Yet another government agency has been hit by a cyber-attack.
The Barbados Statistical Service (BSS) confirms that they recently experienced what they call a cyber incident.
This follows a similar cyber-breach at the Barbados Revenue Authority.
The BSS says in a statement that ongoing investigations suggest that the systems of the BSS were breached on October 30th and that data was obtained by malicious actors. It adds that the Data Commissioner was advised.
The statement says that within 24 hours of the intrusion, an incident response team was mobilised to contain the incident and investigate the scope of the breach along with BSS I.T. staff.
According to the BSS, the incident has been contained, systems have been taken offline, and the investigations, so far, reveal that most of the information involved in this incident relates to survey data gathered primarily for statistical research purposes.
The teams are said to be still in the early stages of their investigations and are in the process of restoring data and services from secured backups.
The BSS concludes by saying that it is cognisant of its obligation to preserve public trust and that it will over the coming days and weeks ensure that their systems are appropriately hardened to reduce the probability of a recurrence.
The agency also promises to come back to the public to advise on any relevant action that should be taken at the individual level to stay safe.
