KINGSTON, Jamaica — Director of the Cyber Incident Response Team (CIRT) Division, Lieutenant Colonel (Retired) Godphey Sterling, is urging organisations across Jamaica to take immediate steps to strengthen their cybersecurity defences.

Speaking with JIS News recently, Sterling said that vulnerability mitigation, breach data remediation, and incident reporting are critical to safeguarding Jamaica’s digital infrastructure.

“We must plug the gaps before the damage gets done, and what it means is that system administrators, boards, and management have to pay attention to how their systems are procured, how they’re patched and maintained, and how they’re destroyed,” he said.

The director also raised an alarm about vulnerabilities in everyday devices, such as network-connected printers, which are often discarded without proper data sanitisation. He warned that such oversights can leave sensitive information exposed and exploitable.

“In 2023, over 70 per cent of ransomware attacks were facilitated through compromised privileged accounts. These accounts were used to infiltrate third-party systems and re-enter core networks,” Sterling noted.

He is also calling for swift action when data is compromised through internal networks or third-party channels. While data that is already circulating on the deep and dark web may be costly to remove, organisations must still take essential steps, such as changing passwords and deleting compromised accounts to protect themselves against cyberattacks.

“Also, you must report incidents. The Cyber Incident Response Team (CIRT) Division cannot manage what it cannot measure. The only way for us to get the information out of your network is for you to report it to us,” he said.

Reporting, he added, can be done securely and anonymously.

The CIRT Division will continue to work towards building a resilient cybersecurity ecosystem in Jamaica.

— JIS