<<Print>>

Effective January next year, the government will operationalize its policy to abolish the use of private emails for official public sector business.

The Minister of Communication, Mrs. Ursula Owusu Ekuful, who gave the deadline, indicated that the government was working to procure a Microsoft online software to migrate all public sector institutions to a safer email platform for official communication, after which the use of private emails for government business would become illegal and punishable by law. 

“The government took the decision for the state to bear the cost of procuring an enterprise software licence for Ghana so that all public officials will be migrated onto a safer email platform.

“Cabinet has already directed the Ministry of Finance to provide the National Information Technology Agency (NITA) with the needed resources to procure a legal Microsoft software for all state agencies. 

We are hopeful that in the Mid-year Budget Review or the 2020 budget, we will have a financial commitment to have this done by the end of this year,” she said.

Workshop

Mrs Owusu Ekuful stated this at a workshop organised for heads of security agencies to review the draft National Cyber Security Bill yesterday.

The workshop was attended by top officials from the Ghana Police Service, the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF), the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS), National Security and other security institutions.

It provided an opportunity for the security chiefs to make inputs into the draft bill before it is finally presented to Parliament for passage into law.

Concerns

Mrs Owusu Ekuful’s statement came against the backdrop of concerns that public officials were using personal emails for official communication.

The minister said such a tendency exposed the state to numerous risks of cyber attacks and compromised official data. 

“Most public agencies are using pirated software that are unsupported and it is an avenue through which we are exposed to cyber threats.

“The issue is that if a public official uses a personal email for official communication, all official data is stored privately and when that official leaves service, the data is carried away; but the information does not belong to them,” she said.

Cyber sanity

The Global System for Mobile Communication Association (GSMA) data for 2018 showed that 3.6 billion of the global population use mobile internet and the figure is projected to hit five billion by 2025.

It also showed that 185 million people in West Africa use mobile internet with the number likely to reach 248 million by the end of 2019.

For Ghana, the association’s data showed that some 10.2 million people use mobile internet.

The country has also been ranked ninth on the league table of countries with the most usage of social media.

On the back of these figures, Mrs Owusu Ekuful stressed that the time had come for effective cyber hygiene to help sanitize the cyberspace.

She said that was non-negotiable, especially when the country was increasingly digitising its services.

The Communication Minister said, for instance, that the paperless port system, the national identification, increased mobile banking, electronic payment systems and other initiatives to digitise the economy would not make the necessary impact if steps were not taken to build a robust cybersecurity infrastructure.

Cyber Security Bill

The National Cyber Security Advisor, Dr Albert Antwi-Boasiako, said the National Cyber Security Policy and Strategy Bill was a key requirement for a robust cybersecurity ecosystem.

He noted that if the bill was passed into law, it would help address major lapses in the laws on cyber security.

“With respect to cybercrimes, we have the Electronic Communication Transaction Act that significantly addresses criminal offences and related punishments for offenders; the Data Protection Act, 2012 (Act 843) also regulates privacy of individuals.

 What we lack is a comprehensive cyber security legislation that will regulate our digital system in view of the increasing reliance on digital platforms,” he said.

Dr Antwi-Boasiako explained that when passed, the Cyber Security Law would establish the National Security Authority to regulate the digital ecosystem, provide risk management mechanisms and give directives to institutions to comply with cyber security requirements.