Internet Week Trinidad & Tobago

31/10/2018

Internet Week Trinidad & Tobago brought together Trinbagonian Internet stakeholders, regional Internet organizations, and the global technical community for four days of intense activity, a week devoted to promoting Internet development, providing training opportunities for Information and Communication Technology (ICT) professionals, and building capacity to deal with eventual critical network infrastructure vulnerabilities.

In this context, LACNIC played a leading role in organizing three workshops on entrepreneurship, interconnection and cybersecurity, which were attended by more than 200 participants.

The entrepreneurship and interconnection workshops were part of a joint initiative by LACNIC and Google for Central America and the Caribbean that seeks to strengthen both the entrepreneurship ecosystem and local connectivity. The cybersecurity workshop was offered within the framework of LACNIC’s AMPARO Project.

Digital Tools. The workshop on entrepreneurship in Trinidad and Tobago was attended by more than 80 participants and was led by Inés Peralta Agüero, Market Lead for Central America and the Caribbean at Google. The activity focused on how entrepreneurs can optimize their use of digital marketing and strengthen their skills around the use of Google marketing tools. Another goal was for local SMEs to have elements to consolidate their ventures and then add value and generate employment in the digital market.

LACNIC and Google also organized a workshop on interconnection and the optimization of local IP traffic. This workshop covered technical aspects such as the new Internet Protocol (IPv6), routing security (RPKI), peering models, open standards and root servers. The interconnection workshop was presented by Arturo Servin, Manager of Interconnection Strategy for Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean at Google, and Guillermo Cicileo, Head of the Internet Security and Stability Program at LACNIC.

Security in Trinidad and Tobago. LACNIC rounded its contribution to Internet Week Trinidad & Tobago with a cybersecurity workshop, supported by the National Computer Security Incident Response Team (CSIRT). Nearly 50 professionals representing law enforcement agencies, academia and the most important public and private organizations of Trinidad and Tobago participated in the two-day course, which addressed emerging cybersecurity issues and attempted to promote the creation of additional CSIRTs. The workshop was led by Graciela Martínez, LACNIC WARP Coordinator, and Ernesto Pérez, Coordinator of CEDIA CSIRT, Ecuador. Martinez stressed the level of the experts and professionals she met in Trinidad and Tobago, adding that workshop participants had understood the need to create teams to manage security incidents and strengthen critical Internet infrastructure.

Likewise, Kevon Swift, Head of Strategic Relations and Integration at LACNIC, highlighted that the format under which Internet Week was organized — an experience that has already been implemented in other Caribbean countries — is very auspicious, as it allows multiple stakeholders to make a unique and concise contribution on Internet-related topics for the benefit of small local communities.