Prime Minister Andrew Holness has issued an unambiguous warning to Jamaica’s would-be cyber-offenders: advanced tools now give law-enforcement an overwhelming edge, and those who weaponise their talent for crime will be traced and taken down.
Speaking at Wednesday’s unveiling of Guardsman Group’s round-the-clock Cyber Intelligence Security Operations Centre (SOC), Holness highlighted a decisive shift in the nation’s security posture. Over the past decade, the Government has more than tripled its national-security allocation, funnelling the additional resources into cutting-edge communications networks, forensic laboratories, intelligence platforms, and specialised cyber-units.
“The playing field has changed,” Holness declared. “Old assumptions about anonymity no longer apply. Before you breach a system, understand that our detection net is closing fast.”
The Prime Minister dismissed the stereotype that cybercrime is confined to disenfranchised youth. University graduates, software specialists, and other highly trained professionals, he noted, now sit at the centre of sophisticated criminal syndicates—leveraging encryption, social engineering, and digital marketplaces to mask their operations.
Holness revealed that Jamaica’s new investigative stack is driving the likelihood of arrest toward “the high nineties”—a figure he expects to hit once the latest analytics and threat-hunting modules come fully online.
The Guardsman SOC, designed to provide 24/7 monitoring for public- and private-sector networks, marks a major milestone in domestic capability. Holness praised the company’s initiative, adding that private-sector innovation is critical to complement governmental advances and create an integrated national shield.
His closing words were stark: “We already know many of the key players. We can locate you, and we now possess the reach to act—swiftly.”
With that declaration, Jamaica signalled that the era of low-risk cybercrime on the island is rapidly coming to an end.
