Caribbean Girls Under Cyber Attack

One cyberbullying victim’s parents have joined an online campaign speaking out against the alarming practice of posting nude photos of young Belizean girls online. The couple sit facing away from the camera as they recount the episode that forever changed their daughter’s life. The father, slowly and in a plaintive voice, says someone accessed the photo from her social media account and reposted it to a public site. With just a few clicks, the damage had already been done.

“It was a huge blow to our family when it happened. Me and her mother, we tried to be strong for her, and supported her in every way possible, and to try to get over it. It was a terrible thing for her,” he says.

“Be bold for change against cyber violence!” the mother shouts, firing a parting shot in the final frames.

The parents’ testimony is part of an online anti-cyberbullying campaign spearheaded by the U.S. Embassy in Belmopan. The campaign gives voice to a nationwide concern at the trend of posting nude photos and videos of girls and women.

Also speaking out is Kim Simplis-Barrow, wife of Belizean Prime Minister Dean Barrow, who is calling for urgent action to protect women and girls from the use of the Internet as “a vehicle for gender-based violence.”

“Globally, cyber criminals are using the Internet for abuse and exploitation, putting our most vulnerable populations at risk. Here in Belize, we have had our own struggle with these issues,” she said.

Pedophiles, rapists and human traffickers must not be allowed to continue using popular Internet-based social media platforms as “a digital hunting grounds”, she said.

The First Lady, who is also the country’s Special Envoy for Women and Children, has worked to bring child sexual exploitation into the domain of public discourse and action.

“Belize is ill-prepared legally and otherwise to effectively address these challenges,” she said.

Speaking at the country’s first-ever national cybersecurity symposium, held in Belize City in April, her brief remarks made a simple yet powerful point: there can be no citizen security without cybersecurity.

Her message found support from a powerful ally.

“Cyber crime knows no borders, we’re all in this together,” said Adrienne Galanek, Chargé d’Affaires at the U.S. Embassy.

“The cyber world we live in poses very real threats, from exploitation of children to the cruelty of cyberbullying. Predators capitalise on the anonymity of cyber space to target victims, whether to lure them to sexual exploitation or criminal activity. Compromising images of young girls and women are exploited online, while the male perpetrators’ identities are often concealed in shocking videos,” she added.

Only in the last few years the growing cost and incidence of cybersecurity has propelled the subject to the top of the agenda of government and business leaders.

“In the United States, we are currently in the process of reviewing our cybersecurity national strategy, and we encourage Belize and other nations to similarly review as needed their cybersecurity national strategy,” Galanek said.

Many observers across the Caribbean will hope that Belize is only the first in a regional movement to break the silence and take active measures to protect the region’s children and all citizens from cyber predators.

Seeking An Edge, Caribbean Firms Turn to Internet Tech

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados—As clouds of uncertainty loom over the global economy, it hasn’t exactly been smooth sailing for Caribbean companies. But these days, a different kind of cloud is creating fresh opportunities for regional businesses. For techies, the term ‘cloud’ is just a metaphor for the Internet. And the advent of Cloud Computing is creating new possibilities for businesses in the Caribbean and across the world.

Where in the past, businesses would run applications from a physical computer or server in their building, cloud computing provides a simple way to access servers, storage, databases, analytics and a broad set of application services over the Internet. Some of most recognizable names in the tech industry are among the major providers of cloud computing, including Adobe, Amazon, Google, IBM, Microsoft and Oracle.

“As more Caribbean companies confront the reality of rising costs for technology services, cloud computing is emerging as an attractive option for those seeking to reduce routine expenditure without compromising on competitiveness or service delivery capability,” said Bevil Wooding, an Internet Strategist with US-based non-profit organisation Packet Clearing House.

Wooding is the founder of the Caribbean Network Operators Group, or CaribNOG, the region’s first volunteer-based community of network engineers, computer security experts and tech aficionados. For the last few years, CaribNOG has been increasing region-wide awareness of cloud computing and other important issues related to technological innovation and regional development.

The CaribNOG community is preparing for its thirteenth regional gathering, to be held at the Radisson Aquatica Resort, Carlisle Bay, Bridgetown, Barbados. Stephen Lee, CaribNOG Programme Director, said the meeting will have a strong focus on cloud computing.

“A slate of international experts will be on hand to deliver high-level presentations and conduct hands-on sessions covering technical, social and policy aspects of cloud computing,” he said.

It’s not the first time the event is taking place in Barbados, he added.

“CaribNOG 5 was held in Barbados in April 2013, and we’re very pleased to be able to return for CaribNOG 13, with the support of the Government of Barbados.”

