NIDS built to respond to new threats – Green
MANDEVILLE, Manchester – Minister without portfolio in the Office of the Prime Minister Floyd Green says the national identification system (NIDS) is among the safest identification systems globally.
Green, who was responding to a question posed by the Jamaica Observer at a NIDS presentation hosted by Manchester Custos Garfield Green in Mandeville on Wednesday, sought to allay fears regarding possible vulnerability of NIDS to cybercrime.
“It is something that we are very aware of … and it is something that we pay close attention to and it is something that we will work with our telecom providers. It will be easier when more people sign up for the NIDS,” he said, in reference to financial-based cybercrime including SIM swapping.
Experts have said that the prevalence of financial-based cybercrimes are becoming more sophisticated with even SIM swapping, whereby fraudsters obtain people’s cell numbers and use fraudulent identification to get around specific security arrangements which banks use to protect their customers.
Green explained that there will be systems to notify data owners when their data is accessed on NIDS through electronic alerts and that the NIDS card will have 26 security features.
“We have IDs, but none of our IDs were fit for purpose or designed for that solely. This is designed for purpose, so this has taken into account all the challenges out there with identity and the good thing is that why I can safely say that our ID is among the safest in the world is because it was designed in Jamaica and Jamaica has some of the most creative people in the world,” he said.
“If you see some of the things that they have done with a driver’s licence. They are very good. We went overload in terms of trying to ensure that if you try to tamper with the (NIDS) card it almost destroys the card automatically,” he said.
“We live in a digital society that is evolving and there are always going to be new threats… What we will be doing is to be proactive, so one of the things that we have already done is that we have already hired a cybersecurity firm…They really test the system. They go through [and] try to hack the system. They see where there are vulnerabilities,” he added.
