Mr Albert Antwi-Boasiako, the Principal Consultant of e-Crime Bureau, has cautioned Ghanaians to beware of cyber security issues in order to minimise their vulnerability to cybercrime.

He said every network and internet user was at risk of social media threats, hacking, e-payment threats, fake news, malware attacks, data breach, insider threats, and website defacement among other things.

Mr Antwi-Boasiako said this at a workshop in Accra organised by the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) on “Cyber Security Issues and Network Shutdowns in Africa.” Mr Antwi-Boasiako said it was wrong for public sector workers to use their personal e-mails for official work.

He said: “People are sacked from work, governments change when they lose elections, and the public sector is running the business of the state with their personal e-mails which should not be happening. This is not necessarily about the fear of hacking but the intellectual property of the country can be lost when these people are no longer working.”

Ghana has a vibrant ICT sector growing and “everywhere you go, the institutions are in the process of going electronic. The Passport office, Drivers and Vehicle Licensing Authority and others are moving unto the electronic platform.”

“We need to be able to set up a Cyber Forensic Laboratory as government’s effort to ensure cyber security,” he said.

He said Ghana’s performance in terms of cyber readiness was below average.

“The judges and law enforcers must be aware of the cyber security laws however since this is a new growing area, we need to conduct cyber security risk assessment and researches as well as have a standard operating procedure,” he said.

He recommended that people occasionally should change their e-mail passwords and smartphone users should have antivirus such as Lookout and Malwarebytes on their phones.