There is panic within the business community in Ghana following the cyber attack on several government websites including the Government of Ghana website.
On Wednesday, about 10 websites of some government agencies and Ministries were hacked including the official website of the government of Ghana.
The other state institutions affected were; the Ghana Navy, Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Communication, Water Resources Works and Housing.
The other included the Scholarships Secretariat, the National Service Scheme, School Feeding Programme, Non-Formal Education Division of the Ghana Education Service (GES) and the Ghana Irrigation Development Authority (GIDA) .
A Deputy Communications Minister, Ato Forson confirmed the incident to Citi News but indicated that government’s IT experts have successfully taken control of the various websites.
According to an IT Analyst and Developer, Kofi Appiah Obirikorang pointed out that the websites of most businesses in Ghana are very venerable and companies must take immediate steps to fortify their systems.
“Most of our websites have not been updated to the latest security patch so that is the basic problem that we have now. It will surprise you to know that virtually all the websites of companies are very weak,” he stressed.
The business community including the banking, insurance, small and medium scale institutions are reported as the most vulnerable institutions.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mark Badu Aboagye described the situation as worrying.
“If we can get state agencies website being hacked, then I can imagine the SME’s…this serves as a wake- up call for the business community,” he said.
The Chamber said it expects to organize training workshops for its members on February 19 to update them on cyber security.
By: Rabiu Alhassan/citifmonline.com/Ghana
