By Nicholas Osei-Wusu
Ghana’s digital penetration has shot up from five million in 2014 to 24.2 as of January 2024 with seven point-six million of the users actively on social media.
This places Ghana as the 15th digital consuming nation globally thereby exposing the country to higher cyber safety concerns and security risks.
Despite the opportunities that come with Cyber, it requires concerted efforts by all stakeholders such as the media and the National Cyber Security Authority to reduce the advances of criminals within the digital space.
The Director in charge of Capacity Building and Awareness Creation of the National Cyber Security Authority, Alexander Oppong, made the call in Kumasi at a workshop for journalists.
Ashanti region is the first port of call in the nation-wide capacity-building programme being organized by the Ghana Journalists Association, GJA in partnership with the National Cyber Security Authority.
The initiative coincides with the month-long cyber security awareness creation period for members of the society on the theme: “Combating Misinformation and Disinformation in a Digitally Resilient Democracy; Our Collective Responsibility.”
Both members and non-members of the GJA benefitted from the training aimed at empowering journalists with an appreciable level of knowledge about cyber security and its forms including the modus operandi of the cyber criminals and bullies in perpetrating their nefarious activities.
The Director in charge of Capacity Building and Awareness Creation of the National Cyber Security Authority, Alexander Oppong, said, as Ghana gets closer to the December 7 Presidential and Parliamentary elections, activities of cyber criminals could increase with major actors being the target.
Apart from deploying tactics to attack personal and corporate databases, such elements in the society would could deploy Misinformation and Disinformation to influence the electoral processes and voting decisions of the electorate.
Mr. Oppong therefore urged the media in particular, as the guardians of truth, to collaborate with other stakeholders to protect members of the society against cyber manipulations.
The General Secretary of the GJA, Kofi Yeboah, emphasized to the journalists the need to always upgrade and update their professional skills and knowledge in order to improve upon their competencies while reducing the rate of challenges they could be exposed to.
It is in this regard that the GJA and the National Cyber Security Authority have teamed up to build the capacity of journalists in all the regions to empower them with more information about the threats inherent in the increasing digital and social media usage in Ghana.
