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General News on Friday, May 3, 2019
Source: ghananewsagency.org
2019-05-03
Some participants launch a cyber insurance survey
The Institute of Compliance and Cyber Studies (ICCS), a multidisciplinary network of researchers, bankers, economists, lawyers and professionals interested in combating cybercrime and financial crimes, is concerned about the Cybercrime resurgence in Ghana.
He called for a public-private partnership to raise public awareness of cybersecurity issues and create a platform for reflection on the implementation of cybersecurity guidelines in the country.
Ms. Stephanie Agyei Henneh, Head of Research at ICCS, launched this call for launching a survey on cyberinsurance conducted by the ICCS on the theme: "Sponsorship of cyber insurance: a emerging need ".
She urged the National Insurance Commission, the National Pension Regulatory Authority and the Securities and Exchange Commission to collaborate on the adoption of cybersecurity guidelines to guide their regulated institutions. what the Bank of Ghana had done in the banking sector.
She added that, given the increase in data consumption by companies and business organizations in the country, their useful data tended to become public domain.
As a result, Internet hackers, becoming more sophisticated, could easily exploit the vulnerabilities of commercial entity networks and software for malicious purposes.
Ms. Agyei Henneh emphasized the need for insurers to actively develop strategies and invest resources to create new capabilities and build partnerships with cybersecurity companies, as well as soliciting experts on their territory and abroad to create a competitive advantage.
Of the 35 respondents who responded to the cyberinsurance survey questionnaires, it was noted that while Ghana's cyber-market is relatively young, it was growing at a sustained pace, so that it was wrong to think that cybercrime was not a reality. frequent.
The research found that the level of cyberinsurance policy awareness was very low in Ghana, with only nine respondents aware of the existence of such a policy.
In addition, 62% of respondents did not know anything about cyber insurance policies, although 26% of them said that their companies had been subjected to some form of cyber attack in the past, only 14% of them confirmed that their companies were insured against cyber attacks. criminality.
Of the five respondents who said this, four belonged to the banking sector and one to the education sector.
Again, 80% of the institutions surveyed had not purchased a cyberinsurance package. However, most of them had been victims of a cyberattack. The study found that 57% of respondents recommended that cyberinsurance insurance policies be mandatory for Ghanaian businesses.
The report concluded that the majority of institutions surveyed did not have an information security expert, which showed the seriousness of the situation as it increased their risk, since there would be no expert on advise them on the right procedures to secure their data.
The report revealed that Ghana, Nigeria and Cameroon were among the top 10 countries in the world for cybercrime, as published by the Ghana Business News in 2010.
Ms. Agyei Henneh described some of the most common forms of cyber-attacks: credit card fraud, identity theft, fake gold traders and real estate fraud, with Ghana Commercial Bank, Cal Bank and Universal Merchant Bank being the few of the institutions affected recently. time.
She added that cybercriminals were exploiting another relatively new area, namely mobile money services, with fraudulent activity being reported via mobile money platforms.
Ms. Agyei Henneh therefore mentioned some government interventions to combat cybercrime in the country, including the Electronic Transactions Act (2008), which contained specific legislation on cybercrime and punished cybercriminals, the Law on Protection of Cybercrime. data (2012). , to ensure the protection of private data of the government, citizens and businesses.
In addition, the Ministry of Communications deployed Ghana's national cybersecurity policy and strategy in March 2014, formally adopted in 2016, to globally capture cyber incidents and secure cyberspace in Ghana.
Agyei Henneh said that the Bank of Ghana had published the directive document on information security and computer security in October 2018, which included a number of guidelines to be applied to secure cyberspace in the sector. financial.
"In addition, Ghana has signed the African Union Convention on Cyber Security and the Protection of Personal Data and, more recently, has acceded to the Budapest Convention," she added.
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