UWI hosts 3rd annual Cyber Security Conference

THE Caribbean Institute of Media and Communication, University of the West Indies will be hosting the third annual Cyber Security Conference under the theme "Data Protection, Financial Services and Customer Awareness". The conference will be held at the UWI Regional Headquarters, Mona, in St Andrew, on Tuesday and Wednesday.

A number of international speakers will address the conference.

Christine Runnegar, director of Public Policy at Internet Society (ISOC), Washington, USA will speak, as well as a representative of Google, Acadia Senese.

Shiva Bissessar, a cyber security specialist from Trinidad and Tobago is also one of the confirmed speakers.

Day one of the conference will consist of panel presentations on a range of topics including 'Data Protection: Cyber Threats and Challenges for Economic, Legal and Regulatory Frameworks'; 'Financial and Technical Services: Risk Management for Corporate, Financial and Technology Enterprises'; 'Customer Awareness: Citizen Action -- Protecting Your Financial Records and Privacy while Controlling your Digital Footprint'.

Day two will consist of workshop demonstrations on two key topics: 'Threats and Cyber Protection Measures'; and 'Conducting Cyber Audits'. In the afternoon of day two, a special legal session will be hosted titled 'Cyber Security and Legal Implications'.

The conference will be officially opened by Julian Robinson, Minister of State in the Ministry of Science, Technology, Energy and Mining. The UWI Mona principal, Prof Archibald McDonald, and Dennis Chung, CEO of the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ), will also speak on the programme.

The conference chair is Professor Hopeton Dunn, director of CARIMAC.

The main conference presentations and workshops are free and open to the public. A fee of $2,500 will be charged for the legal session in the afternoon session of day two. Persons wishing to attend should register online at http://cybersecurity.carimac.com.

The Cyber Security Conference is an initiative of the Mona ICT Policy Centre, CARIMAC, UWI in association with the Internet Society (ISOC), International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the Ministry of Science, Technology, Energy and Mining.

The lead sponsor is National Commercial Bank.

Other sponsors include Jamaica National Building Society and Henlin Gibson Henlin, attorneys-at-law.

It is organised over the last three years as part of a national response to the growing number of cyber threats, identity theft, hacking and other risks to online properties of businesses, government departments and individuals.

In recent years, cybercrime has seen businesses and individuals suffer losses amounting to several millions of dollars.

Companies nowadays are spending more time and energy in putting effective systems in place to stand up to cybercrime attacks.