The Director-General of the National Information Technology Agency (NITA), Richard Okyere-Fosu, has disclosed a concerning statistic: 60 percent of government systems lack sufficient antivirus protection, posing potential security risks.

He said his outfit’s assessment reveals that just over 30 percent of government systems and end nodes (computers) have the appropriate antivirus set-up. Mr. Okyere-Fosu disclosed this in Accra during the official signing of a partnership agreement for antivirus services between NITA, Smart Infraco and Trend Micro – a global antivirus service provider.

This disclosure, coming amid concerns about the imminent danger posed by misinformation and disinformation ahead of the country’s crucial 2024 General Elections scheduled for December, highlights the vulnerability of government networks to cyber threats such as malware, ransomware and other malicious attacks.

“One such risk factor that is not only peculiar to Ghana, but a global menace, is cyber threats. Cyber threats come in various forms, one of which is the spread of virus which mostly cripples government systems and services,” he stated. “NITA’s assessment shows that just a little over 30 percent of government systems and end nodes (computers) have the right antivirus setup.

This poses a great deal of risk to government in its agenda to fully digitalise the economy,” he added

Forging strategic partnership for enhanced cybersecurity Against this backdrop, NITA has struck a partnership with Smart Infraco Limited and global cyber-security leader Trend Micro to fortify the country’s digital infrastructure.

This partnership, which was signed on 24th April, 2024, aims to empower public organisations with robust cyber-security solutions, ensuring a secure and resilient digital ecosystem that can withstand potential cyber-security threats. The partnership is expected to complement the government enterprise architecture, a standard security architecture, emphasising the mandatory deployment of antivirus software across all government systems and end nodes.

To fulfil this mandate, Smart Infraco, as a technical partner of NITA, will install Trend Antivirus servers at the two national data centres to efficiently deliver antivirus services to government agencies nationwide. Under this strategic alliance, Smart Infraco will also deploy Trend Micro’s Deep Security solution within the national data centre.

The Deep Security will provide comprehensive protection at both the server side and endpoint levels, including intrusion prevention, anti-malware and integrity monitoring, safeguarding critical systems and data, NITA said in a statement. Again, leveraging Trend Micro’s innovative suite, Smart Infraco will further offer government organisations worry-free cybersecurity.

This will include Endpoint Security for defending against ransomware and advanced attacks; Email Security for real-time protection against targeted attacks, spam, phishing and viruses; Collaboration Security for safeguarding online collaboration tools to prevent data loss; and Extended Detection and Response (XDR) for automating threat detection and response.

NITA has already deployed a Security Operations Center (SOC) that supervises and monitors government infrastructure and systems in real time. The deployment of the Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) also adds another layer of security and deepens the security protocols for government systems.

“Antivirus, therefore, is one of the missing components for our security model. This is why this partnership comes at a very opportune time. We are hoping that the antivirus services will keep the integrity of systems and end nodes within government domain and prevent some of the cyber-security incidents have been happening in the past,” Mr. Okyere-Fosu said.