Minister of Transport the Hon. Leon Lundy said the security of the country’s ports is the security of the nation.
“For a country like The Bahamas our maritime infrastructure is simply not a network of ports and facilities. It is the connection between our islands, our economy, and the rest of the world,” the Transport Minister said during the opening ceremony of the Cybersecurity in Ports Workshop: Strengthening Inter-Institutional Cyber-Resilience for Bahamas Maritime and Logistics Infrastructure held at Paul Farquharson Conference Centre, Police Headquarters, on Monday, September 21, 2026.
He said, “Our ports move the goods that our people depend on. They support our businesses; they facilitate tourism and trade and form an important part of our national security infrastructure.
“But the world in which our ports operate is changing. The same technology that allows us to move faster, communicate better and operate more efficiently also creates new vulnerabilities.”
The Minister noted that a cyber-attack does not need to come through the country’s front gates to cause disruption.
He explained that it can come through a system, a network, a piece of software or a compromised connection.
The Transport Minister said when critical systems are affected, the consequences can reach the economy, communities and national security.
He said, “That is why cybersecurity can no longer be treated as simply an IT issue. It is a national resilience issue.
“This workshop is therefore about more than identifying threats, it is about building capacity, the systems and the relationships necessary for when those threats emerge, and perhaps more importantly, it is about recognizing that no agency can do it alone.”
Minister Lundy said the nation’s national security agencies, the Port Department, the customs authorities, cybersecurity professionals, law enforcement and maritime partners must be able to communicate, coordinate and act together, because when a crisis comes, that is not the time to be exchanging telephone numbers.
“We must already know who is responsible, who must be contacted, which information must be shared and what action must be taken.”
He added, “That is the value of the work taking place here over the next several days.”
Minister Lundy explained that during the workshop the stakeholders will examine emerging maritime cyber threats, the protection of critical systems, supply chains, security, artificial intelligence and automation, incident response and the human element of cyber security.
He said through the practical exercises, the stakeholders will have an opportunity to test how to respond when the integrity of the ports is challenged.
The Minister said, “I want us to leave this workshop with something greater than a training certificate. I want us to leave with greater preparedness, greater concentration and greater confidence in our ability to protect The Bahamas, because we cannot wait for the next cyber incident to tell us what we should have done.”
He said, “We must prepare before the crisis, we must strengthen before the threat and we must build resistance before it is tested. That is responsible governance. “That is national preparedness. That is how we protect the future of The Bahamas.”
The workshop is being hosted by the National Computer Incident Response Team (CIRT-BS), the Port Department, and the Latin America and Caribbean Cyber Competence Centre (LAC4).
Port Controller, Bahamas Port Department, Captain Carlon Bethell; Director, CIRT-BS, Ms. Sametria McKinney; and LAC4 Programme Manager, Tallinn Estonia, Mr. Leonardo Daniel Ortega Prudencio were also in attendance.
The post Stakeholders Meet to Discuss Strengthening the Country’s Inter-Institutional Cyber-Resilience for Bahamas Maritime and Logistics Infrastructure appeared first on ZNS BAHAMAS.
