CYBER SECURITY ADVISOR CALLS FOR QUICK PASSAGE OF C.S DRAFT BILL 6th OCT., 2020

 The Government of Ghana’s National Cyber Security Advisor Dr. Albert Antwi-Boasiako, has made urgent calls to Cabinet to pass the draft cyber security Bill with speed and urgency which he posited, will strengthen the legal regime to induce the required deterrent as far as cyber-crime is concerned. He noted that the Bill when passed, will also guarantee the protection of critical information infrastructure which can be structured in such a way that institutions meet certain stated and approved benchmarks for the safeguarding of clients’ data. 

Dr. Antwi-Boasiako Making His Presentation
 

Dr. Antwi-Boasiako made the call in an interview in Bolgatanga, capital of the Upper East Region at the end of a day’s senisitisation workshop for staff of the Upper East Regional Coordinating Council and staff of other State Agencies including Municipal and District Assemblies. The workshop, organised by the National Cyber Security Centre [NCSC] of the Ministry of Communications falls in the series of similar public engagements marking the National Cyber Security Awareness Month 2020.

The month-long engagements with stakeholders is geared at building capacities and to raise awareness on cybercrimes to improve cyber security in Ghana among children, the public, the business community and Government. The workshop was themed “Cyber Security in the era of COVID-19”.

The security expert disclosed that since its establishment under the Communications Ministry in 2018, more than 5,000 Ghanaians have called the Centre for guidance to prevent cyber-crime cases whilst judges and other judiciary staff have been taken through capacity building programmes. This has since positioned them to effectively administer the criminal justice sector with particular regard to the cyber space including the use of electronic evidence to help and improve law enforcement.

However, the NCSC head observed; “though tremendous gains have been made so far, the country was not there yet and so, we must exercise caution while investing more in the country’s cyber security environment and getting the revised National Cyber-security Policy and Strategy through so that MDAs and private sector players can look up to this policy for further investment in the sector”.

Participants at the workshop

 

He thanked the country’s political leadership for the ratification of the Convention on cyber crime which has since paved the way for law enforcement agencies to collaborate with partners abroad to investigate cyber-crime cases as well as the development of the Computer Emergency Response System that is helping to prevent cyber security incidence among others efforts.

For her part, Upper East Regional Minister Hon. Tangoba Abayage in a speech read for her by the Regional Coordinating Director, noted that the dawn of the information revolution had placed ICT as a major enabler in the science, agriculture, education, manufacturing and other sectors as it improves lives, reduces cost  and increases production.

Hon. Tangoba's Rep., - RCD Alhaji Azonko

She also observed that the COVID-19 pandemic had further placed the cyber sector as that vital conduit that enabled workers of various offices and organisations to work from home thus keeping the world’s economies running amidst the virus outbreak. According to her, the world can never turn its backs on the use of ICT and the cyber space as she called for extra caution on the internet and for protective measures for the vulnerable.

Hon. Tangoba also touched on the frequent reportage of “fake news” in the digital era and especially as Ghana was inching closely to the 2020 general elections and thus called on all and sundry to be circumspect in the kind of news they consume and the sources from which such news is read, viewed or listened to.

 

 

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