Cybersecurity Confab Holds In Accra

A four-day annual cyber security conference, Cyberx Africa 2021, opened yesterday at the Coconut Grove Regency Hotel in Accra with a Justice of the Supreme Court, Prof. Justice Emmanuel Nii Ashie Kotey bemoaning the spate of cybercrime sweeping across the country.

The programme is a cybercrime investigations course for investigators and prosecutors in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

The conference is being held under the aegis of the Security Governance Initiative (SGI), a programme office of the Ministry of National Security in partnership with the Centre for Security and Defence Studies (CSDS). Also supporting the organisation of the conference are the Association of Private Investigators, Ghana and the international law firm of Lex Mundus & Cencla.

While delivering his keynote address during the opening segment, whose participants were drawn from multitude of countries from within Africa and beyond, he said even as Information Technology offers opportunities for Africa’s development, it is nonetheless laden with criminal challenges.

Increasing spates of cyber terrorism and related cyber challenges are evolving by the day and affecting all areas of modern life, he observed.

These have assumed national security priority, he noted.

He called for the creation of awareness and knowledge about the subject as an effective mechanism to tackle it.

Cyber enforcement, Justice Ashie Kotey continued, also suffer from transnational and national jurisdiction challenges. This situation, he therefore said, calls for cooperation among African nations in the area of especially capacity building, adding that this will impact positively in the incidence responses.

“No one government, police can tackle cybercrime alone,” he said, adding that it requires the support of all sectors such as the judiciary, civil society organisations, the media and other state agencies.

Osei Bonsu Dickson, Director, Legal and Coordinator of the SGI in his brief remark spoke about the threats posed by cybercrime, adding that this a watershed moment in the country as CyberX Africa is being attended by participants from Nigeria, Kenya, Australia and the US.

Dr. Angela M. Lamptey, Ag CEO, CSDS Africa, narrated the contributions of their centre to higher standards through training.

The CSDS, she continued, played crucial roles in the drafting of relevant aspects of the COVID-19 response.

Cybercrime has come in forms such as ransomware, hacking, SIM box fraud, romance fraud among others, she said, adding that “the only way to deal with them is to enhance capacity in intelligence and defence activities.

She called on law enforcement, judiciary, CSOs, media and relevant state actors to tackle the security menace.

By A.R. Gomda

 

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