Ursula Owusu-Ekuful
THE GOVERNMENT of Ghana has introduced a new measure banning all public officials from using their private emails for transacting official duties.
Minister of Communications, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful made this known to the media on Friday at the Lansdown Hotel, Aburi at the opening session of the National Cyber Security Technical Working Group first retreat for 2019.
She says Cabinet has approved the migration of all public servants onto the .gov.gh domain which is the official domain name for the Government of Ghana.
According to her, the state has realized that the use of private emails like Yahoo, gmail do not create the impression of seriousness in running state duties.
The Minister also indicated that the use of private emails exposes the entire critical information resources of the country to cyber crimes, noting the need to protect the public information ecosystem.
She indicated that workers at some departments and ministries including the Ministry of Communications have already started using public emails.
By the end of 2019, she warned that sanctions would be applied against officials who use private emails for transacting national duties, noting that the use of private emails for official duties was unacceptable.
Representatives of major state institutions like the Attorney General’s Department, Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO), Ghana Armed Forces (GAF), National Communications Authority (NCA), Defense Intelligence (DI), among others, are taking part in the retreat.
BY Melvin Tarlue