Banks Face More Cyber Fraud Threats - IT Specialist

Information Technology (IT) specialist, Yaw Kusi Appiah Busia, has indicated that banks and financial institutions in the country are the major targets for cyber fraud.

Mr Busia, a Technical Partner of Delta3 International, a United Kingdom (UK) based I.T. Architects and Cyber Security Services firm, made this known on Tuesday in Accra during an interview with BUSINESS GUIDE on the sidelines of the fourth edition cyber security awareness workshop.

The cyber security awareness programme brought together players from both the private and public sectors to appreciate the seriousness of cyber crimes and cyber security problems that reportedly exist within Ghana.

Topics like disaster recovery, malware, cyber compliance, social engineering and cyber crime, email security, among others, were taught at the workshop which had about 60 participants from various sectors, including banking, Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and financial institutions.

“With cyber fraud, it's mostly the banks because obviously that is where the money is. That is where most of the cyber crimes occurred. Most of the time, it's the internal folks who are culprits with malware,” he said.

Citing a survey report on cyber fraud across African countries, he said about $50 million was lost between 2016 and 2017 in Ghana alone through cyber crimes.

The worst affected during the period under review, according to him, were the banks and other financial institutions.

Tighten Security
He stressed the need for banks to tighten their internal security systems to stop cyber fraud.

According to him, there were certain security controls and measures that banks could use to protect their operations against cyber threats.

Banks should endeavor to hire security professionals to undertake penetration test, he underscored.

He said that aside banks, other institutions like government agencies, ministries and departments must take action to protect their data from cyber theft because the consequences of cyber fraud could be disastrous and lead to reputation and financial damages.

Government should also take steps to enforce data protection measures to ensure that internal security and I.T. teams of institutions comply with security measures.

According to him, government should apply sanctions where institutions or individuals fail to comply with regulations in the cyber industry.

Managing Consultant of Delta3 International, Mike Komla Etchi, also explained that the major threat to cyber security in Ghana is “naivety.”

He indicated that a lot of people and institutions were ignorant about how to protect their data from cyber attacks, adding that the African continent lost about $2 billion two years ago due to cyber theft.

By Melvin Tarlue