Ghana has joined forces with two international organisations, the Global Forum on Cyber Expertise and the Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams to protect businesses operating in the country’s cyberspace among others.
Parliament passed the Cybersecurity Act, 2020 (Act 1038) in November 2020.
With the passage of Act, the National Cyber Security Centre is expected to transition into a Cyber Security Authority before the end of the year.
As part of its plans to prepare for the transition, the country through the National Cyber Security Centre partnered with the two international firms with the aim of promoting and strengthening capacity building and incident response through international collaboration.
According to the Head of National Cyber Security Centre, Dr. Albert Antwi-Boasiako, this feat stems from the government’s commitment to developing the country’s cyberspace to be secure and resilient for Ghana’s sustained digital transformation.
“These two initiatives are part of preparatory activities being undertaken within the ministry of communications for effective implementation of the Act. We do not want a situation where a law has been passed, and we face a challenge with implementation. So if you take the form of incident reports and security teams, which is first, its work is to promote sharing of information with respect to cybersecurity incidents,” he said.
With a lot of businesses exploring the digital space, to increase productivity and efficiency, it has become imperative for the government to protect these businesses from cybersecurity risks.
Dr. Antwi-Boasiako believes these platforms will help foil any such risks in the near future.
“So Ghana stands to benefit with respect to sharing of information that will help us better prevent and respond to cybersecurity incidents. This is key because incidents will happen one way or the other. We have followed news of ransomware attacks in countries with better-developed cybersecurity like the US. It is not a question of if, but when we are attacked, can we quickly bounce back and carry on using digital channels? Joining the fest will open a network comprising more than 500 emergency response teams globally, so you can easily mitigate the threat before it gets to the country,” Dr. Albert Antwi-Boasiako added.