Gov’t sets up team to monitor cyber environment

Dr Edward Kofi Omane Boamah, Minister for Communications has hinted that the Ministry has setup the National Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-GH) to monitor the nation’s cyber environment and secure some aspects of its cyberspace.

This forms part of government’s bid to re-affirm its commitment to secure cyber security, stem cybercrime and ensure child on-line protection.

Dr Omane Boamah stated that this can be done effectively through public private cooperation and encouraged more information sharing on cybercrime to help the country get rid of the criminals.

The Minister dropped the hint in a key note address read on his behalf by Mr. Issah Yahaya, Chief Director of the Ministry at the third Ghana Internet Governance Forum (IGF) held in Accra.

“Ensuring Freedom, Security and Growth in Our Digital World”, was the theme for the event which was organized by the Africa Internet Pioneer with sponsorship from the National Communications Authority (NCA), IGF Support Associations and the Internet Society.

Dr Omane Boamah said the IGF provides the platform and builds the important linkages to foster the sharing of the experience of Ghana and previous deliberations from its sessions, with other countries in the internet ecosystem for effective peer review.

The Minster said the building of a people-centred Information Society is a joint effort that requires cooperation and partnership among all stakeholders and added that “Ghana had religiously pursued the multi-stakeholder consultation in the development of policies to promote the development of the ‘Information Society’ in the country.

Highlighting ICT development in Ghana, he said the country had made significant strides with over 30 million mobile subscriptions by the Six Telecommunications Companies, over 59 per cent mobile data penetration, and five submarine cable network operators providing capacity of over 12 Tbps.

Dr Omane Boamah mentioned the National Datacenter built by the government to promote development of local content to speed up Ghana’s transformation process using ICT and a new automated the ‘.gh registry,’ which would be commissioned soon to make ‘.gh domain’ names widely available.

Professor Nii Narku Quaynor, Chair of the Internet Society Ghana Chapter said IGF forums were not decision-making platforms but a multi-stakeholder meetings that enables the discussion of public policy issues pertaining to the internet.

Ms Dorothy Gordon, Director-General of the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT, urged operators of ICT infrastructure facilities to put in place backup systems to cater for disaster situations such as lightning.

Mr Marcus Adomey, Internet Society Ghana Chapter President, assured that the society would continue to support the internet community of in Ghana by providing the platform and resources to support the sector ministry.

Mr George Atta-Boaterng, the Director-General, National Information Technology Agency, said excess capacity on the agency infrastructure was being made available to private operators to provide commercial services.