The Minister for Communications, Mrs. Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, has pointed out that the unavailability of the critical competencies to deal with cyber security issues, is a primary cause of increased global challenges in the fight against cyber security.
Owusu-Ekuful cited a 2017 Global Information Security Workforce Study - Benchmarking Workforce Capacity and Response to Cyber Risk conducted by Frost & Sullivan early this year, which notes that sixty-six percent of organizations identified the lack of skillset in addressing cyber threats as a major challenge. The study further projected cyber security workforce shortage at 1.8 million by the year 2022.
She further emphasized that despite the strides being made in ICT development in the country, the growing menace of cybercrime and other information security related challenges is gradually eroding these significant gains. Worryingly, as reflected in the Frost and Sullivan study, Ghanaian businesses and institutions are challenged when it comes to recruiting and retaining qualified cyber security professionals to man IT infrastructure as provisioned in the Data Protection Act, 2012 (Act 843).
The Honourable Minister lamented, that the short supply of cyber security skills in Ghana, is particularly noticeable in the current curriculum of tertiary institutions; “Few higher learning institutions run dedicated cyber security and forensics programmes, and we need to reverse this trend by encouraging educational institutions to offer practical cyber security courses to support government’s drive to step up Ghana’s cyber security readiness”, she said.
The Communications Minister made these remarks when she officially opened a maiden Certificate Course in Cyber Security, jointly organized by the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC), and the e-Crime Bureau.
The proud alumna of KAIPTC, reiterated the importance of the programme which comes to support the eight (8) pillars of Ghana’s National Cyber Security Policy and Strategy (NCSPS), which include developing and sustaining a Culture of Cyber Security & Capacity Building and Research & Development towards self-reliance. The implementation of these pillars she observed, requires collaboration with institutions like KAIPTC and e-Crime Bureau.
She highlighted a Capacity Building and Awareness Division was being set up within Ghana’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), as part of her Ministry’s ongoing activities to ensure Ghana has effective and sustainable institutional structures in place to implement cyber security activities and initiatives.
Hon. Ursula Owusu-Ekuful highly commended KAIPTC and e-Crime Bureau for the initiative, as it marked the fruition of an MoU signed between the two institutions in 2016 to jointly deepen knowledge and develop capacity in the area of cyber security, intelligence and forensics.
About sixty-five participants are undergoing the week-long training course, which will focus on thematic areas such as cybercrimes and transnational crimes, cyber security governance and cyber defense & national security, as well as hands-on sessions to be conducted at the e-Crime Academy Cyber Lab.
Source: B&FT
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Today a student with high speed internet access can learn remotely using Coursera, EDx, Open University websites. We are just marking time in Ghana. When you look from the outside within, you can see that 50 yrs from now, we may still be in the same spot as today.
Good day hon., Its very good that you have raised this issue and i would like to add my voice. Many people have the desire to go into ICT but the point is, does the courses being run match up to the current dynamics in cyber security? Its pathetic how our schools (universities) are still stuck to old theories whiles new things are always flooding the market. I wouldn't blame them much because when you go the campuses, most of the lecturers are too old and they are so conservative that, any new idea is a bogus. We keep using 1980 theories to solve 2017 issues. Hmmm, talk to the minister of education to see to it that the curriculum, from basic to tertiary is duly revised to help solve 21 century problems. Why should we have professors in ICT in Ghana, and then it would take an Israeli to detect that there's a spy cam in a ministers office. Are there no ICT students in the ministry who have been frequenting the office? Our tertiary institutions are not helping us at all. the one week courses wouldn't solve the problem. Let there be an overhaul of the whole system and we shall soar up like other nations.