Cybersecurity gets $1 billion

As concern grows over Jamaica’s cybersecurity infrastructure in the wake of a data breach involving the JAMCOVID-19 application, it has been revealed that the Government has allocated a little over $1 billion to carry out related initiatives.

The planned spend was outlined in the Estimates of Expenditure for fiscal year 2021-22 tabled in the House of Representatives by Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke on Thursday.

These initiatives are to be executed by the Ministry of National Security.

The Government said the money will be used to “continue the procurement of software and hardware to build out the cybersecurity capability of the security forces”.

The cybersecurity boost, too, comes ahead of the highly anticipated roll-out of the National Identification System project.

Further, $22.9 million has been allocated for cybersecurity service under the Information Communication and Technology Access and Use programme.

The programme aims to increase access to, and use of, ICT in all sectors of the economy and to modernise the Government’s governance framework.

The cybersecurity service item in the Budget supports the Cyber Incident Response Team (CIRT).

The CIRT is responsible for providing incident management and coordination and ensuring effective implementation of cybersecurity strategies.

Jamaica’s cybersecurity has come in for increased scrutiny after the days-long data breach of the JAMCOVID-19 web portal used to process entry requests by those wishing to travel to Jamaica.

It has been reported that hundreds of thousands of identity, immigration, and health information was left unprotected on a server.