bahamas. We could do better,” the minister said.
Those instances, he said, included credit card fraud, identity theft, data loss, and phishing attacks.
“Globally its estimated that cybercrime costs about $600 billion annually. In 2017, nearly 90 per cent of companies were targeted by business email compromises. Forbes estimated that such compromises cost half a billion dollars a year,” the minister explained.
“The Bahamas being a member of the global community has embraced the cyber opportunities. The Ministry of Finance’s policy statement on electronic commerce and the Bahamian Digital Agenda 2003, exhibited the realization of electronic commerce.”
Further, he said, The Bahamas has three vital legislative regulations which govern cyber security including the Computer Misuse Act – which was instituted in 2003. The act provides comprehensive criminalization of a procedural law for cyber-criminal activity.
The other two pieces of legislation signed by Parliament, are the Data Protection Act and the Electronic Communication and Transaction Act of 2006.
Dames defended both laws, which he said, help safeguard the rights of citizens online.
