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1.7 megabytes of new information to be created for all by 2020

Ursula Owusu Ekuful, Minister Of Communications Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, Communications Minister

Wed, 23 Oct 2019 Source: MoC

Neuromancer is a 1984 science fiction novel by American-Canadian writer William Gibson. It is one of the best-known works in the cyberpunk genre and the first novel to win the Nebula Award, the Philip K. Dick Award, and the Hugo Award. It was Gibson’s debut novel and the beginning of the Sprawl trilogy.

William Gibson, used the word cyberspace, referring to the internet and other networks. Since then, some other expressions, with the same prefix expanded.

However, a criminal activity in which a computer or a network is an essential part of the crime is termed as CYBERCRIME. In essence, it’s all about the use of technology or internet to commit crime.

In his presentation on the Agenda for Workshop on Cybercrime and Electronic Evidence Handling for Criminal Justice Sector, at day two of the climax week of the 2019 National Cyber Security Awareness Month, at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) on Tuesday October 22nd, 2019, Mr. Jacob Puplampu, from the Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO), disclosed that over the last two years alone, 90 percent of the data in the world was generated, and by the year 2020, about 1.7 megabytes of new information will be created every second for every human being on the planet.

He also indicated that, in one estimate, 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are created each day, and the Internet of Things (IOT) is only accelerating that pace. That’s (2,500 000 000 000 000 000) bytes per day.

According to him, cybercrime is a threat to fundamental rights, and it affects the right to private life of hundreds of millions of individuals whose personal data are stolen.

“It’s also an attack against the dignity and the integrity of individuals, in particular children in the form of sexual exploitation and abuse, and a threat to the freedom of expression when distributed denial of service attacks, website defacement and other attacks are also carried out against the media, civil society organizations, individuals or public institutions,” Mr. Puplampu said.

He also added that, cybercrime threatens public security and services, such as governments, parliaments and other public institutions as well as critical infrastructures. Saying, “It is a threat to democratic stability such as when ICT are misused for xenophobia and racism, contribute to radicalization and serve terrorist purposes. It undermines trust in democratic institutions, such as in interfering with the electoral processes Rule of law in the cyberspace,”

Mr. Jacob Puplampu, enumerated the following as far as the future of cybercrime in Ghana is concerned;

•Cybercrime is very “lucrative” and low risk. •Internet penetration is increasing so most likely cybercrime would increase •Increasing use of technology in Ghana, and the rapid changes in technology makes it obsolete easily and therefore makes users vulnerable to attacks •Lack of a culture of cyber security consciousness

LOW CYBER SECURITY AWARENESS AMONG BUSINESSES AND INDIVIDUALS

•Social engineering can be used to bypass all technologies employed Increasing use of malware by criminals can make users fall victim easily •Issues of Zero day vulnerability •Limited capacity among Jaw enforcement agencies

CYBER SECURITY AS RISK MANAGEMENT

He said, “Digitalization is the order of the day now, and there is generation of more data, more users, and more services, there’s a lot to protect.”

•Cybersecurity has become very complex and multi-faceted issue •Cyber threats are constantly evolving, getting smarter and more sophisticated. •The traditional approach has been to focus resources on crucial system components and protect against the biggest known threats, which meant leaving components undefended and not protecting systems against less dangerous risks. •Adopting risk management practices that are scalable and comprehensible to improve cybersecurity is the way to go.

In her opening remarks, the commissioner of Police (COP) Maame Yaa Tiwaa Addo-Danquah, Director General of the Criminal Investigative Department (CID), noted that, the proliferation of cyber attacks is causing increasing damage on companies, governments and individuals, which in turn dwindles the country financially.

The Commissioner however, underscored the need for a multi-stakeholder approach to come up with a very effective implementation of the cyber security programmes.

She further seized the opportunity to call on the participants to come together as one to improve stakeholder collaboration and as well as partner with each other in order to achieve the objective of the workshop and not only to share their knowledge on law enforcement related issues.

Source: MoC