WASHINGTON, USA (CMC) — Leaders of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Organisation of American States (OAS) have called on Latin America and the Caribbean countries to step up efforts on cyber security.

They made the call after releasing a new study on Monday which shows the region is highly vulnerable to potentially devastating cyberattacks.

The 2016 Cyber security report, titled ‘ Are we ready in Latin America and the Caribbean?‘, was undertaken by the two institutions in collaboration with Oxford University.

It showed that four out of every five countries in the region do not have a cyber security strategy or plans for protecting critical infrastructure.

The report also shows that two out of three countries do not have a command and control center for cyber security.

Additionally, the report says that a large majority of prosecutors lack the capacity to punish cybercrimes and face other problems as well.

According to the OAS, the report analyses the state of preparedness of 32 countries, based on 49 indicators.

It is the first significant examination of the level of preparedness in Latin America and the Caribbean against the growing threat of cybercrime, the OAS said.

It said while Uruguay, Brazil, México, Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Trinidad and Tobago have achieved an “intermediate level of preparedness”, they “remain far from advanced countries”, like the United States, Israel, Estonia and the Republic of Korea.

“This report is a call to action to protect our citizens and our critical infrastructure for the 21st century,” said IDB President Luis Alberto Moreno.

“Our region arrived late to the Industrial Revolution. We cannot miss the opportunity that the Digital Revolution offers us. Because of that, cybersecurity must be a priority.”

OAS Assistant Secretary General Nestor Mendez emphasised that cyberspace is increasingly becoming an integral part of the daily life of people in the Americas, including the Caribbean, and is indispensable to their total development.

“That is why we have to regard cyber security like any other kind of security: an issue of the highest priority for our people, without which we expose ourselves to potentially catastrophic losses,” he said.

“In this context, our motto of ‘More rights for more people’ signals our commitment to continue working to strengthen the capacity of our countries to protect our people, our economies and the critical infrastructure of our region,” he added.

The OAS said the risks of abuse increase as Latin America and the Caribbean join the digital revolution.

It said the region is the fourth-largest mobile market in the world, with half its population using the Internet.

The evaluation of the maturity of cyber security policies in the region includes 49 indicators in five areas: policy and strategy, culture and society education, legal framework and technology.

The report includes technical data on each of the countries and analyses key elements such as the legal status and the capacity of each country to respond to incidents.

The report notes 16 countries in the region have no coordinated capacity to respond to incidents. Only four rank above the intermediate level of maturity in this respect.

Only six have a structured programme of education in cybersecurity, which includes budgetary stability as well as mechanisms for research and the transfer of knowledge, the report states.