Accra, March 23, GNA—Mr Alex Oppong, Lead in Capacity Building and Awareness Creation at the Cyber Security Authority (CSA) has underscored the vital role that Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) can play to intensify awareness on the Cybersecurity Act 2020.
He said the CSA was constrained in the area of human resources, making it difficult to be visible in all 16 regions of the country.
As such, he called on CSOs across Ghana to collaborate with the Authority to spread education on the Act.
Mr Oppong said this would require the capacity building of all forms to equip the CSOs to carry out the awareness campaign effectively.
He was speaking at a Forum dubbed: “Implementation of Ghana’s Cybersecurity Act 2020: The Role of CSOs” in Accra.
The event, which was organised by the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), brought together key stakeholders and CSOs to deliberate on how best they can contribute to Ghana’s Cybersecurity Act 2020.
Mr Oppong said over the past three years, the CSA, through the National Cybersecurity Awareness Month, had observed every October, engaged and educated Government officials, the business community, children, and the public on cyber-related issues.
Ms Vivian Affoah, Programmes Manager for Digital Rights of the MFWA, said, “people deserved to be protected online, as much as they are protected offline.”
She said cybersecurity had become a global issue because the internet was used in almost all human daily activities.
Ms Affoah called on the CSA to intensify cybercrime and cybersecurity awareness measures, digital literacy training on using digital payment platforms and instituting a human rights regime before the importation and use of surveillance technology.
She also recommended that the CSA should build the capacity of the State security, Legislature, and the Judiciary on the Cybersecurity Act, global cyber norms, and enhance their roles in protecting the human rights on the internet.
Madam Awo Aidam Amenyah, Executive Director, Child Online Africa, urged the CSA to put an Action Plan and strategy in place for measuring the impact of awareness creation.
She said education should be carried out in various languages to reach target groups, taking into consideration the public, children and young people, digitally challenged (physically challenged, illiterates, natural phobia for technology and the disabled), consumer-focused education and executive group.
Madam Amenyah said CSOs were willing to support the CSA in the form of research and developing a healthy cybersecurity market.
GNA