Cyber crime Bill for Parliament soon

Noting that the issue of cyber crime and security was a global problem, Minister of Science and Technology, Dr Rupert Griffith, said, “Hopefully, within the next month or two the Bill to deal with cyber crime in (TT) will go to Parliament for enactment to legislation.” Griffith spoke with the media yesterday during a break in the Caribbean Telecommunications Union’s (CTU) 26th Council Meeting and 15th General Conference of Ministers at the Hilton Trinidad, St Ann’s, Port-of-Spain.

TT received assistance from the CTU and the United Nations International Telecommunication Union (ITU), he said, in the crafting of the cyber security draft legislation.

“We are looking at best practices around the world as far as cyber crime and cyber security are concerned,” he said.

Due to time constraints, he did not say what were some of the proposed provisions of the draft legislation.

Only Jamaica among the CTU’s Caricom-member states has enacted cyber security legislation and was being assisted by the ITU in the implementation of its policies and programmes.

To this end, the ITU’s Barbados-based area representative, Cleveland Thomas, said that on Tuesday the ITU and the Jamaica Government signed an agreement to assist that country to deal with cyber crime.

CTU Secretary General Bernadette Lewis noted that apart from Jamaica and TT, other member states were at various stages in the drafting of cyber security legislation.

Even as the CTU encourages its members to embrace information communication technologies, Lewis said, “we have a responsibility to alert them to the risks, and what needs to be done to secure digital assets in this environment.”

Noting that more member states were committed to moving their systems and processes to digital interconnected computers systems, she said “there are implications as far as security is concerned.”

To this end, she said, the CTU has already developed, in collaboration with other organisations, a cyber security framework for the region to help countries put the things in place to protect their assets.