Relaxed sanctions could aid Cuba’s cybersecurity

The Obama administration’s decision to ease restrictions on Cuba will allow the country to bolster its cybersecurity, a top Cuban official said recently.   

Decades of tight economic sanctions on the island nation have curbed technological investment, putting the country at a significant infrastructure and software disadvantage, said First Vice President Miguel Diaz-Canel, who is first in line to succeed Cuban leader Raul Castro.

{mosads}“[President] Obama’s appreciation on the failure of that policy and the announcement that they will carry out investments in the telecommunications sector, for the Cuban people to access them, are a recognition of that,” he said at a three-day technology conference in Havana, reported Chinese news agency Xinhua.

The White House said in December it would move to normalize relations with Cuba. The administration has since relaxed the travel and trade restrictions that had been in place for decades. The White House has encouraged American Internet and telecommunications companies to build infrastructure in Cuba to encourage more open communications for the citizens of the Communist country.  

The expansion of the Internet — only a quarter of Cubans currently browse the Web — will likely raise questions about how much access the government should have to citizens’ online information and foreign businesses’ data.

Diaz-Canel indicated that individuals have a duty to work with the government on securing Cuba through the Internet.

“The right to the Internet is accompanied as well by the duties of citizens and institutions toward the society, in regard to an appropriate use, and according to the law,” Diaz-Canel said. “It supposes as well the responsibility of the control agencies, looking after the defense of the country and its integrity.”