KINGSTON, Jamaica – Minister of Science, Energy and Technology Dr Andrew Wheatley today urged local businesses and individuals to be vigilant in light of recent global cyber attacks.

Dr Wheatley in a statement said that the latest Ransomeware attacks, which have affected systems including health services, utility and communications companies in over 130 countries, must not be taken lightly in Jamaica.“This latest Ransomeware virus called WannaCry is one of, if not the largest attack of its type in recent history, and as a country we must take it seriously. Small and large businesses, hospitals, utility companies, telecommunications firms, Entities in the health and insurance sector must all take the necessary steps to secure and update their computer systems to protect against this attack and other attacks of this nature,” Wheatley urged.The global attack, which was launched last Friday spread rapidly in a matter of hours infecting computers running unsecured versions of Microsoft Windows in China, UK, Russia, Spain, Germany Taiwan and India.Dr Wheatley today assured Jamaica that the government’s Cyber Incident Response Team (CIRT) has been monitoring the situation from its inception and has advised all ministries, departments and agencies on the practices that must be employed to protect systems against infection.The technology ministry has suggested some basic steps that may be followed in an effort to mitigate this and coming threats:• Ensure systems are patched and all software up to date.• Enable strong spam filters to prevent phishing e-mails from reaching the end users • Scan all incoming and outgoing e-mails to detect threats and filter executable files from reaching the end users.• Ensure anti-virus and anti-malware solutions are set to automatically conduct regular scans.