Since 2010, the event has become a nexus for industry professionals from across the region and around the world seeking a forum to build relationships, exchange information and share experiences. For the uber-geeks who build, maintain, repair and upgrade the Caribbean’s computer networks, these twice-yearly meetings are among the most highly anticipated events on the regional calendar.

CaribNOG13 is being supported by regional partners such as the Caribbean Telecommunications Union, and international partners, including ArkiTechs, the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN), The BrightPath Foundation, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the Internet Society and Packet Clearing House.

Registration is free but spaces are limited. More information is available on the official CaribNOG website, caribnog.org.

Originally published: Caribbean Journal

In Guatemala, an Historic Meeting on Regional Internet

A historic gathering of diverse sectors of Guatemalan society recently took place in the country’s capital, hosted by the Latin American and Caribbean Internet Address Registry, commonly known as LACNIC.

The gathering, called LACNIC On The Move Guatemala, was the first of its kind in the nation. It brought together more than 100 delegates representing the country’s academic, technical, civil and government sectors for high-level talks and expert-led technical training.

Since its establishment in 2002, LACNIC has played a major role in developing an open, stable and secure Internet across Latin America and the Caribbean, relying on a range of initiatives to increase outreach into the 33 diverse nations that form its membership. But this was the Regional Internet Registry’s first such meeting in Guatemala.

Although it has the biggest economy in Central America, Guatemala is burdened with stark inequality, widespread poverty, chronic malnutrition and high maternal-child mortality rates, especially in rural municipalities, where up to eighty per cent are poor. Internet penetration hovers around 25 per cent, and subscriptions remain prohibitively expensive, compounding the digital divide.

Over three days from March 20 to 22, LACNIC On The Move Guatemala provided a rare chance for collaborative networking among members of the Guatemala’s technical community, including network operators, computer engineers, software developers and even members of competing Internet service providers, such as Tigo Guatemala, Telefónica Moviles Guatemala, UFINET and INTERTELCO. Among them were also representatives from Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala, Universidad del Valle de Guatemala and Universidad Galileo.

The uncommon meeting of minds bore extraordinary fruit. Before the end of the second day, several participants expressed their commitment to work together towards the establishment of the country’s first Internet exchange point.

Guillermo Cicileo, Coordinator of Security, Stability and Resilience at LACNIC, said the agreement was “a milestone that will contribute to the development of the Internet in the country.”

An Internet exchange point, or IXP, is a piece of Internet infrastructure through which Internet service providers can exchange local Internet traffic between their networks. A local IXP would improve the quality and cost effectiveness of delivering local web-based services to Guatemalan Internet users, in turn a major benefit for local Internet service providers.

Alfredo Verderosa, Manager of the Services Department at LACNIC, described the meeting as an unprecedented success.

“We came with the objective of generating a meeting space between the different Internet-related actors in the country and at the same time sharing relevant information on technical topics such as Internet Governance, Internet Protocol switchover, Internet exchange points and cybersecurity. We leave with the feeling that this first-time event was very successful on both counts, because we noticed a great interest on the part of the participants to network among themselves and to learn more about the various technical topics covered,” he said.

Significantly, the conference gave multiple global Internet organisations an atypical opportunity to meet face to face with the men and women who build, maintain, regulate and use Guatemala’s Internet infrastructure. LACNIC held the event with the support of the Internet Society and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

“We’ve been doing events like this jointly for some time now, and that’s very much in the spirit of the Internet organisations in the region,” said Rodrigo de la Parra, Vice President for Latin America and the Caribbean at ICANN.

“We are all good neighbours, so we just put that into practice,” he added.

What made the timing of the meeting all the more more special was that it coincided with the formal establishment of the Guatemala Chapter of the Internet Society.

Sebastián Bellagamba, Regional Bureau Director for Latin America and the Caribbean at the Internet Society, encouraged the new local chapter to continue working closely with other relevant organisations for the greater good of the local and regional Internet community.

Collaborative initiatives such as LACNIC On The Move have allowed LACNIC to provide training to more than 15,000 technology professionals throughout Central and South America and the Caribbean.

“We hope to continue working with other organisations in the region to continue to develope a more open, stable and secure Internet in Guatemala,” said Sergio Rojas, Registration Services Specialist at LACNIC.

“We would like to thank the ISOC Chapter of Guatemala and the national telecommunications regulator SIT for organizing this event together with LACNIC. We would also like to thank the Internet Society and the ICANN for working together on these issues that are of benefit to Guatemala and the region,” said César Diaz, Head of Strategic Relations and Telecommunications at LACNIC.

“We are very pleased to have hosted this event here in Guatemala,” countered José Raúl Solares Chíu, Head of SIT. He added, “And we hope that it will not be too long before LACNIC returns.”

The next LACNIC On The Move takes place in Guyana in July.

Originally published: Caribbean Journal