The National Cyber Security Awareness Month (NCSAM) 2022, which comes off from October 1-31, 2022 across the country was formally launched today.
The month-long event is under the theme, “Regulating Cybersecurity: A Public-Private Sector Collaborative Approach”
The key objectives of NCSAM 2022 include enhancing public-private sector understanding of cybersecurity regulations; and receiving inputs from industry players and stakeholders on the implementation of the various regulatory activities currently being implemented by the CSA.
Other objectives are to build synergies among all relevant stakeholders to ensure compliance with cybersecurity regulations and create awareness of the Cybersecurity Act 2020 and promote the relevance of cybersecurity regulations among children, the public, businesses and the government, whilst highlighting the need for public-private cooperation.
Launching the event at the Cedi Conference Hall at the University of Ghana, Legon on Monday 3rd October 2022, Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia who delivered the keynote address, which was read on his behalf noted that Cybersecurity development everywhere is a shared responsibility.
According to him, enhancing understanding of the provisions of the Cybersecurity Act, 2020 (Act 1038) and building synergies among all relevant stakeholders to ensure compliance with them is absolutely critical.
“Creating greater awareness of the law and the relevance of cybersecurity regulations among Children, the Public, Businesses and Government, whilst highlighting the need for public-private sector cooperation must be paramount.”
“This awareness month is therefore important to ensure that everyone is involved in cybersecurity activities to ensure a safer digital Ghana.”
He averred that to gain the full benefits of Ghana’s digitalisation efforts, a risk-aware cybersecurity culture must be created and expressed confidence in the work of the Cyber Security Authority (CSA) in implementing its regulatory mandate and the government will ensure it is provided with the necessary resources to do its work.
He urged all corporate bodies, faith-based and civil society organisations and the media to collaborate with the CSA and get involved in the awareness creation and capacity-building exercises in the month of October as the Authority promotes cybersecurity at the national level.
Minister of Communications and Digitalization, Hon. Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, in the opening remarks, read on her behalf stated the theme, ‘Regulating Cybersecurity: A Public-Private Sector Collaborative Approach’ was adopted to reflect the heightened need for cooperation between the private sector and state actors on cybersecurity.
According to her, cooperation at the domestic level is essential for the successful implementation of the Cybersecurity Act, 2020 (Act 1038).
“The activities earmarked for the month-long celebration are designed to enhance public-private sector understanding of the cybersecurity law and provide the platform for industry players and stakeholders to make inputs into the activities currently being implemented by the CSA.”
“This is a follow-up on the 2021 activities which focused on the role of stakeholders in the implementation of the Cybersecurity Act, barely a year after it was passed into law.”
“We have been busy trying to put the structures in place for the effective implementation of the Authority’s enabling legislation and it hasn’t been easy but I’m happy to announce that we are on course,” he said.
Ag. Director-General of the CSA, Dr. Albert Antwi-Boasiako, in the welcome address disclosed that the Cybercrime/Cybersecurity Incident Reporting Points of Contact launched in 2019 to facilitate incident reporting has been instrumental in the fight against cybercrimes.
According to him, this year alone, as of the end of the third quarter, a total of 9,769 contacts have been received through the various points of contact out of which 431 were recorded as actual cybersecurity incidents and 5,389 as direct advisories.
This, he said, means over 5,000 incidents that could have caused various degrees of losses to victims were prevented, and several amounts of money were saved.
He stated the top five most reported incidents include Online Fraud, Unauthorised Access to protected systems, Online Blackmail, Online Impersonation and the Publication of Non-consensual Intimate Images.
He noted that most of these attacks are perpetrated through social media using social engineering and phishing techniques and stressed that lack of awareness of cyber risks as well as inadequate cybersecurity control measures is the main vulnerabilities being exploited by perpetrators.
Dr. Boasiako stressed that awareness creation is critical to Ghana’s cybersecurity development and indicated a number of activities are being organised in Accra and the other regions across the country throughout the month of October to raise the needed awareness of cybercrimes and the need to promote cybersecurity amongst Children, the Public, Businesses and ultimately, Government.
The month-long event is expected to improve awareness amongst key stakeholders of the regulatory provisions of the Cybersecurity Act, 2020 (Act 1038) leading to a culture of cybersecurity regulatory compliance; Improving reporting of cybersecurity incidents among stakeholders, especially the sectoral CERTs; Collate views and inputs into ongoing regulatory activities of the Authority (such as CII regulations, development of the Legislative Instrument for Act 1038, licensing of cybersecurity service providers, accreditation of Sectoral CERTs, incident reporting, etc.
NCSAM 2022 is also expected to strengthen public-private collaborations and partnerships in the implementation of the Cybersecurity Act, 2020 (Act 1038) and the general awareness of cybercrime and cybersecurity issues in the country, especially on the latest trends and developments.
