GCTU Marks Cyber Security Awareness
The Ghana Communication Technology University (GCTU) has marked a “Cyber Security Awareness Day” on 18th October 2023 at the Florence Onny Auditorium, main campus.
The event, organized by the Department of Computer Science and the Directorate for Research, Innovation and Consultancy in collaboration with the Cyber Security Authority was to educate the University Community with valuable knowledge on Cyber Security to protect all information assets.
Giving his opening remarks, the Chairman of the event and Director of Research, Innovation and Consultancy, Prof. George Kofi Amoako commended the students and the National Cyber Security for their collaboration to create cyber security awareness. He said fraudulent activities were on the rise and therefore the activity to mark the day to heighten awareness of fraudsters in the system was timely.
The Head of Computer Science, Dr. Martin Mabeifa Ujakpa emphasized that, the month of October was dedicated to creating awareness on cyber security, especially where fraud or cyber attacks in the world had increased with patrons using sophisticated techniques and tools to engage in the practice. He added that, the cyber security awareness would prepare the students’ minds on what they were supposed to work on as an area of study. Dr. Ujakpa said, globally the world had lost almost 10 trillion in US dollars to cyber-attacks.
Speaking at the event, the Principal Manager, Cyber Security Authority (CSA), Mr. Eric Bansah emphasized that the dynamic landscape of higher education where knowledge was cultivated had, through technology, become a fertile ground for cyber incidences. He indicated that cyber-crimes were now focused on mobile money fraud, a practice that threatened the activities of academic institutions as evidenced in online manipulation of some student grades.
The Senior Manager, Computer Emergency Response Team, (CERT), CSA, Mr. Isaac Socrates Mensah, who delivered a presentation on “Cyber Security Awareness,” reported that 68.2% of Ghanaians were connected to the internet; 19.5% Ghanaians were active users of social media. He stressed that, about 6.6 million Ghanaians were using social media globally and Ghana had been ranked 8th in the world on number of hours spent on social media.
Mr. Isaac Socrates Mensah emphasized that because of advancement, government had taken the lead in terms of digitalization within the ecosystem as an effort to deal with fraudulent activities. “Now, state institutions are now on online platforms to render their services, compared to years ago.” he indicated.
He highlighted that, Malware, Phishing Social Engineering attacks, Data Breaches, Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS), Business Email Compromises (BEC) and Advance Persistent Threats (APTs) were the types of Cyber Threats, that were globally affecting Countries, institutions and organizations. Mr. Mensah urged all to install security software on their devices, update software and use different strong passwords on their devices to curtail cyber-attacks.
Earlier, the Former Director of Research innovation & Consultancy, Prof. Bobi Kofi Barimah said, GCTU was fortunate to have some of its former students working with Cyber Security Authority and urged students to take cyber security seriously. He emphasized that, those who were into cyber-crime are sophisticated and shared his experiences. He added that, his Directorate would continue to collaborate with CSA to organize more programmes on cyber security.
Closing the event, the Chairman emphasized that GCTU is unique in the sense that, it is the only University in Ghana that had been given the mandate by government to provide viable higher education in Information Communication Technology. “Looking at the way fraud is increasing, it means that career in cyber security is going to increase.” he said. Prof. Kofi Amoako encouraged students to leveraged on the cyber security awareness event to identify areas in cyber security that they could research into. He expressed his profound gratitude to CSA, the University Community and the students for making the awareness day event successful.
