Above: Grenada (CJ Photo)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Grenada’s government is seeking to improve its cybersecurity.

Grenada Prime Minister Tillman Thomas, who also holds the government’s Information and Communication Technology portfolio, said the country will strengthen the sector with the establishment of a National Computer Incident Response Team.

“We need to be able to prevent these incidents, because cyber-crime is not only affecting government,” he said this week. “The private sector and ordinary citizens are constantly exposed and many become victims, sometimes through no fault of their own.”

Thomas is also the lead Prime Minister in CARICOM with responsibility for ICT.

The CIRT will aim to identify threats, coordinate actions at the national and regional level, disseminate information and act as a focal point in cybersecurity-related matters.

“While some attacks were previously launched only for nuisance purposes, they have now escalated into much more serious attacks motivated by money, political agendas and, in some cases, as weapons of cyber-terrorism,” he said. “The motivations for such attacks can range from theft to critical information gathering that can lead to a major disruption in our ICT services infrastructure.”

Thomas said his government was prepared to do “all we can” in an effort to boost cybersecurity.