[Photo: FILE]

IT experts are warning that Fiji’s IT sector must strengthen its policies and governance frameworks to protect against growing cyber threats.

At a press briefing ahead of the National Conference on Information Technology, experts stressed that cybersecurity is not just about technology investment, but governance.

Cyber Acads Chief Information Security Officer Prashil Kumar says more awareness and education are needed to ensure cyber protection.

“The challenge I see at the moment is that people are putting all types of data onto artificial intelligence and we don’t know the data that’s going out of the businesses. In many businesses, all these applications are open, and people are just using them, and some are putting sensitive information out on the artificial intelligence tools. With the right prompt, we’ve seen this happen; with the right prompt, all this information that has been put out can be extracted.”

Kumar adds there is a lack of knowledge about IT governance in the Pacific.

“I think we need to bring the subject out in the conference; it needs to be talked about, and awareness needs to be created so that the businesses in Fiji, the individuals, the citizens in Fiji, in terms of the controls we need to implement to safeguard ourselves.”

Emerging IT expert Calem Adrian of DUCO Consultancy says proper training is needed to ensure user protection.

“Just looking at the risks in AI, it’s like what all the participants here said: if there is no governance, if there are no policies, then it’s like a country without a government; everything will run wild.”

Fiji currently has no dedicated AI law in force, but is building a framework through its National Digital Strategy 2025–2030, with a National AI Policy and AI Framework targeted for 2027.