The risk of scams and cyberattacks is becoming a critical concern, especially as the festive season draws near.
This prompted the ISC2 Caribbean Chapter to host a seminar entitled ‘Scam Defense 2024 Summit’ to equip businesses and individuals with strategies to mitigate these threats.
According to President of the ISC2 Caribbean Chapter, Anthony Payson, the region has faced a sharp increase in cyber attempts, with over 137 billion cyber attack attempts across Latin America and the Caribbean for the first half of 2024.
He said moving forward, the best way to strengthen cyber security is through the constant education on the risks associated with cyber attacks.
“Through initiatives such as workshops, webinars, and events like this, we are here to try to provide ongoing support to professionals and experts in the field to promote knowledge sharing and networking opportunities because in the cyber security community and IT, we tend to be siloed. You know, we do our work and we go home but we don’t take time to network and to connect.”
Mr. Payson is hoping that their work does not end with the Scam Defense 2024 Summit.
“We envision, from our Chapter’s perspective, a premier cyber security community in the region. One of our biggest challenges in the region is that we don’t have enough cyber security resources. So we are committed as the ISC2 too, in fostering a secure digital future for the Caribbean and the rest of the globe. Recent high-profile cyber attacks, both locally and regionally, clearly showed that the Caribbean is not immune to this global surge in cyber threats.”
Mr. Payson explained how cyber attacks and scams are related.
“A scam is based almost entirely on deception, right? And what is a hack and what is a cyber attack and how do they relate? So in our discussions, we realised that, you know, in almost every single incident, the first thing that happens is the hack, right? You could hack a few things, a few main categories. You could hack technology. We’re accustomed hacking technology.”
In the Caribbean region, he said the biggest challenge in terms of scams and cyber security incidents occur through phishing and smishing.