Digicel: 'No cyber attack, but we stay vigilant'

After last month's cyber attack on TSTT by the group RansomEXX, Digicel on Wednesday told Newsday it had not been attacked, but remained vigilant.

"Digicel TT to date has no known data breaches," said Digicel head of public relations, Colin Greaves, in a WhatsApp message to Newsday.

"Digicel has taken a proactive approach in its threat protection and mitigation management, and while attacks cannot be wholly prevented, in the event that a breach does occur, we promise full transparency in informing the relevant parties and providing guidance on steps to take to help safeguard personal data."

Digicel said it did not make payments to criminal organisations, but would continue to make every effort to ensure its systems and processes remained robust and secure, so as to stay ahead of malicious actors and keep its customers and employees safe.

"We pride ourselves on having the highest levels of cyber threat protection and mitigation management in place for the good of the business and our customers. Our ISO 27001 certification, the international standard focused on information security, is testament to the industry leading management systems and practices that we have in place."

That also included annual mandatory staff security training, and raising awareness about cyber security threats with customers and the general public, by training sessions and online content.

"No organisation in the world is immune to cyber attacks, and while Digicel did experience an incident outside of TT several years ago, the affected persons, and government authorities were notified in accordance with the local laws and regulations.

"Attacks like these are on the rise globally, and cyber criminals constantly try to find new ways of attacking and exploiting systems. This includes their use of new, never before seen, malicious software, purposely created to evade modern security protection systems."

Digicel said cyber criminals often relied on human error as a way to breach systems, so it was vital that everyone remained vigilant while online and avoid suspicious websites, the dark web and downloading information from unknown/unsafe sources.

"In the coming weeks, the public can look out for more information on how they can keep safe online as we expand our public education campaign on cybersecurity."