Online crime groups make more money than drug cartels worldwide, and arresting these cybercriminals can be exceedingly difficult. This startling revelation was made by representatives of the Organization of American States (OAS) at a regional meeting on cyber security in Barbados earlier this month.
“The cyber threats being faced globally pay no heed to institutional boundaries, national borders or even traditional values. This reality is forcing governments, which have responsibility to protect the interest of citizens, to seek out new forms of collaboration and cooperation,” said Bevil Wooding, internet strategist with the US firm Packet Clearing House, a non-profit research institute that supports operations and analysis in the areas of Internet traffic exchange, routing economics, and global Internet development.
Wooding highlighted the requirement for public policy focus on accelerating the roll out of critical ICT infrastructure.
“This is necessary to ensure that developing countries, like those in the Caribbean, are adequately prepared to not only seize the opportunities of increasingly technology-driven global economy; but to defend against the real threats that come with it,” he said.
The benefits increased availability of broadband Internet access and the establishment of Internet Exchange Points across the Caribbean were also presented as essential to development. Wooding referred to World Bank analysis of some countries that estimates for every 10 percent increase in the penetration of broadband services, there is an increase in economic growth of 1.3 percent.
“The benefits of broadband Internet access accrue not just to individual consumers, but to other Internet users and society as a whole,” Wooding said.
Pointing out that market forces alone will not generate the societally optimal level of ICT infrastructure roll-out he added, “Governments and policy makers have a clear responsibility to ensure that the technical infrastructure necessary to facilitate widespread access to high speed Internet is in place.”
“The World Bank study reflects the tremendous influence that Internet connectivity has on the socio-economic aspects of development not just here in the Caribbean, but around the world,” said Wooding, who is also chief knowledge officer of the development non-profit, Congress WBN.
The meeting of government ministers, senior members of judiciary and law enforcement agencies across the Caribbean was hosted by the Caribbean Telecommunications Union.
