According to them, information sharing on the activities of cyber-attackers was very critical in improving the state of cybersecurity for industries, corporate organisations and governments worldwide.

The panel members include Mr Eric Akomeah, Director of Operations at the National Information Technology Agency (NITA); Mr Marcus K. G. Adomey, President ISOC Ghana; Mr Philemon Hini, Cyber Analyst at the e-Crime Bureau and Mr Kenneth Adu-Amanfoh, Director, IT, National Communications Authority.

The panel discussion was preceded by a presentation by Mr Albert Antwi-Boasiako, Government Cybersecurity Adviser, which was on the topic “Cybersecurity in Ghana Solutions and Challenges”.

The forum, which forms part of ISOC Ghana’s first quarter event for this year, was attended by over 70 participants drawn from industry, corporate entities, security organisations, academia, civil society organisations and the public.

The panellists explained that although we live in competitive business world, it was critical that corporate entities to share information on cyber-attacks with their counterparts at a platform level; which would go a long way to help others to fortify their systems against future attacks.

They cited that banks would share such information with their contemporaries through a platform created by the Bank of Ghana.According to them, no matter how prepared an organisation might be, there would always be an attack from cyber-criminals.   They also made it clear that combating cybercrime was a shared responsibility for all and sundry - including industry, corporate entities, governments and individuals.

The panellists noted that government needs the support of the private sector in the war against cybercrime.  They also appealed to government, industry and the corporate world to step up their game to deal with the issue of cybersecurity and to join forces in the fight against cyber-attacks.

Professor Nii Narku Quaynor, the Chairman of ISOC Ghana, who moderated the panel discussion, reminded IT experts that no matter how they worked hard, the cyber-criminals would try to work around it; declaring that “they want you to fall into their traps”.He said knowledge did ‘not stay in books’; adding that “the best repository of knowledge is in the community”.

ISOC Ghana Chapter is a certified chapter of the Internet Society (ISOC), which is a non-profit organisation, dedicated to ensuring open development, evolution and use of the internet for the benefit of people throughout the world.