Ghanaians are being warned to be highly aware of the looming threats of cyber activities.
Speaking to Goldstreet Business, the Manager of e-Crime Bureau Academy, Gertrude Kwamin indicated that getting to the end of the year is when cyber criminals are most active.
The reason for this is the increase in business activities, since it falls within the Christmas season, she mentioned.
During this time the threat landscape gets very busy.
Kwamin noted that some of the major threats include phishing, email and payment card related incidents.
In the usage of online banking and other financial services, it is critical that users are aware of existing threats coming from computer fraudsters and criminals.
The e-Crime Bureau’s assessment of user behaviour has shown that more than 65 percent of consumers are not aware of the relationship between the potential vulnerabilities of digital devices they use for daily financial transactions and cyber fraud incidents that are recorded on daily basis.
In a related situation, the central bank in coming months will introduce the Banking Cyber and Information Security Guidelines and Regulations to guide Banks in their fight against cybercrime and electronic money fraud.
This is in response to the growing threat inherent in the adoption of technology to meet the needs of increasingly sophisticated customers, and for Ghanaian banks to remain resilient to cyber threats as they transact business with other banks globally.
A study by the African Union Commission, in collaboration with Symantec, in November 2016, found that Ghana is among the top-10 most attacked countries in Africa, behind Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
This study further reveals that there were more than 400,000 malware incidents, 44 million spam incidents, and 280,000 Bots incidents in t Ghanaian institutions.
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