NITA develops cybercrime alert portal

The National Computer Emergency Response Team at the National Information Technology Agency (NITA) has developed a portal to receive and offer secure information on cybercrime alert.

The platform, which is encrypted, is open to both public and private business network operators in the country and also seek to protect network operators from attacks.

Dubbed; “Cyber security information sharing platform, Ghana..” The portal is linked to CERT-US, which provides important issues on cyber security on all attacks and threats to the Ghana cyber space on weekly bases.

Networks

The Manager of CERT-Ghana, Mr Eric Akumiah, in an interview, said: “We have invited all network providers in the country to sign up to the portal so that anytime we get any alert, we can communicate to them.”

He said the platform was a portal which was encrypted and so information shared among members on the platform was secured.

Mr Akumiah described the portal as a key initiative and said it alerted network providers of persons using their system to commit cybercrime in order that they could be warned or removed from the network.

He said since it was a portal, conversations could be tracked, so that any member who was not doing it right was alerted and whipped to fall in line.

Mr Akumiah further explained that apart from being a member on the platform, a subscriber also had the privilege of getting free advice and information from the CERT-US, which was the American version of the Computer Emergency Response Team.

Collaboration

He added that, CERT-US also provided weekly summary on major cyber security issues and information, “so, we also share these information so that people can keep their businesses secured.”

“The problem is that, a lot of people build their network and leave the source open, that is where the hackers can go in and hack,” he explained.

Mr Akumiah listed potential members on the platform to include business establishments, telcos, mobile operators and the general public.