Basseterre, St. Kitts, April 24, 2018 (SKNIS): The growing number of computer viruses and malware, the alleged cases of meddling in the United States Election in 2016, and the hacking of various Government websites in the Caribbean have caught the attention of security experts in the region, who have decided to introduce a component of cyber security training in the annual Tradewinds exercise for 2018 (TW18).
Captain Kayode Sutton of the St. Kitts-Nevis Defence Force noted that given the stated goal of Tradewinds, to assist partner nations to build capacity to mitigate emerging global threats, organizers from TW18 host countries – St. Kitts and Nevis and the Bahamas – felt that it was important to have training in cyber threats from experts in the United States and other allied nations.
St. Kitts and Nevis will host Phase I of TW18 from June 04 to 12. The simulated cyber threat event will take place during Phase II training in the Bahamas from June 13 to 21.
Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Grace of the United States Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM) said the introduction of the topic “is one of the evolving introductions to the exercise” and officials will cover the basics this year.
“Hopefully in future iterations of the exercise that [topic] will grow in scope and scale too,” he stated.
The motto of Exercise Tradewinds is “Tailored for the region by the region.” The theme for the Phase I exercise is “Capacity Development through Integrated Training and Exercises to Confront National Security Challenges of the 21st Century.”
