BRIDGETOWN – We are aware of news reports that some private sector Caribbean networks may have been compromised by malicious state actors and the telecom companies they control.
This is a timely reminder that citizens and governments throughout the Caribbean must be alert to the threats posed by telecom operators that are controlled and beholden to malicious state agendas.
Customers and governments in the Caribbean need to be able to trust that equipment and software companies will not threaten national security, privacy, intellectual property, or human rights. Trust cannot exist where telecom vendors are subject to authoritarian governments that lack an independent judiciary or rule of law that would effectively prohibit this misuse of data.
Allowing untrusted, high-risk vendors, into any part of 5G networks or any part of governments’ internal networks makes critical systems vulnerable to disruption, manipulation, and espionage, and puts sensitive government, commercial, and personal information at risk.
We encourage our Caribbean partners to join the Clean Network, which is a growing alliance of democracies and companies coming together to safeguard national security, intellectual property, and personal data from aggressive intrusions by malign actors. The Clean Network serves as a model of turning the tide against surveillance states and corrupt vendors.