KINGSTON, Jamaica – The Ministry of National Security (MNS) on Sunday confirmed that a “cyber-incident” has affected access to the JamaicaEye website.

According to the ministry, there is no compromise to video footage or evidence recorded by the JamaicaEye cameras.

“Importantly, the website is not connected, in any way, to the central infrastructure of the surveillance system,” the ministry said in a statement.

Under the National Closed-Circuit Television Surveillance Programme, dubbed ‘JamaicaEye’, which was launched in 2018, citizens and business owners with cameras pointing in the public space have been able to voluntarily input their feeds into the national system.

The system is expected to play a major role in the country’s fight against crime, and assist the authorities to deal with natural disasters, public safety and incident management.

There are five monitoring centres, with one control centre at the Jamaica Defence Force headquarters and another established at the police commissioner’s office.

READ: We are watching! – Jamaica launches national CCTV system

The security ministry, stated, however, that it is unable to confirm if data related to persons registering to partner with JamaicaEye has been exfiltrated.

A team from the ministry, the Jamaica Constabulary Force and the Major Organised Crime & Anti-Corruption Agency are currently evaluating the extent of the breach and have commenced investigations, MNS said.