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Communications ministry strengthens systems to curb cybercrime

Communications ministry strengthens systems to curb cybercrime

The Ministry of Communications is to develop a multi-stakeholder cyber security governance system that would empower the national security and the military to curb cybercrime in the country.

To this end, the ministry has appointed a cyber security advisor to support the direction towards effective cyber security governance in the country.

Speaking at the inaugural Alumni Day of the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) in Accra, the sector minister, Mrs Ursula Owusu-Ekuful also stated that the ministry was aligning its strategies with the National Security Policy and Strategy to ensure effective and efficient cyber security responses.

 

Peace and security

The celebrations was on the theme: ‘Reconnecting and Networking for Peace and Security’.

Mrs Owusu-Ekuful said available research findings, including some publications by the KAIPTC, suggested that the cyber environment was increasingly becoming a fertile ground for criminality.

This, she said, was evident in crimes such as human trafficking, drug trafficking, terrorism and money laundering.

 

Cybercrimes

The minister said the country and the sub-region had recorded various forms of cyber crimes including, website defacement, hacking into banking systems and databases, ransomware attacks, identity theft, simbox fraud among others.

She recalled that the cyber attacks on the Electoral Commission results transmission system during the 2016 elections resulted in the EC abandoning the electoral collation of the results.

 

Capacity building

For his part, the German Ambassador to Ghana, Mr Christoph Retzlaff, said Germany had been the main sponsor of the centre since its inception in 2003.

He said this year alone, the German government had contributed 200 million euros to the centre for the training of 27 security forces for Africa, two police advisors, as well as a management advisor.

“This gesture by the German government demonstrates the importance it attaches to security and peace in the West African sub-region,” he added.

 

German government

He indicated that the KAIPTC was well known around the world, especially in Germany as a centre of excellence for peace keeping in the sub-region.

The ambassador, therefore, urged the alumni to also increase cooperation with ECOWAS, the African Union (AU) and the United Nations (UN) to help develop the technology to fight security challenges.

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