[ 2016-11-23 ]

Banks asked to be wary of internal cyber attacks
Cyber security expert, Albert Antwi-Bosiako, has
cautioned banks to take internal cyber security
measures seriously as there is a growing trend
where insiders are facilitating attacks against
institutions they work for.

Whilst investing in cyber security measures,
banks, he said, should not only look at threats
from the external environment, but also in-house.

“There are also internal challenges,
sometimes…we may think we want to block external
attackers but there is a growing trend where we
have insiders also facilitating attacks against
their very institutions. So, the security approach
should be dual, both external threat and also
internal threat; I think we need to invest a lot
in cyber security measures going forward.”

Mr. Antwi-Bosiako who spoke to the B&FT at the
National Cyber Security Week 2016 in Accra said
the country is undergoing massive transformation
when it comes to ICT as compared to other
sub-Saharan African countries.

“Ghana is doing quite well in the ICT sector.
Within the last few years, we have seen a lot of
developments within the sector. The banking
sector, private sector and the government sector
have all benefited. Quite a lot has happened, not
also forgetting the growing trend of Ghanaians
using social media for different activities. So,
that is the environment we find ourselves; but
there is a critical need and one factor is the
risk around the cyber infrastructure.

Mr. Antwi-Boasiako, who is the principal
consultant at E-Crime Bureau, said the fact that
the banking sector is very amenable to adopting
technology makes it vulnerable to cyber-crime.

Some of the applications that are being deployed
to run e-banking systems have not been tested
security-wise and the hackers take advantage of
it, he said.

“At the governance level, we expect CEOs to show
major interest; that is the driving force to be
able to get our cyber security infrastructure
moving. We need corporate leaders to show the
interest in this project. I think it is the
central force that can get our industries getting
compliance in cyber security practices,” he
said.

The Bank of Ghana recently said 80 percent of
fraud cases which were reported to it were cyber
facilitated.

This, Antwi-Boasiako said, moves into millions of
cedis in terms of losses in the financial sector,
adding that “the millions are not just in
financial terms but the breach of care, the
investigations cost and losses in terms of
reputation. So, we need to invest in order to
prevent these losses.”

The Ministry of Communication is expected to
present a national cyber security policy and
strategy to parliament after Cabinet
consideration.

Ghana’s cyber space is protected by the
Electronic Transaction Act, 2008, which seeks to
protect consumers against cyber fraud and attacks.
The Act seeks to provide for the regulation of
electronic communications and related transactions
and to provide for connected purposes.

The country also has the Data Protection Act, 2012
(Act 843), which provides the legal framework for
the protection of personal information.

The law provides for the process by which one
could obtain, hold, use or disclose personal data
while the Data Protection Commission has been
established as an independent body to regulate and
implement its provisions.

Ghana has also signed a Memorandum of
Understanding (MoU) with the Commonwealth
Cybercrime Initiative (CCI) on the best approaches
needed to deal with the threats associated with
Internet use.

Source - Business & Financial Times

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