“Yes,
the country security entities, the JDF and the JCF, were affected by a malware
threat earlier last week. Luckily we were monitoring our systems, as is usually
done, but now with much more vigilance since the recent worldwide ransomware
attacks which affected over 100 countries and which crippled so many important
systems”
Ministry of National
Security statement on reports of hacking of the JDF (Jamaica Defense Force) and
the JCF (Jamaica Constabulary Force)
Hackers
are now attacking JDF (Jamaica Defense Force) and the JCF (Jamaica Constabulary
Force).
What's
interesting here is that these hackers are Jamaicans or at least reside in
Jamaica as noted in the article “Attack
on police, army”, published Sunday, May 28, 2017 by Karl Angell, The Jamaica Observer.
Luckily
Jamaica's IT Task force was able to spot the hacking attempts as noted by the
Ministry of National Security in their statement, quote: “As a result of this
vigilance and our usual checks, we were able to minimise the effects of our
malware attack. At this point, I can fairly accurately reveal that our systems,
which come with many different and varied software protection, especially
firewalls, held up well. Plus, we were able to quickly take action, which
assisted greatly in countering the offending malware. Further, I can say that
the systems at the Ministry of National Security were not affected by this
attack”.
We're
also lucky; apparently those local Jamaican hackers were just playing around
and aren't into the business of extortion, quote: “We did think about that aspect when we
became aware of the malware attack on our security systems, so we made
exhaustive checks, and right now the answer to the question is no, we have not
received any ransom requests, but we are still in the process of checking; so
right now, the answer is no, no ransom request.”
So
is this something Jamaica should worry about?
Ransomware and Jamaica
- Expect more in the Summer of 2017
It
definitely is as it could have been much worse.
Jamaica's
Minister of Science, Energy and Technology Dr Andrew Wheatley gave an accurate
description of ransomeware, quote: “Ransomware is a type of malicious software
that carries out an extortion attack on computer files by blocking access to
data until a 'ransom' is paid. If users do not pay in time they are threatened
with the deletion of their files. The ransomware is usually spread through
various means, including e-mail attachments or malicious links within an
e-mail”.
According to Computer Incident Response Team Dr Moniphia Hewling during a presentation to the NSC (National Security Council) on Friday May 26th 2017, Jamaica has lost some US$100 million to cyber-criminal activity. The incidence of cybercrime has been on the rise in Jamaica, prompting chair of the NSC, Prime Minister Andrew Holness, to raise this issue to the level of Cabinet.
His
aim is to allocate resources to increase Jamaica's ability to deal with the
rising tide of cybercrime. Worse, there are now free Wi-fi hotspots spreading
across Jamaica as part of our smart City initiative as noted in my blog article
entitled “How
Free Wi-Fi and Smart City upgrade coming to New Kingston in Q3 2017”.
Perhaps
a rethink of security measures needs to be put in place. Dr Andrew Wheatley has
warned Jamaicans to secure their computer systems. He's predicting more
ransomware WannaCry-esque attacks in a few weeks time.
So
my fellow Jamaicans, be prepared as a storm is brewing on the internet this
summer of 2017!!