Minister of Science and Technology Dr Rupert Griffith says the Government is seeking to fast-track legislation to combat cybercrime. He made the comment at a workshop titled Building Competitiveness through Innovation in ICT at MovieTowne, Port-of-Spain, on Tuesday. The workshop was hosted by the ministry through the Caribbean Industrial Research Institute's (Cariri) and led by Frans Johansson, CEO of the Medici Group. “We are not just looking at hacking, it is just one aspect of cybercrime,” Griffith said.
“We will also be dealing with legislation in areas such as electronic evidence and electronic transfer of funds of crime.” “We're looking at the best practices in the world, from India, Singapore and several other countries.
“And our team, the Ministry of National Security and the Ministry of Science and Technology are meeting on almost a daily basis now because I'm trying to fast-track the legislation, so by September we would have the first draft. Hopefully before the end of the year, we would be going to Parliament to move from the bill to an act and hopefully, eventually proclamation.”
Asked about the readiness of the local cyber-crime unit to deal with tech-savvy cybercriminals, Griffith said there was such a unit in the National Security Ministry. However, he said the National Security Minister and acting Commissioner of Police were the best people to comment on the effectiveness of the unit. Griffith said once the legislation was enacted, it would give them a more powerful tool to enforce cybercrime laws.
Minister of Planning and Sustainable Development Dr Bhoe Tewarie said the possibilities for T&T were endless and that the country needed to make use of its diversity from within to execute the change desired. He said T&T would host the Americas Competitiveness Forum in 2014. Other speakers at the workshop included Cariri CEO Liaquat Ali Shah and chairman Hayden Ferreira.