Barbados' E-commerce Readiness Thrown Into Doubt By New Survey

by Amanda Banks, Tax-News.com, London

26 March 2002

The newly released KPMG Information Security Survey 2002 has revealed serious concerns regarding Barbados' e-commerce development, particularly in terms of security measures.

According to KPMG Technology Parter, Brenda Pope, online security risks are not being adequately managed by the 56 Barbadian firms which participated in the survey, despite the fact that the issue is becoming increasingly crucial as more and more international businesses seek to conduct transactions over the internet.

Ms Pope revealed that of the companies surveyed, only 16% were engaged in actual e-commerce transactions, with the majority (56%) using the internet to promote corporate image, or for information exchange.

The results of the survey revealed that serious security breaches have risen since the first survey was conducted two years ago, and only 24% of companies questioned felt that their management had serious awareness of, and concerns about, the security of information.

The poll also showed that only 20% of companies based in Barbados have an ongoing programme of education in online security matters, which figure includes just 35% of finance companies based on the island.

The KPMG partner said that information was 'the crown jewel' of enterprises, and rapped Barbadian businesses for not taking enough time to protect it. She admitted that it would be unreasonable to expect smaller organisations to appoint a full-time online information security officer, but stressed that large companies with greater revenue should make the investment in order to guard sensitive information.

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