National Cyber-Crime Awareness celebration ends

The 5-day celebration of the National Cyber-Crime Awareness Month has come to an end with a call on citizens to be extra-cautious when using the internet.

The media was also called to avoid being a channel for propagating fake news, especially as the general elections is a year away.

Mr Pius Enam Hadzide, Deputy Minister for Information, advised participants to report any suspicious content whiles interacting on the internet.

He said a Cyber Security and Cyber –Crime Incident reporting point of contact has been launched and was operational.

Mr Hadzide said the reporting centre would enable citizens to report cyber-crime cases and cyber security incidences for effective response by the relevant agencies including the National Cyber Security Centre and the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service.

He said Ghana currently has over 10 million people connected to the internet and most of them rely on the internet for their day to day activities.

The Deputy Minister said it is estimated that by the end of 2018, there were 10 million more subscribers than in 2017.

Mr Hadzide said by 2025, it is estimated that the number of unique subscribers in the West African Sub region would reach 248 million, taking the subscriber penetration rate to 54 per cent as compared to the existing 48 per cent.



He said the increasing reliance of Ghanaians on mobile phones and other Information Communication Technology devices to improve their way of doing business, could easily make them fall prey to cyber criminals.

Therefore, Mr Hadzide said, it was imperative to ensure a consequent prioritization of cyber security readiness to deal with any infractions that may happen and ensure that people are well aware of the habits that make them more susceptible to being attacked.

He entreated stakeholders to leave the conference with a renewed desire to contribute entirely to the cyber security efforts of Government to ensure a safer cyber space.



Mr Albert Antwi-Boasiako, the National Cyber Security Advisor, said the introduction of Information and Communication Technology in electoral systems has received increasing attention and recommendation due to its enhancement of efficiency, transparency, integrity and the speed of electoral administrations around the world.

He said electronic voting (e-voting) has contributed to the increase in participation among voters and was user friendly even to voters with disabilities.

However, Mr Antwi-Boasiako said, the introduction of Information technology had its own risks including malfunction of biometric equipment, contested issues around integrity of machines, exposure of digital devices to potential external effects like hacking.

He said other cyber factors that impacted electoral processes included electoral misinformation of which political candidates, electorates and electoral administration bodies themselves were targeted.

Mr Antwi-Boasiako said the historical, political, socio-economic, cultural and technological circumstances of each country must be taken into consideration in identifying and accessing cyber threats and its accompanying vulnerabilities.

Awards were issued to individuals and institutions like ISACA Accra chapter, the CID, MTN, National Communications Authority, among others for their contribution towards a successful celebration.