The Tribune

Executives with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Bahamas say the newly-passed Data Protection Act 2025, combined with The Bahamas National Cybersecurity Strategy, creates the opportunity to strengthen this nation’s digital crime defences.

Nestle Maullon, PwC Bahamas’ director of risk assurance, outlined what national cyber readiness means for The Bahamas when she appeared as a panellist at the second annual Aliv Business Cyber Security Summit.

She highlighted the misalignment between regulatory expectations and real‐world cyber risk management, including cyber risk remaining siloed within information technology (IT). She also warned of potential dangers from Boards receiving technical updates instead of risk-related insights tied to financial exposure and operational continuity; low incident response maturity; and limited adoption of threat‐led testing.

Pointing to the challenges facing The Bahamas as it accelerates its digital transformation, Ms Maullon said: “Let us operationalise The Bahamas National Cybersecurity Strategy (NCS) through aligning governance structures with the NCS principles, and engage proactively with National Computer Incident Response Team of The Bahamas (CIRT-BS) for reporting and intelligence sharing.”

Event attendees included government leaders and regulators, cyber security officials, industry executives and technology and digital risk specialists, who examined the rapidly-evolving cyber threat landscape.

Myra Lundy-Mortimer, PwC Bahamas’ risk assurance leader, said: “Cyber resilience must be a top priority for leaders. The organisations that will flourish are those that invest in secure, compliant and trusted digital ecosystems. PwC remains deeply committed to supporting organisations as they strengthen their cyber capabilities and build confidence in the digital future.”

PwC, in its 2026 global digital trust insights survey, found 78 percent of organisations plan to increase their cyber security budgets. Yet only 6 percent consider themselves “very capable” of withstanding sophisticated cyber attacks, underscoring the widening resilience gap.

At the Aliv summit, PwC detailed several priorities it believes are critical to national and company readiness. These included leveraging the national cyber security framework to foster collaboration; strengthening cyber governance and accountability at the leadership level; fostering cross-sector collaboration to combat emerging risks; co-ordinating national cyber‐defence efforts under the Data Protection Act 2025 and the NCS; and advancing national cyber resilience through closer CIRT‐BS collaboration.