Cyber security is the core of NITA’s mandate – Director-General
Security is at the core of the National Information Technology Agency’s (NITA’s) role as an information technology (IT) industry regulator, Mr George Atta-Boateng, the Director General of the Agency, has said.
He explained that with an oversight responsibility over the Electronic transaction ACT (ACT 772); used to cure cybercrime, NITA with support from stakeholders such as the law enforcement agencies and the judiciary, was empowered to ensure that the ACT was implemented to the letter.
Mr Atta-Boateng made these remarks, in a speech read on his behalf in Accra, at a Computer Security Incident Response Team training workshop.
He said the recent security governance initiative with the United States Government and the GLACY+capacity building with the Council of Europe, which NITA was fully involved, would bring Ghana the needed capacity to implement the recently approved Cyber Security Policy and Strategy to improve on the fight against cybercrime.
He said NITA had been mandated to lead in the development and implementation of cyber security policy and strategy to make Ghana a safe place in cyberspace.
“NITA was actively involved in the development of the national policy on cyber security and would be a principal player in the implementation,” he said.
“NITA is the Government’s ICT service player and it has rolled out an elaborate wireless and fibre optics network across the country.
“It has also developed and is managing the National Datacentre Infrastructure currently being used by both public and private sectors entities,” Mr Atta-Boateng added.
He said NITA, as a manager of the huge ICT Infrastructure, was very mindful of the security of the network and must ensure that the network was always up to ensure that the government’s business was not impeded.
He said in view of this NITA had set up the NITACERT in 2012, the first computer security incidents Response Team(CSIRT) in Ghana, to manage incidents that occurred on the network.
With the establishment of the National CSIRT, CERT-GH, in 2014 by the Ministry of Communication, NITACERT now worked closely with CERT-GH to secure its network elements.
Mr Atta-Boateng said NITA currently hosted CERT-GH and supported its operation in the light of its commitment to ensure that the Ghana Cyber was safe.
“It is on this note that NITA has partnered with other stakeholder in the private sector and civil society to promote awareness of cyber security by organising the cyber security initiative this year,” he said.
He said under the security governance initiative, more capacity building and awareness creation activities would begin next year.
The training workshop, which is part of the 2016 National Cyber Security Week Celebration, is to create awareness to participants on computer security incident response teams and their role in ensuring cyber security.
Cyber security is the body of technologies, processes and practices designed to protect networks, computers, programmes and data from attack, damage or unauthorised access.
Mr Eric Akumiah, CERT-GH Manager, Ministry of Communication, said the best way of ensuring cybersecurity was through creating awareness on it.
He noted that 70 per cent of cyber security could be attributed to awareness creation and 30 per cent to technical; adding that, an awareness creation would allow the country to have a firm grip and know what to do.
He said the workshop was to create high a level of cyber security awareness and how to be more responsive towards it.
Mr Kenneth Adu-Amanfoh of the National Communication Authority, said the Authority in collaboration with NITA, would ensure that the National Cyber Space was free from criminals.
He said as regulators of the telecommunications sector, the Authority would ensure that consumers got the best services from the operators.
Mr Marcus Adomey, the Chief Operations Manager, AfricaCERT, in his presentation, noted that the internet had no respect for national borders; hence, there was the need for an appropriate structure to deal with cyber crime.
Source: GNA