Be hygienic in the cyber space - Deputy Minister

Vincent Sowah Odotei, Deputy Minister for Communications has called on Ghanaians to practice hygiene in the cyberspace in order to make it safer for other users.

He said technology had transformed lives and one could do anything today without any form of technology such as in communication, trade, business, and entertainment.

It had also created jobs for many unemployed in the Ghanaian society, thus, the need to help protect the cyberspace to enable more people trust the system and come on board.

Mr Sowah was speaking on the third day of the National Annual Week Celebration of the Cyber Security Awareness Month being held at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC), in Accra. “Demonstrating Ghana’s Cybersecurity readiness,” is the theme.

It was jointly organised by the Ministry of Communications and the National Cyber Security Centre and in attendance are security agents, heads of departments/agencies, industry players and others.

In spite of the benefits of internet usage (virtual world), it had also created another world for the physical, which needs to be protected in how data is managed, shared, stored as well as information generation.

He said it was imperative that trust was built to continue its usage, change the world and protect human rights and strategise to keep them safe.

The Deputy Minister said government’s effort to do that was not enough as the solution was a shared responsibility, adding that 50 percent of cyber threats were failures of human beings and could not be left out of the solution.

He said apart from local measures put in place to curb cybercrimes, government would soon rectify the Budapest Convention, among others which seek to address internet and computer crime by harmonizing national laws, improving investigative techniques, and increasing cooperation among nations.

Participants called for a scale-up in awareness creation, capacity building of stakeholders such as those in the public sector to curb it, build resilient digital ecosystem and deter cybercrime.

Mr Seidu Osman of the Economic and Organised Crime Office, who led the discussion said the curriculum of the Junior and the Senior High Schools should be fused with the cybersecurity and cybercrime to keep them alert.

Government, they said should also criminalise cryptocurrency, bitcoin, money laundering in real estate by arresting and prosecuting offenders, they noted.

They called for standardised ways in gathering electronic evidence to prosecute those who broke the law.