KINGSTON, Jamaica — Amid increasing levels of cyber threats, with 43 million attempted cyber attacks in Jamaica in 2023 alone, security company Guardsman is projecting its protection into the digital realm with the launch of the Guardsman Cyber Intelligence Security Operations Centre (SOC).

“This SOC will provide real-time monitoring and rapid response to safeguard Jamaica’s digital landscape. [It] is Jamaica’s first facility of its kind, and probably the first in the Caribbean,” said Kenneth Benjamin, founder and executive chairman of the Guardsman Group.

Describing the SOC as a landmark achievement, Prime Minister Andrew Holness said: “Assets are not only physical. Indeed, we now have digital assets.” He continued, “Cyber threats are growing in scale and frequency and sophistication, no country is immune and no sector is untouched.”

Guardsman indicated that with 97 victims per hour, cybercrimes are expected to cost US$10 trillion globally in 2025 and locally, 70 per cent of data breaches caused significant business disruptions.

Holness, the keynote speaker at the launch of the SOC on Wednesday, described it as a nerve centre, allowing for 24/7 monitoring of systems and networks, real-time detection of malicious activity, rapid response to incidents, and proactive threat intelligence gathering from across the globe.

The state-of-the-art hub is already outfitted with eight employees who, with the assistance of programmes, monitor their clients’ cyber assets daily to catch threats before they can cause harm.

Holness revealed that over 200 billion cyber attacks were made against the region in 2023, with Jamaica being affected by 43 million attempts, highlighting the pressing need for SOC.

“Banks, telecommunications and the average citizen [are] under cyber threats minutely…you don’t know until you see your credit card hacked. But that might just be five per cent relative to the number of attacks that were filed because there is a silent guard standing in your defence, which is the cybersecurity operations internal to the banks, the government’s facility. But now there is a commercial operator within the space to ensure that if your business is attacked, you have someone who can, first of all, help to prevent it, track it down, and [help you recover],” he said.

Jacqueline Comrie is one of the employees charged with this responsibility on a daily basis.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness and other attendees listen to a presentation at the launch of the Guardsman Cyber Intelligence Security Operations Centre (SOC) on Wednesday. (Photo: Naphtali Junior)

Speaking with Observer Online, Comrie said, “We follow primarily something called CIA— that’s confidentiality, integrity, and availability. What we do is protect clients from being exposed without persons being authenticated or authorised to have certain types of data,” she said. “In an instance where we detect any form of malware, which can be phishing, ransomware, viruses, worms etc, in an instance where we detect that, we try to remediate the issue.”

Comrie was sitting in the shadow of a massive digital map of the world, superimposed on a wall with yellow and red lines periodically appearing and disappearing on the screen connecting different countries — a physical representation of real-time cyber threats.

Guardsman employees at the launch of the Guardsman Cyber Intelligence Security Operations Centre (SOC) on Wednesday. (Photo: Naphtali Junior)

Deputy Chairman of the Guardsman Group Nick Benjamin, who said that the SOC, from conception to execution, was entirely “home-grown”, explained that the evolving world meant changing how we approach the idea of security, not just for Guardsman but all local businesses with digital assets.

“When we say security, we think generally physical security, we think security guards, we think alarm systems, we think panic buttons.  Now the threat is migrating, it’s not just physical anymore, it’s moving to a digital threat.  And we have to think differently about security and prevention as well, to make sure that when we say we are secure, we are both physically secure, but also digitally secure as well.

The launch saw politicians and business people from the private sector gather at the 16 Balmoral Avenue building for the ribbon cutting. Attendees included Minister of Legal and Constitutional Affairs Marlene Malahoo Forte and Alando Terrelonge, state minister in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade.