BitDepth

"Now is the key time to prepare, to set the groundwork in implementing a good data protection and cybersecurity strategy in anticipation for a change in the regulatory environment," said Julian Hayes, managing director of Veneto Privacy Services, based in Dublin, Ireland.

Hayes has done consultancies in Jamaica when businesses in that country came to terms with the robust legislation in place to protect data and customers.

Jamaica brought its Data Protection Act into law in June 2020 and by December 2021 had appointed Celia Barclay as its first Information Commissioner.

Jamaica gave businesses operating in that country two years to become compliant and register with the Office of the Information Commissioner.

During that time, Barclay will be bringing the operations of her new office into force.

"The biggest thing that concerns businesses in Jamaica is not being preparedness for a cyberattack," Hayes explained.

"There's an expectation from customers that the business is fully up to speed and prepared to prevent cyber attacks because of regulatory fines."

"Criminal investigations are a primary threat, but the reputation of the business is important, and it's critical to maintain the best position to respond to cyber attack."

Jamaica's Data Protection Act legislates fines up to $222,000 (JA$5m) and prison terms of up to ten years for infractions under its laws.

Barbados appointed its data protection commissioner in July 2021.

TT's Parliament recently granted the Government an 18-month extension - over the objections of the Opposition - to prepare amendments to local data protection law. It's been 12 years since the first laws for data protection laws were partially proclaimed.

Among the services, that Veneto provides for businesses is the data protection officer as a service.

"Some companies obviously have a preference to have an internal officer, but depending on the sector that you're in, a services company can provide the services of a data protection officer."

Veneto's remote officers monitor compliance within an organisation, and provide solutions to enhance privacy rights, training employees, minimising the data that the business collects and implementing appropriate security controls across the data sets that the company is using.

When Veneto discusses cybersecurity services, there's usually some awareness of potential weaknesses and liabilities.

"Clients are already looking to get a solution. They might want a better briefing on the law and what it means for their sector specifically. Whether it's the banking sector or a retail operator, there will be different data protection risks relating to the data they are processing."

"They are definitely preparing and not at the wait-and-see stage. They want to make an investment and but they don't want to be oversold.

"You need to make an investment that's suitable to the proportion of risk that you face. If you're a medical company and you're handling very sensitive medical data for hundreds of thousands of pati