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Mrs. Ursula Owusu Ekuful (2nd from left) talking with Matteo Lucchetti (2nd from right) and Mr. Joe Anokye (far right) from the Cyber Security Conference in Accra. Ms. Tenya Hill (2nd from left), Legal Counsel for the US Department of Justice, and Mr. Albert Antwi-Boasiako (Partly Covered), National Cybersecurity Advisor, Ministry of Communications. Image: GABRIEL AHIABOR
The Ministry of Communications is determined to fight ruthlessly against cybercrime to ensure a secure digital space for national development.
In the same vein, it is pursuing measures, such as strengthening international cooperation, to strengthen and speed up the fight against cybercrime as a matter of urgency.
Minister of Communications Ursula Owusu-Ekuful told Accra yesterday that she had opened a national conference and organized a workshop on the technical implementation of the Budapest Convention, the only international treaty on cybercrime .
Workshop
The two-day workshop, jointly organized by Ghana's National Cybersecurity Center, under the Ministry of Communications, and the Council of Europe, brought together more than 100 participants from the judicial and private sectors .
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Others are policy makers and legislators.
Participants should be aware of the Budapest Convention and its shortcomings, benefits and opportunities for implementation.
Ms. Owusu-Ekuful said that the increasing use of digital services and products has made the cyber-ecosystem an irresistible target for cybercriminals.
She pointed out that people were knowingly or unconsciously exposed to computer threats because they touched every aspect of today's increasingly digitized life.
She therefore emphasized the urgent need to strengthen cybersecurity to "ensure that we take full advantage of our emerging digital economy while minimizing risks".
Statistics
Regarding Ghana, she said, while statistics on the number of cyber crimes were hard to come by, the information available at the Ministry of Communications revealed that about 400,000 fraudulent messages were prevented from occurring. reach their recipients daily, while half of the mobile money subscribers had either experienced some form of fraud or been a target for mobile money scammers.
"The identity of some members of Parliament and state ministers has been cloned on Facebook and other social media platforms.
As these false accounts are closed, others arise, "she added.
She added that the increase in the number of online transactions was accompanied by an inevitable increase in risk for users of different online platforms, with telecom service providers signaling an increase in the number of online transactions. A year to the other cases of fraud related to mobile money.
Budapest Convention
Ms Owusu-Ekuful said that Ghana, demonstrating its determination to fight cybercrime and recognizing that this fight would only be effective through international cooperation, acceded to the Budapest Convention in December 2018.
She said Ghana made it the 62nd state to sign the treaty and the fifth African country to join the convention after Mauritius, Senegal, Cape Verde and Morocco.
In addition, Ghana had ratified the African Union Convention on Cybersecurity and Protection of Personal Data, also known as the Malabo Convention.
Domestic cooperation
On local cooperation, the minister pointed out that the lack of effective cooperation at the national level had had an impact on efforts to combat cybercrime.
She added that in order to strengthen the fight, her ministry was working on a draft cyber security legislation that would help address identified weaknesses in cybercrime laws in the country and provide for appropriate sanctions for non-compliance. cybersecurity.
"In addition, the Council of Europe has badessed our current legislation on cybercrime and identified some gaps that we must fill in order for the convention to be respected.
We will fill all the legal and regulatory gaps in our national legislation, which will hinder the full and effective implementation of the Malabo and Budapest conventions and protect our digital economy, "she said.
Council of Europe
On the global Internet space, Mr Matteo Lucchetti, head of the Cybercrime Program at the Council of Europe, said that 4.4 billion people, out of a global population of 7.5 billion, were connected to Internet.
Mr Lucchetti said that the Internet pervaded society in all aspects of life and that the number of users would continue to increase.
Regarding Ghana, he said that the country was among the top 10 countries in the world for the number of hours spent per day on social media.
"But if digitalisation offers many opportunities for development to ensure a better future, we must record an equivalent increase in crimes committed against or through computer systems. in short, cybercrime, "he said.
NCA
Mr. Joe Anokye, Director General of the National Authority for Communication, said that one of the most important things the world needed now was a framework that would guide states on how to ensure security of citizens and increase their participation in the global economy without fear.
He said this was due to the intensification of globalization, trade, connectivity and digital financial inclusion, which gave citizens the opportunity to play across borders.
"It is in this interest that the ANC has, over the years, enthusiastically supported, in every possible way, Ghana's accession to the Budapest Convention and its subsequent implementation," he said. declared.
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