body-container-line-1
28.01.2014 General News

Government urged to finance cyber crime combat

By Emelia Ennin Abbey / Daily Graphic / Ghana
Government urged to finance cyber crime combat
28.01.2014 LISTEN

The government needs to commit more funds to the fight against cyber crime in Ghana, the Vice-Chancellor of the Valley View University (VVU), Professor Daniel Bour, has said.

According to him, the fight against cyber  crime is becoming increasingly sophisticated, hence the need for more technologically sophisticated measures to counter the criminals.

He emphasised that the exploitation of modern technology by criminals who engaged in practices such as hacking, cracking and the popular 419 was gaining ground and posing a serious threat to society.

Prof. Bour was speaking at the opening of a month-long information technology and communications (ICT) training programme for 30 policemen and women in Accra yesterday.

The training programme is being facilitated by the VVU, with sponsorship from the Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC).

The police 
To effectively take on their task of  maintaining law and order, the police, Prof. Bour said, must keep pace with advanced techniques and mechanisms of detecting crime and fraud.

That, he stressed, called for in-depth knowledge and extensive use of cyber forensics which required huge financial resources.

“We hope the government will provide an adequate budget to provide the required logistics to enable the police to effectively and efficiently combat cyber crime,” he said.

Sakawa
The Inspector General of Police, Mr Mohammed A. Alhassan, in a keynote address, stated that cyber crime, popularly called 'Sakawa' in Ghana, had led to the loss of financial resources of many individuals and organisations, even though “most of such cases are usually unreported”.

Internet connectivity, he said, had made it easier for criminals to act beyond national boundaries, saying “this requires a multi-stakeholder effort, including the government, the private sector, religious bodies and civil and social organisations”.

The Director-General of Research and ICT of the Ghana Police Service, Commissioner of Police David Asante-Apeatu, said the participants, who were drawn from the various departments of the service across the country, would be trained in Microsoft Office Specialisation, Linus Administration, Networking and Ethical hacking.

writer's email address:[email protected] 

body-container-line