By Iddi Yire, GNA
Accra, Oct. 25, GNA – Mrs Ursula Owusu-Ekuful,
the Minister of Communications, has encouraged young people to invest in
building their capacities within the
cyber security space to secure sustainable jobs, saying there are inadequate
specialists in that field.
She said banks, insurance companies,
government agencies, corporate organisations and many other organisations
needed in-house information cyber security professionals, emphasising that,
“That is an opportunity right there for the youth”.
Mrs Owusu-Ekuful said this at the inauguration
of the state-of-the-art Cyber Training Laboratory at the Kofi Annan
International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) in Accra.
She said the growth of the Information
Technology sub-sector, including the introduction of e-payment platforms and
products, the paperless port system, e-learning, and others, had opened up
Ghana’s economy to the international world.
She pointed out that this development had also
made the system attractive to cybercriminals; stating that the growing
cyber-threat on the landscape as the nation was experiencing was, therefore,
expected.
The modern Cyber Training Laboratory is a
project spearheaded by the KAIPTC in partnership with e-crime Bureau.
About two years ago, KAIPTC signed a
Memorandum of Understanding with e-Crime Bureau to provide world class capacity
building in cyber security and digital forensics.
This is
in recognition of the pioneering work of e-crime Bureau within Cyber security
landscape in Ghana and the West Africa sub-region.
Mrs Owusu-Ekuful said it was important to
prepare adequately to protect Ghana’s Critical National Infrastructure,
sensitive information and data, as well as the people against activities of
cybercriminals.
She, therefore, lauded e-Crime Bureau and the
KAIPTC for the initiative, saying it was
a significant example of a public-private collaboration to build a
cyber-resilient digitised economy and processes devoid of cyber-attacks.
Air Vice Marshall Griffiths S. Evans,
Commandant, KAIPTC, said the collaboration had successfully executed
certificates programmes in cyber security and digital forensics.
Recently, a cyber security course, targeted at
chief executive officers and management members of organisations was
introduced.
He explained that this was to ensure a deeper
appreciation of the issue of cyber security and to engender full commitment at
management level for effective implementation of strategies against cybercrime
in organisations.
He said in line with this year’s theme for the
National Cyber Security Awareness Month, “A safer Digital Ghana”, they were
confident that the facility was a great stepping stone towards ensuring that
requisite knowledge and skills to counter threats of cyber criminals were
guaranteed.
The Commandant said the KAIPTC and e-Crime
Bureau would continue to provide leadership and support to institutions to
develop the requisite skills needed to address the cyber security challenges.
Mr Philemon Hini, Head of Technical Operation
at e-Crime Bureau, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency said they
identified a gap in terms of cyber security and digital forensics in the
country, hence the establishment of a Centre to provide the relevant industrial
courses to fill the gap.
He said the e-Crime Bureau currently thus with
the KAIPTC, were providing support to institutions across industry, including
security/law enforcement, banking, production and manufacturing, mining, oil
and gas.
He said the collaboration was also intended to
undertake research and initiate projects in the industry in Ghana and within
the West African Sub Region.
GNA