The National Cybersecurity Unit is tracking 500 vulnerabilities that could potentially impact Bermuda and more than 400 breaches worldwide, Bermuda’s chief information security officer said.

Anthony Francis, head of the National Cybersecurity Unit, warned that the pace of cyberattacks makes advanced planning critical.

Speaking at the Protect What You’ve Built: Bermuda Cybersecurity Summit 2026, he said: “All of the cybersecurity attacks are coming, and they are coming fast.”

Speaking in a panel discussion on cybersecurity risk and resilience, Mr Francis said Bermuda’s interconnected critical infrastructure makes preparation a shared responsibility.

“In Bermuda, we are so connected that we don’t have what you would like to consider resilience,” he said. “We have one airport. We have one hospital.”

Mr Francis said resilience requires organisations to understand not just their own capabilities, but also who can help when disruption occurs.

“Do you all know each other?” he asked.

He encouraged businesses to keep communication channels open between competitors and partners.

Panellist Tihana Madgic, Brava operations manager, said it is important for firms to practise for various types of disasters.

“Every single scenario has to be practised till it becomes second nature for people to react and act in their specific role,” she said. “Regular suppliers must also be tested.”

She said some businesses do not want to upset their partners or suppliers by burdening them with more paperwork or meetings, but it is necessary, even if the conversation feels awkward.

Another person on the panel, Mark Arruda, vice-president of solutions at Cloud Carib, said it was important for organisations to share their threat information, especially if they can do it anonymously.

“You may notice a spate of spam coming your way,” he said. “If it is happening at your company, the odds are it is happening to other companies. Being able to communicate that quickly will help the entire industry address those issues.”

Garfield Gordon, Fortinet senior systems engineer, said it was important to preserve the chain of evidence after a cyberattack.

“You have to get the information out there,” he said.

He explained that a staging environment can help with recovery while preserving the original system.

“We can utilise the staging environment to restore services while maintaining the original platform at its current state,” he said. “The forensic evidence and the investigators will go in and they want to see certain details.”

He admitted that this was harder for smaller organisations with only one platform, and they may need a back-up or temporary equipment to restore the environment.

Mr Francis said: “You have to make sure that you keep the cause available, so that when the investigators do come in, that we can track back to where it started and who it started with. We tend to destroy that in the middle of an incident.”

The event was staged by Brava by One Communications to mark Cybersecurity Awareness Month.