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For Gibraltar’s digital economy, security is a must

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Gibraltar’s pioneering approach to digital business makes it an attractive target for cyber criminals, the Chief Information Officer of the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission said, as he underlined the vital importance of security awareness across all levels of an organisation.

Alan Pereira, who oversees the GFSC’s use of technology and the security of its systems, said Gibraltar is targeted “constantly” by hackers, much as occurs in the rest of the world.

But the Rock’s success trailblazing in sectors such as financial services, online gaming and distributed ledger technology puts businesses here on the criminal radar for different reasons.

“We're always in the limelight for that or other reasons, and for a small jurisdiction, the number of attacks that hit Gibraltar is quite large,” he said.

“As of late we've been seeing that, in different areas of Gibraltar, these attacks have been targeting different organisations.”

The GFSC, he added, is no different and is also targeted, which highlights the importance of tight security systems and keen awareness of risks and the steps needed to mitigate them.

Businesses need to think of cyber security as they would any other issue on their corporate risk registers, Mr Pereira said.

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