WITH THE enormous risk faced by businesses from computer hackers, the Government's Central Information Technology Office (CITO) is moving to arrest the number of security breaches in the island.
Michael duQuesnay, chief executive officer of CITO, said his office has planned a computer security summit, slated for March 17, to sensitise the island's business leaders of the significant dangers posed to their operations.
He noted that "Security is becoming more and more an issue probably because of the extent to which the Internet is being used on a day-to-day basis for business transactions."
He said CITO has partnered with computer system developers such as Microsoft, IBM, and Fujitsu to assist with educating mainly senior executives and technology managers of large public and private sector organisations on issues relating to computer security and how to go about implementing appropriate systems to guard against such attacks. This, while expanding and improving their computer systems.
INFORMED DECISION
Mr. duQuesnay emphasised that "The average executive can understand security guards and burglar bars, (but) they need to be able to understand the issues associated with securing their data in the same way." He said often times managers are bombarded with computer terms they are unfamiliar with and as a result cannot make an informed decision on how to properly shop for systems to safeguard against security breaches.
The summit is slated for the Hilton Kingston Hotel, New Kingston and is endorsed by the Ministry of Commerce, Science and Technology and the Jamaica Computer Society (JCS).
