CRIME Chief Wendell Blanhum will represent Guyana at a meeting on cyber security and cybercrime to be held on March 24, 2017 in Antigua and Barbuda, Minster of State, Joseph Harmon, announced on Friday at a post-Cabinet briefing held at the Ministry of the Presidency.

Harmon told reporters that the meeting is aimed at informing attendees about the state of cybercrime in the Caribbean, while providing insights into building a strategic cyber security awareness programme and develop a model cyber security awareness and education campaign for the region.

Minister of Public Security, Khemraj Ramjattan had said that Guyana is moving to remedy a number of loopholes which would in effect drastically reduce the possibility of cybercrimes, ranging from website hacking to fraud.

Ramjattan noted that experts are being trained in cybercrimes legislation and enforcement, while plans are on the drawing board to enact several laws related to cyber security.

Cyber Security attacks on websites such as defacement and other types of crimes can be reported to the Guyana National Computer Incident Response Team (CIRT) located at http://www.cirt.gy/

The Latin American and Caribbean Cyber Security Trends report states that since GNCIRT’s creation in August 2013, Guyana has experienced numerous cyber security incidents, including the defacement of government websites, credit card fraud, as well as the defrauding of a prominent businessman.

Although authorities do not have hard data indicating a quantitative increase or decrease in the number of incidents, the report states there has been a clear rise in the number of incidents reported by the public.

Meanwhile, Traffic Chief Superintendent Dion Moore will participate in an Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) sponsored study tour to be held in Mexico and Colombia from March 25 – April 1st. The tour will facilitate a study to diagnose urban transport problems and trends, while seeking to provide recommendations on matter of public transport infrastructure, operations, financing and institutional organization.