Niall Gillett says he wants the government to create and enact a national information security policy - and today at a press presentation, he told us why.

Niall Gillett, Security Consultant
"Let's look at Belize; we had the Belize City Traffic database fiasco, what has come out of that? How many people were affected by that? That was all internal, thousands upon thousands of names were bought and sold and used for illegal transfer of money, my own sister included, right? If you had a Belize City driver's license and you were on that database, there is a good chance that they used your name to facilitate the transfer of money. The D.P.P (Department of Public Prosecution) has reported a stolen laptop, that had no important information they say, somebody broke into the office and stole one laptop, this was lost year. Again the Vital Statistics Unit, their car was broken into and they stole a laptop that had nothing but the birth information of probably every citizen in Belize that was born in the last 2 to 3 years, no big deal. In the states and around the world however that would have been a big deal and somebody's head would have roll for that, but we in Belize we take it for granted. So, what they have my birth certificate information, so what? We have hacked e-mails, we actually have a member of the house reading e-mail that he proudly boasts that were from a member of the opposition, and it's no big deal in Belize. That would not work in half of the civilized world today, but we in Belize have not yet recognized that our personal information or social security cards or date of birth or things like that is worth something to somebody, right? True we have a small population but around election time and especially with the database at traffic, that information was worth a lot of money to somebody because they used it and transferred thousands if not millions of dollars through Belize."

And while his presentation was on point, Gillett didn't draw much of an audience. He invited the entire media, as well as private and public sector representatives and only a single handful turned up. He says that's indicative of how the society in general does not take security seriously.

Channel 7