Wellington Chea, Services Director at IBM Bahamas and Philip Simon, Executive Director of The Chamber of Commerce tackle the topic of cyber-crime during a round table discussion at the Chamber on Wednesday
“The crook is a click away” says the business community which is highlighing the menacing issue of cyber crime, saying that it is climbing the list of major offences facing the community.
The Chamber of Commerce (COC) hosted a session on Wednesday to discuss the complexities of this crime, its impact on businesses and personal computer owners and also what measures could be taken to heighten protection against cyber assaults.
” These are real threats to our businesses and this forum is one of many ways in which we hope to not only aid in sensitising our business communities to the dangers, but also one where we will provide the structure for helping to prevent our consumers and businesses from becoming a part of these alarming statistics,” said Wellington Chea, Services Manager at computer giant IBM Bahamas.
Computer owners who believe that viruses and spyware crashing their computers were a major problem now have something additional to worry about; more savvy Internet bandits are hacking consumers out of their identities. Mr Chea pointed out that identity theft, a white-collar crime, is a major category of cyber crime, and its impact on the global network community is making it critical to raise awareness about it.
“Criminals are finding new and trickier ways to steal credit-card numbers, passwords, passport numbers, and other personal information,” said Mr Chea. “With many banks offering online services, they can be used to pilfer a bank account number and access a victim’s life savings.”
During an upcoming crime prevention symposium in two weeks, IBM representatives will share their expertise on computer privacy in conjunction with CISCO Systems representatives. IBM has one of the largest security practices globally.
Although the COC said the dollar figure impact of such crimes on businesses were unknown because of lack of statistics, it believed cyber crimes were fast becoming more commonplace. Its an “increasing problem”, but generally businesses seem reluctant to report when cyber outlaws target them as it comes down to a matter of “vulnerability and publicity” for those businesses.
In addition, “Some businesses may not even know whether or not they are actually infected,” said Philip Simon, Executive Director at the COC.
The real danger under those circumstances is that such a business could suffer irreparable damage – not only losing money but vital information that is critical to its operations.
Without these statistics it is also difficult to determine to what extent legislation has been effective in deterring these crimes. In June 2003 cyber-crime legislation was passed to heighten security in the financial services industry and to make it possible to bring cyber offenders to justice. Further, more adequate legislation might be required to deal more effectively with specific problems.
The Royal Bahamas Police Force and Crime Stoppers are also playing a major role by ensuring offenders are brought to justice through its Central Detective Unit said Inspector Walter Evans.
What can people do to protect themselves? Mr Simon said, “It’s about being prepared and becoming more informed. The more information you have on the possibilities, the better prepared you will be.”
By: BARRY WILLIAMS, The Nassau Guardian
Editor’s Note: This web site has had to complain to Cable Bahamas on numerous occassions after being attacked by servers belonging to Winston Rolle and Bahamas Business Solutions. Mr. Rolle is the former president of the Chamber. Let’s hope he attended the session.
