Ghanaian organisations, including those in the financial institutions, are vulnerable to cyber attacks, Internet Solution (IS), a South African-based Telecom Service provider, has said.
According to IS, the development is due to the fact that most of the companies do not have adequate cyber security measures to protect their data and other vital documents from cyber attackers or organised crime.
The revelation was contained in a study conducted by IS on cyber security in Ghana.
Following the situation, IS submitted that unless urgent measures were put in place, any potential cyber attack against the vulnerable organisations would paralyse their operations.
Sharing the findings at a breakfast meeting in Accra yesterday, the Chief Information Officer of IS, Mr Kovelin Naidoo, said most organisations in Ghana had left their cyber security systems widely open to the attacks of organised crime.
Cyber conscious
“Most of the Ghanaian companies are not cyber conscious and, therefore, have not managed to put in place mechanisms to protect their data and other vital documents. This is not good for a lot of reasons,” he said.
During the study, which was conducted in various industrial establishments, Mr Naidoo said, “It did not take much effort to access information from these organisations.”
“Imagine dealing with cyber attackers who have resources and manpower to invade any organisation, they will go as far as possible to destroy these organisations and render them toothless,” he added.
The event, which was organised by the Ghana office of IS, was meant to discuss the findings with the clients of the telecom service providers and also make them aware of the situation in the country.
Measures needed
Outlining some of the measures needed to address the challenges, Mr Naidoo said Ghanaian organisations must do everything within their power to implement programmes that could help them classify their data and other vital documents.
“Although it is true that one cannot be fully protected from the activities of organised crime, measures can be put in place to monitor their operations and halt them before it happens,” he said.
In the study, Mr Naidoo said although some companies had managed to put in place certain cyber security measures, they were woefully inadequate to address the situation.
Over the past years, he said, IS had organised programmes to create more awareness, especially for its clients.
“We have also tried to discuss the issue with the government and it is good news that now Ghana has a data protection commission to help address these issues,” he added.
Commission determined
The Executive Director of Data Protection Commission, Mrs Teki Akuetteh Falconer, said although the commission was aware that majority of Ghanaian companies were not cyber conscious, “measures are being put in place to address the situation”.
One of the measures she mentioned was the commission’s compliance programme where companies in Ghana are taken through the various processes on how to protect their data and other vital documents.
“We hope that as we continue to do that, it will increase and enlighten issues on cyber security,”Mrs Falconer added.
She also commended IS for its effort to help create the awareness on cyber attacks, adding that such programmes would contribute towards addressing the problem.
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