Bahamas gets cyber security training

Sacramento, California: In the wake of information coming out of the Bahamas which suggests that some aspects of that country’s cybersecurity network has been compromised, a small team of cybersecurity experts has decided to hold a free certification program on ethical hacking and cybersecurity for Bahamian State and corporate entities, next month. The three-member team, which is made up of a retired FBI trained-cyber security and ethical hacking specialist, a Caribbean-based attorney on cyber laws, and a regional ethical hacker, who also works as a technology writer, has successfully held similar training programs in other jurisdictions.

Speaking with The Los Angeles Post-Examiner, Head of the team, Michael Denny, explained that the cybersecurity incident in the Bahamas might be more widespread than the state actually knows since that is usually the case with most affected countries. Denny, a former Microsoft, and FBI-trained cybersecurity specialist reiterated however that such an incident is not unique to the Bahamas alone since there are more than two million attacks on the global cybersecurity infrastructure itself, daily.

“It is good that countries like the Bahamas are so vigilant, for which they must be commended. But the cybersecurity problem is not unique to that country alone”, Said Denny.

He noted that in such a case, identification of one attack usually signals the presence of many others or the existence of a more serious underlying cybersecurity problem.

The team is currently facilitating similar training projects during the month of June in Singapore, Curacao, Aruba, and Panama. However, they have decided to make an effort to communicate with the respective agencies in the Bahamas in a bid to inform them of the free ethical hacking and cybersecurity training offer, which can run from the 19 to June 20, 2015.

The ethical hacking and cybersecurity program usually helps companies and countries to create a stronger cybersecurity interception and response team. Upon completion of the program, the participants’ knowledge is generally widened about various advanced forms of cybersecurity threats, and are also empowered to identify, intercept, remove, destroy, deter or block such security threats via ethical hacking and technological engineering techniques.

The training program is usually free and targets a maximum of a hundred trainees for every 100,000 members of a population. But participants are generally screened before admission considering the nature of the training.

The three-member team of cybersecurity volunteers generally functions on donated time, which averages at about 45 days, divided between fifteen countries, per year. They also generally provides free cybersecurity advises for corporate or state entities via their email address at: cyberadvisers@gmail.com

Their Ethical Hacking and Cyber Security training program is believed to be the first of its kind for the Bahamas.

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“Ethical hacking” is the practice of penetrating cyber systems to assess the vulnerability of those systems to help the people or agencies protect themselves from malicious hacking. It is done with the knowledge and consent of the would-be victims. An “ethical hacker” is someone who is hired to carry out these cyber intrusions and is certified (usually) by the FBI.