In a bid to better protect Cook Islanders from online scams and threats, the Government, through the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM), is drafting a Cyber Security Strategy that will inform the development of future cybersecurity legislation.

There are also plans in the pipeline to launch Cook Islands’ first ever Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) specifically to deal with online issues.

Last week, the Office of the Prime Minister in partnership with the New Zealand Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet (DPMC) and New Zealand Emergency Response Team (CERTNZ) invited members of the public to consultations to draft the Cook Islands Cyber Security Strategy and the establishment of a CERT for the Cook Islands.

Maara Tetava, the director of the National Security at the Office of the Prime Minister, stressed that the goal is to set up Cook Islands’ own CERT while the strategy is a step forward to protecting people from online scams and threats.

“There are online issues not only internationally but also in-country about scams that have affected our people and the strategy is aimed at doing the best we can because right now, we don’t have a strategy,” said Tetava, the former police commissioner.

“The strategy will also apply for a need for a legislation which we do not have and setting up an emergency response team. It’s called CERT – Samoa, Tonga, Vanuatu, and other Pacific Island countries like New Zealand and Australia, have it.

“For us, we’re still trying to find out how that will work for us. We don’t want to copy and paste what other countries have; we want to develop our own that is purposely for us.

“It’s a place where our people can go to and tell them about an issue that they come across and that team then triages those issues and redirects either to a specific response team or to police if it’s a police matter or some other agencies.”

Unfortunately, the consultation on Thursday last week had a lack of participation from members of the public, but the OPM was optimistic about the attendance of the following consultation.

The drafting of the strategy stems from an action in the National Security Police, which was launched last year, to develop a Cook Islands Cyber Security Strategy.

DPMC and CERTNZ then met with the OPM for their first round of consultation on the requirement regarding the Cyber Security Strategy prior to consulting with the public last week.

“It’s a long time coming but as technology evolves and develops very quickly, we need to have some kind of roadmap to guide us on how we should better protect our people and how we can react and maybe investigate and prosecute those who are the bad ones plying their trade on our people,” Tetava said.

“It also provides us with an avenue to learn from our partners in the Pacific and internationally and how we can better deal with these people who are using social media to do bad things against our people.

“And sadly, a lot of our Pacific people are falling for these scams so it’s only right that we do something right now to better educate our people.”

Last year, three local residents lost more than $70,000 through a scam known as the “Samsung Lottery”. The scammers used the Prime Minister’s name to support their crime.

In a statement, the Office of the Prime Minister then said the scam had defrauded three people of more than $70,000, adding “there could be more”. One of the three people affected had lost more than $40,000.