The Ministry of National Security is today (June 11) opening an investigation into a confirmed “cyber incident” that afflicted the website of JamaicaEye, the State-operated CCTV national surveillance system.

Hours after the breach was identified by local white hat hack expert Gavin Dennis, the ministry indicated that the incident has “preliminarily affected access to the JamaicaEye website”.

#Jamaica 🇯🇲 It appears the Jamaica Eye website has been hacked! The hackers have left a web shell (called Mr Combet WebShell)

JamaicaEye is a govt initiative of an island-wide network of camera surveillance systems designed to increase the safety of citizens.#Educational pic.twitter.com/mAiCZWwKjQ

— Gavin (@HackingGavin) June 10, 2023

The ministry, in a terse statement, stressed that the JamaicaEye website (jamaicaeye.gov.jm) is “not connected, in any way, to the central infrastructure of the surveillance system”.

“This means that there has been NO compromise to any video footage or evidence recorded by the JamaicaEye cameras,” the agency emphasised.

The national security ministry was unable to immediately confirm if data related to persons registering their interest to partner with JamaicaEye have been exfiltrated.

In the meantime, a team comprising experts from the ministry, Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) and the Major Organised Crime & Anti-Corruption Agency (MOCA), is currently evaluating the extent of the breach and have commenced the investigation.