How The Caribbean’s Top Court Is Going High-Tech

A suite of new high-tech court management systems are to be adopted by the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ). The CCJ will be one of the first adopters of a set of technology-enabled systems for electronic filing of court documents, case management and court performance measurement, the court announced.

The region-wide initiative aims to ensure that courts across the Caribbean have access to the software and training needed to strengthen their operations and improve service delivery, the release said.

A pair of pilot projects are scheduled to take place soon in Belize and Grenada, the release said.

It announced the establishment of a not-for-profit corporation called Advance Performance Exponents Inc. (APEX), which will coordinate the new technology-driven solutions and services for Caribbean courts.

“With APEX, courts can take greater advantage of modern, web-based and mobile technologies to improve the quality of their services to the public, and increase the efficiency of judicial officers,” said Sir Dennis Byron, President of the CCJ.

Bevil Wooding, a key architect of the APEX strategy, described the launch as “a significant milestone for courts across the Caribbean.”

“The systems being used by APEX are built on technology licensed from US-based court technology services provider Courtechs Inc.,” Wooding said. “The software is tailored to the specific requirements of Caribbean courts and meet and exceed international best practice for digitally enhanced courts.”

APEX is currently building a regional network of service providers to ensure that local support is available for national courts that adopt the systems. It will also engage Chief Justices, court registrars, technology administrators and bar associations from across the region in the ongoing design and implementation of its systems and services.

“With APEX, Caribbean courts and justice stakeholders can now have an ongoing stake and say in the evolution of the new models and systems for court administration and court performance improvement,” said Sir Trevor Carmichael, chairman of the board of directors of the new agency, said in the release.

Originally published: Curacao Chronicle

Building the Caribbean internet economy

PHILIPSBURG, St Maarten—In the Caribbean, change is in the air. In fact, it’s in the cloud.

There’s a new conversation among the community of technology experts who spearhead Caribbean Internet development, and the buzz is no longer just about physical infrastructure. The architects of the region’s digital future are actively taking steps to strengthen the region’s economy by developing the Caribbean cloud.

“We have to look beyond basic infrastructure deployment, to developing the local content, services and business models that can truly benefit the region,” said Bevil Wooding, Internet strategist with US-based non-profit Packet Clearing House (PCH).

“Twelve Internet exchange points are already established in the Caribbean, and several others are being considered. While we continue to push for strengthening of critical Internet infrastructure in the region, our focus must also expand to development of the Caribbean Internet-based economy. We need to build out the Caribbean cloud,” he said.

Internet exchange points, or IXPs, are pieces of critical infrastructure that provide points of physical interconnection between the networks that make up the global Internet. PCH has played an active role in setting up more than two-thirds of the world’s IXPs and almost all of the exchange points in the Caribbean.

The non-profit firm has worked closely with the Caribbean Telecommunications Union, an inter-governmental CARICOM organisation that focuses on regional technology policy. Together, they have actively supported the proliferation of Internet exchanges in the Caribbean.

While establishing physical exchange points is necessary, it is not sufficient to advance the regional Internet economy, Wooding said. Another crucial step is needed.

“Getting the exchange points up and running is a start. But there has to be a shift in the conversation, from local traffic exchange to local content production, local application development and local innovation. What we want to see is not just more people on the Internet but more people actually taking advantage of the social and economic opportunities the Internet offers,” Wooding said.

“The private sector, academia and governments all have to work in sync to create opportunities for digital innovators and entrepreneurs to take advantage of the Internet and build on the local IXPs that now exist. We have to actively build the Caribbean cloud.”

Wooding was speaking as part of a panel discussion on developing the Caribbean Internet economy, held on the first day of St Maarten on the Move, a regional technology development conference jointly hosted by the Latin America and Caribbean Internet Addresses Registry and the Internet Society (ISOC) in Philipsburg, St Maarten. from October 27 to 28.

He co-presented with Eldert Louisa, chairman of the Open Caribbean Internet Exchange and chief technical officer of St Maarten telecom operator TelEm Group. Karen Rose, senior director of strategy and analysis at ISOC, moderated the panel.

St Maarten on the Move was part of Internet Week St Maarten, a five-day conference coordinated by the St Maarten telecommunications regulator, BTP, and focused on developing the Caribbean Internet.

The week started with the twelfth regional meeting of the Caribbean Network Operators Group, which was jointly held with the LAC-I-Roadshow of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, from October 24 to 26. A broad range of technical, social and policy issues related to Caribbean technology development were covered in the three-day event, held with the support of the CTU, the American Registry of Internet Numbers and ArkiTechs.

Caribbean Faces Serious Cyber Security Threats

PHILIPSBURG, St Maarten—Keep it secret. And make sure it’s safe.

Don’t use your real name, your birth date, or any single word. Instead, try a short phrase that includes some numerals and even some punctuation.

Devising secure passwords for your online accounts and your family’s Internet-connected devices is simple enough, if you follow those easy  guidelines. But most people just don’t.

And a major attack on a little-known company underscores how much of the security of the global Internet now depends on that unwitting majority of ordinary Internet users. On October 21, a distributed denial of service, or DDoS attack, brought down a relatively obscure US-based firm called Dyn.

DDoS attacks are fairly common. They typically use malicious software called botnets, hosted on infected computers over the Internet to bring down a specific service.

“What made the DDoS attack on Dyn especially troubling was the dangerous precedent it set. Dyn provides domain name system services, commonly referred to as DNS services. These services are a critical layer of support for the effective function of the global Internet,” said Bevil Wooding, an Internet Strategist with US-based non-profit Packet Clearing House.

“By targeting companies that provide this infrastructure support for the Internet, hackers can wreak havoc on for ordinary users, big businesses and even entire countries.”

Also disturbing is the fact that the hackers used networks of common smart devices like webcams, internet-connected TVs and refrigerators, to cause a disruption in service that was felt around the world.

“In the last two years, we’ve had multiple attacks, and the most recent attacks are using IoT devices,” said Mark Kosters, Chief Technology Officer of the American Registry of Internet Numbers, the organisation that provides number resource allocation and registration services for North America and parts of the Caribbean.

He explained that smart devices present an easy target for hackers to turn into botnets because users typically fail to secure them properly.

“A lot of the devices are vulnerable. It means that more and more homes are very quietly becoming potential sites of DDOS attacks,” he said.

“Now, we all have to make sure that all of those devices that we have around the house are secure,” he added.

“As smart devices proliferate, it will become easier for hackers to launch significant cyber attacks using unsecured IoT devices, unless ordinary end-users become more security-conscious,” said to Carlos Martinez, Chief Technology Officer of the Latin America and Caribbean Internet Addresses Registry (LACNIC).

Wooding, Kosters and Martinez were expert speakers at the twelfth regional meeting of the Caribbean Network Operators Group, or CaribNOG, in Philipsburg, Sint Maarten from October 24 to 26.

The meeting brought together technology specialists from around the region and across the world to discuss cyber-threats and solutions for keeping computer networks in the region safe. The volunteer-based group got together to share experiences and exchange best-practices for computer security and network administration.

The group had several animated debates on technology, but always seemed to agree on one thing. When it comes to cyber security, it seems that keeping the Internet of Things safe will depend mostly on the worldwide network of human beings.