ASSISTANT vice-president of eBusiness at First Global Bank, Dalton Fowles, says the entity is in full support of the pending amendments to the 2010 Cybercrimes Act.

“We have invested heavily in these systems, so we have intrusion detection systems that monitor our network and there is constant vulnerability assessment. We have not seen anywhere where someone has attempted to but that does not make us relaxed in any way,” Fowles told members of the Jamaica Observer weekly Monday Exchange at the newspaper’s Beechwood headquarters in Kingston yesterday.

“We are in full support, anything that deters criminal activity… let’s face it cybercrimes and fraud have a cost to the industry, and to the players, so anything that will discourage persons from participating we support 100 per cent,” he added.

Presently, under the Act, an offence is committed when a person who knowingly obtains, for himself or another person, any unauthorised access to any programme or data held in a computer, that individual is liable, upon conviction before a resident magistrate, to a fine not exceeding $2 million or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or to both such fine and imprisonment.

If damage is caused as a result of the commission of the offence, a convicted individual faces a fine not exceeding $3 million or imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years or to both such fine and imprisonment. Convictions before a Circuit Court can see an individual facing a fine or term not exceeding five years or both fine or imprisonment or imprisonment not exceeding seven years. As it stands, no one has been convicted since the passage of the Act in 2010, despite numerous offences.

A joint select committee of Parliament has been meeting since February to review the provision with a view to improving it. Just last month, frustrated pleas for an increase in the penalties under the 2010 Cybercrimes Act by law enforcement officials have resulted in proposed amendments which could see some offenders facing prison terms of up to 25 years. The committee will be submitting a raft of recommendations for amendments to the Act, including the increased penalties, to Parliament in its report which is to be drafted.