The training, organised by the Accra Regional Chamber of Commerce and Industry in partnership with the e-Crime Bureau, focused on how businesses protect themselves from cyber criminals.

It exposed the participants to common attack strategies of the cyber criminals and taught them possible defense mechanisms to secure their investments and promote digital safety.

Sustainable support

The Accra Regional Manager of the chamber, Daniel Osei Torgbor, in an interview with the Graphic Business after the workshop in Accra on June 30, underlined the need for a careful and sustainable support to secure investments of small businesses against cyber criminals.

“So, we are educating our members and the business community in general on how best to protect themselves and their businesses from cyber attacks

“And so, these businesses are being trained on how to protect their data, funds and secure their gadgets from cyber hackers,” he said.

Mr Torgbor said as an advocacy body, the chamber had realised with concerns the rampant cyber-attacks on businesses especially those in the SME space.

“Just yesterday, the Bank of Ghana (BoG) reported a surge in mobile money fraud and impersonation and so as a lead business association we thought to educate our members and the entire business community on how to protect themselves,” the manager added.

Good target

The Cyber Security Lead at e-Crime Bureau, Joseph Quaye, who was the resource person at the workshop, noted that SMEs were now very good targets for cyber criminals.

This, he said, was because small businesses were prone to cyber attacks due to their size and sometimes informal structure.

“Just like we take physical security seriously with burglar proofing when we build, we also need to take cyber security in the same way. And so, the commitment to take cyber security seriously really helps,” he said.

He urged SMEs to conduct more intensive training programmes and awareness sessions for their staff, especially management and board members.

He said this would enable the staff and management to make appropriate decisions to protect their interest with regards to the rampant cyber-attacks.

“If you do not protect your interest against cyber-attacks, you may lose all your funds to one single attack by these criminals and it may collapse your business,” he added.