Belize Hosts Regional Talks on Cybersecurity and Disaster Data Protection

Representatives from across the Caribbean and Latin America gathered in Belize City today for a Regional Workshop and Policy Dialogue focused on strengthening digital resilience and protecting critical government infrastructure during times of disruption and disaster.  The two-day workshop, hosted by Belize’s Ministry of E-Governance is examining strategies aimed at ensuring continuity of government services and safeguarding sovereign data in the face of cyber threats and climate-related disasters.  Participants are discussing the implementation of the “data embassy” model, an international framework which allows countries to securely store encrypted copies of critical government data in partner states while maintaining full sovereign control over that information. Organizers say the model is particularly important for Caribbean nations that remain vulnerable to hurricanes and other natural disasters capable of disrupting both physical and digital infrastructure.  Chief Executive Officer in the Ministry of E-Governance, Jose Urbina, says Belize has already made significant progress in strengthening its digital infrastructure and maintaining compliance with international standards. However, he noted that there is still considerable work ahead as technology and cyber threats continue to evolve.

Jose Urbina, CEO, Ministry of E Governance: “We are very up to par, I would say, as it relates to international standards. Within the Government of Belize, we have the Central Information and Technology Office, referred to as CETO, which we consider as the government cloud they are ISO certified which a lot of people within our country do not realize. They are ISO 2701 certified. So we are very compliant with international standards. However, we still have some work to do with other data centers within the Government of Belize to ensure that they are also up to par with those international standards. Most organizations, and by this I mean both private and public sector, is the geo-redundancy that is required to ensure that their data is not only stored in one single location but stored in multiple locations within the country of Belize. For example, if we have a private sector entity that has its major data center in Belize City, it would be ideal for them to have a geo-redundant site, maybe more inland be it Belmopan or Orange Walk, to be able to store that information. And the same applies for public sector entities to ensure that when they have a data center they can also lean on CETO to do geo-redundancy or the National Telco to do geo-redundancy to increase their resiliency.”

CEO Urbina also emphasized the importance of regional collaboration in addressing modern cybersecurity challenges. He explained that Caribbean countries must work more closely together to safeguard critical infrastructure, protect sensitive government data, and ensure continuity of services during national emergencies and natural disasters.

Jose Urbina, CEO, Ministry of E Governance: “The hardest to move in my opinion would be several entities within the public service and the private sector really and the reason for that is because we have several data centers within the public sector and we still tend to work in a siloed environment within the public sector even though right now as we speak we champion collaboration and you may have heard about the revision of our national digital agenda 2026/2030 and as I presented to cabinet the one of the pillars for this revised national digital agenda is collaboration. We need to ensure that as as public institutions we collaborate with each other to ensure that we are able to safeguard data and apart from safeguarding data to ensure that we are able to safeguard public digital infrastructure in terms of the dynamics of cyber security, in terms of the dynamics when it comes to responding to potential natural disasters, hurricanes and so on and how do we respond. So there’s a lot of coordination that is happening within the public sector and that’s nothing new but we continue to ensure that we erode those siloed approaches into a more collaborative environment within the public sector and also how we interface with the private sector.”

The workshop is being carried out in collaboration with the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, ECLAC.