Jamaica Police Probing Cyber Attack On JIS Website

KINGSTON, Jamaica CMC – The people who hacked into the website of the Jamaica Information Service (JIS) and five others, left messages the country needs to treat with seriously, the junior minister in the Ministry of Science, Technology, Energy and Mining has said.

Julian Robinson confirmed that the police have launched a probe into the matter, but acknowledged “we don’t know whether it’s local; whether (it emanated from) overseas. (But) there were certain things that were posted, which we have to treat with seriously, as a country”.

Robinson said that the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) has committed resources “to try and identify the source of this cybercriminal activity,” which occurred on June 22 and affected the websites of the parliament, the Jamaica National Commission as well as G.C. Foster College and the Social Development Commission (SDC).

Robinson said the Cyber Incidents Response Team (CIRT), which responded when the breach was identified, is continuing work to ensure that all potential “loopholes” are closed “so that we can prevent future attacks.

“The reality of what we are dealing with…is very clear. As a country and as a Government, we are the target of…cybercriminals, and we are moving to ensure that we can implement common standards and measures to address the issue,” he added.

The CIRT team said that it has seen a number of activities from more than 500 blacklisted IP addresses used by cyber-terrorists. They span several countries and took place within an hour.

Robinson said a public education campaign is to be undertaken to heighten awareness about cyber security.