With cybersecurity becoming a major issue for Jamaica, the Government is aiming to establish the new National Cybersecurity Authority within the next two to four years.

“The cyber authority will be created as a creature of statute and will seek to provide overarching guidance to how cyber (computers and computer networks) is treated in Jamaica,” said head of the Jamaica Cyber Incident Response Team (JaCIRT), Lieutenant Colonel Godphey Sterling.

He was addressing a JIS Think Tank on Thursday, September 28, where he provided details on activities for Cybersecurity Awareness Month in October under the theme ‘Respond today, Secure our Future’.

Governor General Sir Patrick Allen, in his Throne Speech on February 14, said the new authority will be set up with funding support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). He said the entity will develop national cybersecurity policies, monitor cyberthreats, provide skills training, and develop human capital.

Sterling further explained that the agency will effectively upgrade JaCIRT, moving the entity from being just a response element in dealing with cyberattacks and bringing some level of governance, risk management and compliance to the cyber ecosystem in Jamaica.