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Ethical hackers who discover vulnerabilities on Jamaican public or private websites could face a $3 million fine and a three-year prison sentence.
The Jamaican authorities are revising the cybercrime law passed in 2015. If the provisions of the law remain in place and are approved by Parliament, ethical hackers who discover vulnerabilities on Jamaican public or private websites could be fined $3 million and sentenced to three years in prison.
For example, Zach Whittaker, the security editor at TechCrunch, who last February reported an insecure cloud storage server with uploaded documents on the JamCOVID website, could be sanctioned.
The Jamaican Private Sector Organization (PSOJ) has recommended that the Joint Select Committee working on a new version of the Cybercrime Act develop a framework to ensure that ethical hackers are recognized.
This proposal was actively discussed by lawmakers and technocrats on Thursday at a committee meeting.
Private sector representatives expressed concern that innocent researchers who discovered vulnerabilities and did not have malicious intent could be subject to sanctions under the law.
This concern was also echoed by committee member Julian Robinson, who spoke out against provisions in the law criminalizing ethical hackers.
"I'm not sure you want to criminalize this kind of behavior, especially when people are out to help," Robinson replied.
Julian Robinson mentioned the case of Whittaker, whose online correspondence indicated that the JamCOVID website was an easy target for attackers.
The TechCrunch journalist would have been found guilty under the revised Cybercrime Act of 2015, he said.
“I don’t know if you want to dissuade people from this kind of work, which, frankly, is being done all over the world,” he added.
Robinson also noted that with limited local resources and the implementation of the National Identity System this year, the government will never be able to find domestic resources to adequately secure its networks.
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The Jamaican authorities are revising the cybercrime law passed in 2015. If the provisions of the law remain in place and are approved by Parliament, ethical hackers who discover vulnerabilities on Jamaican public or private websites could be fined $3 million and sentenced to three years in prison.
For example, Zach Whittaker, the security editor at TechCrunch, who last February reported an insecure cloud storage server with uploaded documents on the JamCOVID website, could be sanctioned.
The Jamaican Private Sector Organization (PSOJ) has recommended that the Joint Select Committee working on a new version of the Cybercrime Act develop a framework to ensure that ethical hackers are recognized.
This proposal was actively discussed by lawmakers and technocrats on Thursday at a committee meeting.
Private sector representatives expressed concern that innocent researchers who discovered vulnerabilities and did not have malicious intent could be subject to sanctions under the law.
This concern was also echoed by committee member Julian Robinson, who spoke out against provisions in the law criminalizing ethical hackers.
"I'm not sure you want to criminalize this kind of behavior, especially when people are out to help," Robinson replied.
Julian Robinson mentioned the case of Whittaker, whose online correspondence indicated that the JamCOVID website was an easy target for attackers.
The TechCrunch journalist would have been found guilty under the revised Cybercrime Act of 2015, he said.
“I don’t know if you want to dissuade people from this kind of work, which, frankly, is being done all over the world,” he added.
Robinson also noted that with limited local resources and the implementation of the National Identity System this year, the government will never be able to find domestic resources to adequately secure its networks.
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