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The Chief of Defence Staff, Vice Admiral Seth Amoama, has urged officers of the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) to be cautious, accountable and incorporate cybersecurity best practices into their everyday lives and their cyber habits while online.

He said the cyberspace, for some time now, was fraught with threats of hacking, data leakages, social engineering schemes and cyber fraud.

The number of cybersecurity incidents, he said, had drastically grown in the recent past and the GAF had not been spared.

Vice Admiral Amoama, therefore, said it had become imperative for the officers to enrich their knowledge in Cybersecurity to ensure force’s data was safe from attacks from both internal and external bad actors.

He made the call in Accra yesterday during the launch of this year’s GAF Cybersecurity Awareness Month.

The event was held on the theme “Regulating Cybersecurity: A Public-Private Sector Collaborative Approach.”

Cybersecurity Awareness Month

Ghana is one of the countries in the world that observe the month of October as National Cybersecurity Awareness Month.

The month-long event seeks to intensify the capacity building and awareness creation efforts on cybersecurity, cybercrime, and educate citizens on the importance of good cyber hygiene and cyber best practices.

This year’s occasion will comprise workshops, lectures, demonstrations and training sessions on essentials of cybersecurity and the implications of the use of the social media by all ranks within the GAF.

Weakest link

The CDS said new technology and system would incorporate cybersecurity to guarantee and ensure system integrity, resilience and robustness.

However, he said research had established that the user, which is the human element, was the weakest link in computer security.

He said people were known to be more vulnerable than computers and smart devices. Sequel to that, Vice Admiral Amoama said the issues of data protection, security of information, misuse of social media platforms, secret recording of confidential or sensitive events and their subsequent leakages to the media had become great concern to the military high command.

To this end, I urge All Ranks to desist from unprofessional acts that seeks to tarnish the image of our noble profession.

I have also directed that regular reminders of extracts on communications and information systems policy and cybersecurity titbits be published in the unit routine orders to guide all ranks on the use of the internet and social media engagements,” the CDS said.

Ghana’s cybersecurity development

On his part, the acting Director General of the National Cybersecurity Authority, Dr. Albert Antwi-Boasiako said Ghana’s cybersecurity development was rated at 32.6 per cent according to the Global Cybersecurity Index in 2017.

As at the end of 2020, he said the country’s readiness level was rated at 86.69 per cent, thus, becoming the third highest ranked country in Africa after Tanzania and Mauritius and the 43rd ranked country in the world.

He said authority, therefore, recognised the contribution of the GAF to that development and hoped to build upon that success through the work of the Joint Cybersecurity Committee which had three senior officers of the GAF representing.