Social media has undoubtedly become very useful in our modern society by making the world a more connected place and has become more beneficial to most businesses and organizations in a cost effective manner.

However information shared by people and businesses through the internet are sometimes intercepted and misused by hackers and scammers.

It is against this background that SpearHead, an ICT Security Solutions provider and Zerofox, a cyber-security company based in Baltimore (Maryland) have organized a seminar in Accra for stakeholders to deliberate and offer solutions on the state of social media security and digital risk monitoring to inform users on the need to be security conscious.

The “Zerofox solution” software has been introduced to curb this social media menace. This solution gathers intelligence from the deep and the dark web.

Vice president of Zerofox, Mr. Gabe Goldhirsh mentioned that this solution would help corporate organizations to protect their brands from cyber-attacks, impersonation, account hijacking and help take down offensive contents.

The Deputy Minister of Communications in charge of Cyber-crime, Vincent Sowah Odotei said the ministry recognizing the threat from cyberspace is implementing a national cybersecurity policy and strategy to address cyber-crime and security challenges.

He said the cybersecurity secretariat has also been set up to liaise with all computer emergency response teams across the country.

It would be recalled that the ministry of information has issued a statement against the use of fake social media accounts to dupe members of the general public. These unverified accounts are mostly created in the name of public institutions, ministers, members of parliament and other public figures.

The accounts are used to promise jobs, scholarships, and contracts and in exchange, victims are lured into making advance cash payments to secure the offers.

Government has therefore called on the general public to heighten its sense of awareness on social media, particularly when dealing with accounts purporting to be those of government officials.