Dear HR . . . Does data protection law affect my role in HR?
The February 9th, 2022 issue of Barbados Today had a column that discussed the impact of the Barbados Data Protection Act on HR personnel, titled “Dear HR . . . Does data protection law affect my role in HR?“. The article explained why data protection is important, outlines the role of data controllers, how HR staff are impacted and key components of the Act. You can read the entire article here.
Ethical hackers face tough sanction
Ethical hackers who find vulnerabilities on government or private websites in Jamaica could face a $3-million fine and three-year prison sentence if a provision in the Cybercrimes Act, 2015, remains and receives the nod from Parliament. That threat could penalise actors such as Zack Whittaker, the security editor at American online newspaper TechCrunch who, last February, revealed that a cloud-storage server with uploaded documents had been left unprotected on the JamCOVID website. Read the full article here.
NIST Updates Security and Privacy Control Assessment Procedures
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has published an update to its SP 800-53A standard, “Assessing Security and Privacy Controls in Information Systems and Organizations.” The publication provides a methodology and set of procedures for conducting assessments of security and privacy controls employed within systems and organizations within an effective risk management framework. The assessment procedures, executed at various phases of the system development life cycle, are consistent with the security and privacy controls in NIST Special Publication 800-53, Revision 5. The SP 800-53A assessment procedures are flexible, provide a framework and starting point for control assessments, and can be tailored to the needs of organizations and assessors. SP 800-53A facilitates security and privacy control assessments conducted within an effective risk management framework. The revision includes new assessment procedures that address newly added and updated privacy and supply chain risk management controls in SP 800-53 Revision 5. SP…
IDB Caribbean Quarterly Bulletin – Q3 2021
The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has released its Q3 2021 Caribbean Quarterly Bulletin focusing on the evolving economic and human consequences of the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak for countries in the Caribbean region. For Barbados, the report outlines the following regarding Digital Infrastructure: Barbados requires an estimated investment of US$10.6 million to close the digital infrastructure gap The gap for mobile broadband amounts to US$10.3 million, while the gap for fixed broadband is less significant at US$286,163. Closing this gap is crucial to increase employment and contribute to sustainable economic growth. Barbados is making good progress in its digital transformation of public sector administration and in improving service quality. The IDB – supported project aims to achieve (1) greater use of digit al channels by individuals and companies to access public services; (2) greater efficiency in public sector administration; and (3) strengthened public sector skills to operate in a digital economy.…
Voters List Disclosure Data Privacy Concerns
On December 29th, 2021, a preliminary list of all eligible voters in Barbados was posted on the Barbados Government Information Service (GIS) website. The list included the surname, first & middle names, national registration number (NRN), gender, date of birth, residential status, constituency, polling station and address of over 264,000 individuals. The 5,520 paged Adobe PDF document could be downloaded by anyone with access to the internet, and not just Barbadian citizens and residents. The list was made public ahead of the general elections on January 19th, 2022. Section 18(1) of the Representation of the People Act of 1991 allows for 16 days within which changes to the preliminary list of eligible voters may be made before an election. Changes to the preliminary list may be made up twenty-one (21) days after an election date is declared, after which a final register for elections will be created. The Act further…
