The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A prominent businessman is questioning whether the government and private sector are doing enough to protect Bahamians’ personal financial data from employee theft in a growing digital economy.

Sir Franklyn Wilson told Tribune Business that widespread employee abuses and stealing, as evidenced by the number of cases brought before the Bahamian judicial system, meant companies needed to be extra careful when securing customers’ payment-related data.

While acknowledging the improved ease of doing business and customer convenience provided by digital payments, he added that “in every element of progress there’s an element of risk” that has to be properly mitigated and addressed.

“The pace at which businesses, then public sector and private sector has moved to digital as a result of COVID-919 has, I think it is fair to say, been faster than anyone would have dreamed one year ago,” Sir Franklyn told this newspaper.

“It’s been at a very rapid pace, and I think there’s a side of this that I caution the business community, society and the police to be careful on. Are we properly considering the risks inherent in that people’s credit and debit card information is now in a lot of places they were not before.

“What steps are businesses taking to ensure that information does not end up in the hands of staff who abuse it? Stealing by reason of employment is a crime well known in this country, unfortunately. It’s remarkably commonplace. To what extent is the prevention of that taking place,” he continued.

“The concern is whether or not customers have the confidence to share their numbers, their personal data, given the record of incidents of stealing by reason of employment in this country. The point is are these things being properly mitigated? Who has access? Who in every organisation has access to people’s personal data and credit data? Is that degree of access increasing the possibility of abuse?”

Stolen data can be used to perpetrate identity theft and other economic crimes against persons who have their personal financial information stolen. The Bahamas, to guard against this, has passed the Data Protection Act and created a regulator to oversee this issue, while the Central Bank - and payments providers - are being extra cautious to ensure the Bahamian digital currency is cyber secure.

Meanwhile, Sir Franklyn also voiced concern that the digital drive was taking place too quickly for older persons accustomed to paying by cheque and other traditional means. He recalled how one company, which had announced a policy of no longer accepting cheques, rescinded this for a long-standing customer who said that was the only payment method they knew.

“The fact of the matter is that’s the way people have always done it,” Sir Franklyn added. “They’ve done it for 60 years. To ask them to change overnight, for some people in that category that’s just too fast.

“That has implications for businesses. I would not be surprised if over the last several months that some businesses who have moved in the digital direction have seen accounts receivables increase as they don’t want to pay that way.”