A Deputy Minister of Communications, Mr George Andah, has advised institutions managing personal data to help prevent identity theft by taking extreme caution in how such data are used.
“There is the need to protect personal data and the right to privacy.
It is vital that personal data held by organisations, businesses and government institutions are accurate and used for the purposes they are collected,” he said.
“More important, proper data protection procedures have to be followed.
This is essential in helping to curtail cybercrime by ensuring that personal data is protected from misuse by third party fraud such as identity theft,” he added at the 2019 Huawei Internet Protocol (IP) gala in Accra yesterday.
Identity
Identity theft, also known as identity fraud, is a crime in which an imposter obtains key pieces of personally identifiable information, such as automated teller machine card or driver’s license numbers, in order to impersonate someone else.
The information can be used to obtain credit, merchandise and services in the name of the victim, or to provide the thief with false credentials.
Mr Andah noted that as the country sped up its digitisation efforts and embraced technological advancement, it needed to walk hand-in-hand with adherence to safety and hygienic cyber security practices.
He said the Ministry of Communications, realising the dangers, had undertaken a number of initiatives and activities, including the establishment of a National Cyber Security Governance Framework, to enhance the country’s emergency response ecosystem.
The gala, christened “Rethink IP for Digital Economy”, brought together more than 150 information communication technology (ICT) and telecoms industry experts from leading operators, enterprises, and top global experts from Huawei to discuss and engage on technological developments in the ICT space.
It also provided the opportunity for the Chinese information technology giant to pitch some of its ICT products and solutions, including network security, routers, switches, wireless area network, and campus network solution.
ICT Academy
Huawei, in December last year, launched the Huawei ICT Training Academy, an ICT Talent Ecosystem Programme for Ghana.
More than 600 students and professionals have benefited from its various training programmes in IP aimed at developing Ghana’s ICT talent pool, while giving the technology industry the opportunity to enhance and polish ICT skills to meet the increasing domestic and global demand.
Talent
The Managing Director of Huawei Ghana, Mr Tommy Zhouwei, said the company saw itself as a Ghanaian company, hence the sense of responsibility to improve ICT levels in Ghana, stressing that “IP is just one part of a big programme to develop more Ghanaian talents in ICT”.
With Ghana struggling to bridge a rural-urban digital gap, he said Huawei was working with local IT companies to develop rural telephony in Ghana at reduced costs.
He said communication was a human right and the right to use the Internet should be comparable to breathing.
According to Huawei figures, more than 2.7 million Ghanaians are yet to be connected to the Internet, and he said having skilled personnel was as important as deploying infrastructure that would bridge the gap.
Huawei IP Club
Meanwhile, Huawei Ghana has launched the Huawei Ghana IP Club which has the aim to keep the conversation going through the establishment of a common and easy-to-access platform for engagements and continuous learning for both existing and aspiring IP professionals.
It will serve as a platform for industry collaboration and cooperation mainly geared towards joint innovation and continuous improvement to drive industry growth.
The Huawei Ghana IP Club will seek to strengthen the IP industry and empower players in the field to be skilled, equipped and globally competitive.