An 18-member Joint Cyber Security Committee (JCC) has been inaugurated under section 13 of the Cybersecurity Act, 2020 (Act 1038) to cooperate with the Cyber Security Authority (CSA).
The President made the appointment of the Joint Cybersecurity Committee in consultation with the Authority as provided in Section 13(4) of Act 1038.
The composition of the JCC consists of the following; Cyber Security Authority, Director General, Dr Albert Antwi-Boasiako as chairperson, Judicial Service, National Information Technology Agency, National Communications Authority, Data Protection Commission, Bank of Ghana, Financial Intelligence Centre, National Intelligence Bureau Economic and Organised Crime Office and Criminal Investigations Department as members.
The rest are the National Security Council Secretariat, National Signals Bureau, Defence Intelligence, Ghana Immigration Service, Research Department, Ghana Armed Forces, Office of the Attorney-General and Ministry of Justice and Ghana Domain Name Registry also as members.
The brain behind the JCC committee is to strengthen cooperation among member institutions, sectors, and the CSA in the development of cybersecurity in the country, work with the CSA in the implementation of the National Cybersecurity Policy and Strategy, enhance awareness creation and build cybersecurity capacity in various sectors of Ghana’s socio-economic development and improve information sharing to aid in incident response and reporting.
In her remarks, the Minister for Communications and Digitalisation, Mrs Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, said before the passage of the Act in 2020, the government inaugurated the National Cyber Security Technical Working Group (TWG) in October 2017,
The purpose was to bring representatives of state institutions, many of whom form part of the JCC inaugurated.
“Due to the cross-sectoral nature of cybersecurity, we thought it wise to have such a group to facilitate prompt response to and resolution of incidents which impact on the security of digital applications, services and infrastructure as we increasingly digitise our operations across all socio-economic activities.
Mrs Owusu-Ekuful said it was set up to provide institutional collaboration at the highest level to develop our cybersecurity due to the hard work of the TWG, the Cybersecurity Advisor and the National Cyber Security Centre, under the direction of the Ministry of Communications made significant progress in cybersecurity development, placing Ghana 3rd on the African continent and 43rd globally.
She said the appointment and the inauguration of the JCC is an important milestone in Ghana’s cybersecurity development and we are hopeful that through your work, “we will be able to address critical cybersecurity issues affecting the country, including the protection of critical information infrastructure, effective criminal justice response to cybercrimes, awareness creation among public sector officials, public-private sector collaboration and relevant international cooperation to make Ghana a truly cyber secured nation.”
The minister said cybersecurity is multi-sectoral and demands a multi-sectoral approach to tackle the issues. Collaboration among different stakeholders and public and private sector collaboration is critical. “I, therefore, urge you to work with the authority and the private sector through the industry forum which is in the process of being established.
“This is not the time for turf wars and working in silos and you need to coordinate your efforts, collaborate and cooperate to succeed. We are all in this together and the country demands this of you to ensure our collective cybersecurity.”
“We cannot sustain our digitalisation efforts without cybersecurity. Cyber-attacks could undermine our gains in digitalisation as well as our social and economic well-being and consequently, impact on our national security,” she stated.
