LACNIC backs Internet development in Curacao
The Internet Addresses Registry for Latin America and the Caribbean (LACNIC), one of five Regional Registries that coordinate the distribution of Internet number resources worldwide, recently held an Internet development conference in Willemstad, Curacao.
Called LACNIC on the Move, the three-day event brought together a diverse profile of the local and international stakeholders, including government officials, policy makers, industry regulators, network engineers, academic researchers, local nation police, journalists, and Internet exchange point representatives.
Curaçao is a country with many advantages at the technological development level, as its residential broadband penetration rate is more than 82 per cent, it is connected to seven international submarine telecommunications cables, and has received investments in data centres and cloud services. Nevertheless, the deployment of deployment of IPv6, the Internet Protocol which addresses the depletion of unallocated numbering resources in the region and around the world, remains at 0.04 per cent.
“We are approaching the Curaçao community with the following message: promoting IPv6 is worth it,” said Kevon Swift, head of strategic relations and integration at LACNIC.
Hardly surprising, then, that one consistent theme across many discussions was the urgent need for IPv6 adoption and deployment.
"We are not promoting IPv4. There are few scenarios where it is still required. But IPv6 will enable the developments your end users will be driving,” said Sergio Rojas, head of registration services at LACNIC.
“A country that does not deploy IPv6 is at risk of getting isolated. What has surfaced during these discussions is the local community’s need for greater knowledge on the mechanisms used to transition from IPv4 to IPv6,” said Alejandro Acosta, a research and development engineer at LACNIC.
A second major theme of discussions was the need for greater capacity for responding to local and regional cybersecurity challenges. A specially designed workshop organised by LACNIC’s AMPARO project focused on establishing and strengthening Computer Security Incident Response Teams. Though known internationally for sun-soaked white-sand beaches, the Caribbean is hardly immune to the security risks from by the rapidly growing network of Internet-connected devices.
Graciela Martinez, Coordinator of LACNIC WARP, and Giovanni Cruz led a two-day workshop focused on building relevant cybersecurity capacity in the country’s technical community. Martinez announced DNS IPv6 Open Resolver, LACNIC’s new security initiative, at LACNIC on the Move Curacao.
The conference was jointly hosted by Bureau Telecommunicatie en Post (BTP), the telecommunications regulator for Curacao.
“LACNIC on the Move events are held around the region to afford the local community the chance to discuss the challenges they are facing in Internet development and, even more importantly, to find concrete solutions to these challenges,” Swift said.
Since 2015, these events have taken place in Belize, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Paraguay, Sint Maarten and Suriname. They are usually free of charge and open to the public.