{"id":27806,"date":"2026-06-12T15:28:45","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T13:28:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eurossig.eu\/eurossig\/?page_id=27806"},"modified":"2026-09-02T15:22:38","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T13:22:38","slug":"katasha-nicholas","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/eurossig.eu\/eurossig\/2026-edition\/fellows-2026\/katasha-nicholas\/","title":{"rendered":"Katasha Nicholas"},"content":{"rendered":"

University of Warwick, Barbados<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I have a Bsc. in International Relations with Public Sector Management & French from the University of the West Indies in Barbados. I am a postgrad at the University of Warwick pursuing an MSc. in Cyber Security Management.<\/p>\n

Fellow report<\/h4>\n

Introduction <\/em>
\nThroughout the week I tried to apply a small island developing states (SIDS) and developing countries lens, and connect our challenges and opportunities within the discussions. It was important to understand the importance and role of the IGF but of equal importance was what do I takeway from the sessions that aligns with my country\u2019s realities. In 2022 Barbados\u2019 broadband penetration was 37.5%, Trinidad & Tobago 26.9% in 2023, Jamaica 15.8% in 2023 and Guyana 12.9% in 2022 making E-commerce an expensive endeavor for small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs); when I reflect on our discussions on equity, access is still a challenge for some of these better performing economiess due to infrastrutural costs. The second challenge we face is regulation, harmonization of policies at the CARICOM level, and promotion of geoTLDs ccTLDs. The government of Barbados is the registry for .bb domains, yet uptake by local businesses is low. The .berlin evolution redefined how I saw geoTLDs and ccTLDs, .berlin was treated with national pride, a global city within Germany yes, but with a unique make up of businesses and organizations that identify with it. Today, one can only imagine the amount of web traffic and profits it has brought through customers interested in the culture and services found in Berlin. I liken it as a digital equivalent of real estate for Caribbean countries, if CARICOM can commodify our culture in profitable way that benefits SMEs the .bb, .jm, .gy or .tt can become benefecial for our economies. At the CTU level, perhaps an agreement to create .caribbean might create more opportunities for businesses domiciled in CARICOM countries. <\/p>\n

Below, I have outlined a thematic report of the salient topics for SIDS as well the unanswered questions I left with. Specific discussions piqued my curiosity with take-home lessons and questions on governance, sociopolitical challenges and the likelihood of similar implementation. <\/p>\n

The multistakeholder model under strain <\/em>
\nCGI.br offered a compelling working example of multistakeholder governance with a steering committee whose members are elected, with a deliberate balance of twelve non-governmental and nine governmental seats resting on a strong civil-society base. Yet the model shows friction, the Brazilian government and CGI.br do not see eye to eye on extending multistakeholder arrangements to AI, continuing the wider multilateral-versus-multistakeholder debate. A recurring theme in the Caribbean is the private sector, civil society and government operating in silos with a social partnership convening for non-technical sociopolitical issues in Barbados. <\/p>\n

Infrastructure, sovereignty and resilience <\/em>
\nPhysical and logical infrastructure were discussed, software including AI tools as \u2018sovereign infrastructure\u2019, illustrated by Russia developing national AI models through its largest telecom operators. Upon reflection, cybersecurity concerns challenge this sovereignty and persist with constant vulnerabilites discovered in hardware devices making cyberwarfare possible. <\/p>\n

Resilience emerged as a distinct concern for smart cities, whose constant \u201conline\u201d operation depends on connectivity, internet access and interoperability. My understanding of the issues cemented my belief that natural disaster prone Caribbean countries cannot fully adopt this approach as yet, we must have disaster-resilient energy sources and storage capable of keeping those systems running through disruption, tying back to my initial point on infrastructural costs. <\/p>\n

Security, standards and trust <\/em>
\nThe central tension was that investment is flowing into AI capability far faster than into security, even though security is what makes AI use safe and effective. For me, this raised pointed questions about ICANN\u2019s forward role, in particular its readiness for AI-enabled DNS abuse and the future of post-quantum cryptographic methods (NIST may suffer a 2027 54% budget cut. Research and development require investment). Secondly, Certificate Authority (CA) transparency has a role to play here in the future as well, it was mentioned that more than 160 CAs exist, but not all genuinely verify a website\u2019s identity. <\/p>\n

On CSIRT\/CERT discussions it was understood that operationally, incident response needs frameworks without bureaucracy. EU member states require CSIRTs under NIS2, which allows member states to designate existing CERTs to fulfill that role. CARICOM countries have the Cybersecurity and Cybercrime action plan and the CARICOM Cyber Resilience Strategy 2030 but it is a collaborative effort and not a binding law with adjacent policies implemented nationally for guidance across sectors and in government. Historically, the political nature of these countries has created highly bureaucratic governance and isomorphic institutions regardless of sector. Barbados is in its early stages with one CERT sitting outside of the Prime Minister\u2019s office but still under national security guidance, introducing complexity. Thus, having a nimble or an autonomous CERT would mean a complete shift in governance. <\/p>\n

Governance and digital rights <\/em>
\nThe intersection of digital rights, trust and digital surveillance created some tense discussions. Tracking a platform\u2019s use to reduce cybercrime can infringe on the privacy of people in the process, it creates one of the many paradoxes the internet brings about \u2013 freedom of speech and association depends on platforms that simultaneously record, globally distribute and store those expressions on servers and in hardware memory. Forensic artifacts such as registry, jump lists and shellbags highlight that devices store metadata about their users, cached data stored on web applications for ease of access and use isn\u2019t surveillance itself, but it can be misused as a tool by law enforcement or governments with access. A proposal was mentioned, a convention against mass surveillance, but most importantly the observation was made that law-enforcement agencies and governments are viewed very differently by citizens across countries. <\/p>\n

Reflections, challenges and questions about the future of internet governance <\/em>
\nCan the multistakeholder model hold as AI policy scales or should it be both multilateralism and multistakeholders at play? Why does civil society remain siloed and what would connect it to government to achieve desired policy outcomes? I believe multilateralism works for international cooperation but at the national level political leaders need to translate conventions to domestic laws that fit their societies. Stakeholders have a role to play at the national level but more can be achieved through similar organizations that share the same ethos outside of their countries. <\/p>\n

A further question concerns the Caribbean Telecommunications Union\u2019s (CTU) engagement with ICANN, ITU and the IGF as a channel for surfacing CARICOM realities; among them the scarcity of regional undersea cables and the cost of infrastructure, which raises broadband prices for businesses making e-commerce unattainable. While developed countries discuss ccTLDs, geoTLDs and gTLDs, CARICOM countries are still left behind. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

University of Warwick, Barbados I have a Bsc. in International Relations with Public Sector Management & French from the University of the West Indies in Barbados. I am a postgrad at the University of Warwick pursuing an MSc. in Cyber Security Management. Fellow report Introduction Throughout the week I tried to apply a small island … Continue reading “Katasha Nicholas”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":14760,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"eurossig26_fellows.php","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-27806","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eurossig.eu\/eurossig\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/27806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eurossig.eu\/eurossig\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eurossig.eu\/eurossig\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eurossig.eu\/eurossig\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eurossig.eu\/eurossig\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27806"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/eurossig.eu\/eurossig\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/27806\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48777,"href":"https:\/\/eurossig.eu\/eurossig\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/27806\/revisions\/48777"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eurossig.eu\/eurossig\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eurossig.eu\/eurossig\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}