00:00TV6 News spoke with Michael Ramasar, the Chief Executive Officer and Principal Consultant
00:05of Mayan Industries, a local company which he says provides industrial cyber security.
00:12If for example Powergen had a cyber attack, what could happen? Lights would go out not
00:18only in Port of Spain but the entire island and that will have a cascading effect, right?
00:24No power, no water, no broadband, no internet. So companies are very serious about what their
00:31risks are.
00:32Mayan was one of the cyber security companies at the Amcham TNT HSE Conference at the Hyatt
00:39Regency along with ICONS. TV6 News also spoke with Phil Roy-Phillip, the Business Development
00:45Executive at ICONS.
00:47We have noticed over the last 5, 7, 10 years that it has become a major issue in the Caribbean.
00:57So we as IT experts in the field have repositioned our solutions, our services, all our initiatives
01:10to be able to handle these threats with our clients, right? Regular updates.
01:16They were at the Amcham Conference at a time when many have expressed concerns about the
01:21local foreign exchange market and we wondered if there is any link between the issue of
01:25cyber security and the issue of foreign exchange since many companies in Trinidad and Tobago
01:31have foreign suppliers.
01:33People don't jump on a plane and go pay people cash. It's electronic and you use platforms.
01:38I mean personally as a business you would use your online banking, your business online
01:42banking to pay suppliers and so on. Now that platform could be subject to cyber security
01:50weaknesses, cyber security vulnerabilities and it can be exploited.
01:55Chuck Stewart, the Chief Executive Officer of ICONS is calling for a change in the culture
01:59of cyber security in Trinidad and Tobago.
02:02As a business owner you need to ensure that your staff, your personnel are also educated
02:09in and around what cyber security is about, understanding what threats look like.
02:14Mr. Stewart then spoke about what he faces as a business owner who needs Forex.
02:19Our distributors primarily reside in Miami and so the unavailability of Forex is becoming
02:27an ongoing challenge with regards to us and the sustainability of our business and providing
02:32services to our customers.
02:33He says something needs to be done about the situation.
02:36As a local company I think we ourselves we're trying to think outside of the box, figure
02:42out how we can start generating U.S. without being dependent solely on the bank and local
02:49government. But as I said it's becoming a growing challenge.
02:52The CEO of Mayan Industries made reference to the revenue Trinidad and Tobago earns from
02:57its natural gas sector in particular.
02:59All of our foreign exchange or if not most of it is generated through our very highly
03:05industrialized operations here. Like I said you know the LNG, the gas and everything and
03:13those very industries are the ones that carry the most critical infrastructure and it is
03:21now an easy target for nation state adversaries to compromise these industries.
03:29On November 5th the finance minister said the government will begin talking with local
03:34business chambers and other interest groups to find out if they believe the honor system
03:39in place for foreign exchange in Trinidad and Tobago for the past 25 years should be
03:44replaced with a more regulated system.
03:48Jewel Brown, TV6 News.
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