SPONSORSHIP AD HERE  
News

Home

 

March 11, 2016

 
 
 
 
 

 Gov’t to set up Computer Emergency Response Team to combatc cyber Crime in Ghana

Masahudu Ankiilu Kunateh, Ghanadot


Accra, June 17, Ghanadot - The Government of Ghana is to set up Ghana National Computer Emergency Response Team (GNCERT) to clampdown the current high incident of cyber crimes in the country.


Furthermore, the GNCERT is a national initiative to tackle emerging challenges in the area of information security and country level security risks and vulnerabilities.


The GNCERT will be set up by the Ministry of Communications at the Ministry of Information where the National Official Website is located.


The Vice President of Ghana, Mr. John Dramani Mahama, disclosed this at the International Telecommunication Union (ITTU) Forum on the implementation of decisions of the World Telecommunication Standardization in Accra.


“I am charging the Ministry of Communications to quickly engage the other stakeholders and the security services to bring up the framework for its establishment”, he stressed.

According to ICT experts, all financial institutions, medical institutions, corporations, government agencies, universities among others should also be networked so that their websites will be monitored to forestall organisational lapses and enforce operational resiliency to achieve strategic objectives.

There is a strong belief that government’s websites are much easier to be attacked due to their weak protective measures and maintenance and therefore the official website at Ministry of Information should be protected well, install recommended antivirus software to save it from web-defacement.

Indeed, all over the world, cyber crimes have become a threat to the economies of the highly industrialised, middle income status and the developing nations in which Ghana is no exception. As a result, most countries have formed Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERTs) to monitor unauthorised entry into government websites as well as ensure that security and business continuity activities are co-ordinated in various organisations.

Statistics released by the World Conference Board-Consumer Internet Barometer in 2005, indicates that cyber fraud incidents are occurring more frequently with more serious results all over the world. For instances 41 per cent internet consumers are buying products less online because of privacy concerns while 13 per cent of the internet consumers have been victims of identity theft and as a result have become fed-up with transactions on the internet.

More than 50 per cent respondents are more concerned about their online privacy than they were a year ago, and 81per cent users of internet have stopped accessing it. Furthermore, network administrators are said to be shouldering 100 per cent of cyber crime burdens and chief executive officers are always becoming scared of litigation and its consequences.

Ghanaians cannot behave like the proverbial ostrich that would not accept any truth concerning its safety. Ghana is not secured at all when it comes to cyber security issues because more often than not the print media have captured serious incidents of impersonation occurring in some of our commercial banks.

The last sitting of the Public Account Committee of Parliament unearthed serious financial crimes allegedly committed by some public officers in the cyber space. The alleged discrepancies in the 2008 Electoral Commission’s (EC’s) voter register early last year in the Ashanti Region would not have occurred if the EC is nationally networked and has put measures like CERT in place to check how information is released and stored.

Today, some professionals and public officers receive negative and violent text messages making them scared for their lives. Besides, our country is gradually becoming a transit point for illicit drugs and these developments should serve as a wake up call to security fraud issues.

Furthermore, government’s enormous interventions like the liberalisation of the telecommunication sector, the coming into force of the National Information Communication Technology (ICT) Backbone to serve as a route through which all Ghanaians can access the facilities easily. The about11, 829 broadband4u connectivity deployed across, the automation of the trading platform of the Ghana Stock Exchange, the introduction of the e- zwitch device coupled with the development of government’s e-strategies that seek to make the emerging ICT a reliable tool to accelerate development and to promote economic competitiveness, will definitely double the number of internet users making Ghana very prone to cyber frauds.


It is therefore heart-warming that Ghana’s Minister of Communications, Mr. Haruna Iddrisu, at the International Telecommunication Union (ITTU) Forum on the implementation of decisions of the World Telecommunication Standardization in Accra. noted that the Government of Ghana had demonstrated at the highest level, its commitment to the promotion of ICT and the present challenges posed by the global financial crunch necessitates that we carefully nurture the ICT industry to safely pull us through the crisis.


The Vice President, Mahama called for regional approach to contain the emerging development of human and drug trafficking issues and it will be prudent for cyber crime control in Africa to be given the same prominence because Africa is the only continent that CERT is not known or practised in any of its countries.


Ghanadot
 

Send This Page To A Friend:

Rashid Pelpuo replaces Muntaka Mubarak as Sports Minister

Accra, June 16, Ghanadot - President John Evans Mills has directed Wa Central Member of Parliament (MP) and Minister of State, Rashid Pelpuo to take over the Ministry for Youth and Sports. He will serve until a substantive minister is appointed...
.....More

 

Cloths to commemorate President Obama Visit to Ghana Out

Accra, June 16, Ghanadot - Ahead of the US President Barrack Obama’s historic visit to Ghana, cloths branded with portraits of Presidents Mills and Obama have been produced and would soon hit the Ghanaian market.
...More

GNPC boss sacked, Mr. Asafo Adjei takes over

Accra, June 16, Ghanadot - The Managing Director of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) Moses Oduro Boateng has been sacked......
More
  Gov’t to set up Computer Emergency Response Team to combatc cyber Crime in Ghana

Accra, June 17, Ghanadot - The Government of Ghana is to set up Ghana National Computer Emergency Response Team (GNCERT) to clampdown the current high incident of cyber crimes in the country.....More
  ABC, Australia
FOXNews.com
The EastAfrican, Kenya
African News Dimensions
Chicago Sun Times
The Economist
Reuters World
CNN.com - World News
All Africa Newswire
Google News
The Guardian, UK
Africa Daily
IRIN Africa
The UN News
Daily Telegraph, UK
Daily Nation, East Africa
BBC Africa News, UK
Legal Brief Africa
The Washington Post
BusinessInAfrica
Mail & Guardian, S. Africa
The Washington Times
ProfileAfrica.com
Voice of America
CBSnews.com
New York Times
Vanguard, Nigeria
Christian Science Monitor
News24.com
Yahoo/Agence France Presse
 
  SPONSORSHIP AD HERE  
 
    Announcements
Debate
Commentary
Ghanaian Paper
Health
Market Place
News
Official Sites
Pan-African Page
Personalities
Reviews
Social Scene
Sports
 
    Currency Converter
Educational Opportunities
Job Opening
FYI
 
 

ThisWeekGhana.com is
GhanaDot.com
Remember to spell the D-O-T
before the dot com

 
Send This Page To A Friend:

The Profile Africa Media Group