OBA: “Must Outline The Contingencies In Place”
“The National Security and Immigration Ministers must outline the contingencies in place to secure Bermuda’s borders and day-to-day life,” Opposition Leader Jarion Richardson said.
Mr. Richardson said, “Cyber attacks are nefarious but most importantly, they are life-threatening. Modern security is entirely dependent on information technology.
“Radio communications between units, dispatching systems, intelligence gathering, and criminal records are all mission-critical systems. These include border controls such as stop lists. Our electronic border management system, the one that was ignored in place of outsourcing Travel Authorisation, is 100% inoperable.
“Are any of these systems backed-up, have the hard copies been kept up-to-date? Often times, the very manuals which outline crisis management and contingency operations, are retained digitally.
“Where is the Emergency Measures Organization? It’s not called the ‘Break in case of Hurricane’ Organization – is this not an emergency?
“This is not the time for ad hoc, unnamed committees but rather for the proven crisis management tools. This is not a matter of domestic Government policy but international threat mitigation.
“The Opposition expects the frequency and seriousness of public briefings as if this was a hurricane. Anything less indicates that the same persons who have not protected us, are in charge of saving us.
“If we cannot receive informative briefings due to legitimate security risks, then the Government can give the public, via the media, a brief of how each Government department/head will maintain services.”
Bernews did send an email to the Government seeking a response, but it is unclear if their email systems are working yet because as of this time we are not receiving emails [like we normally do with press releases] from the gov.bm domain addresses, however if we get a response we will update.
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I keep saying this and so far, no one has disputed the facts.
A few years ago, the government was provided with a straightforward and quickly implementable plan to significantly reduce such threats to Bermuda and did nothing.
Who is in charge of The Department of Information and Digital Technology? Oh, right, that falls under Burt’s portfolio along with Gaming.
Who is in charge of National Security? Oh, heck, that was Minister Caines.
Now I see why nothing was done.
FYI. This is not the first time Government systems have been hacked, this is just the most visible hack and had to be disclosed.