Ghana lost US$105 million to cyber-crime in 2018 – CID

Latest figures from the Cyber-Crime Unit of the Criminal Investigations Department of the Ghana Police Service has shown that money lost to cyber fraudsters increased from US$35million in 2016 to US$105million in 2018.

Dr. Gustav Yankson, Director of the Cybercrime Unit of the Criminal Investigation Department, Ghana Police Service who revealed this said it added to the US$69 million lost in 2017.

Delivering the keynote address at the maiden edition of the Ghana Insurers Association’s (GIA) Information Technology Conference under the theme: “Emerging trend domain and impact of cybersecurity threats on the insurance industry”, a Cyber analyst with e-crime Bureau Philemon Hini argued it is time heads of institutions in the country lead the fight against cyber-crime by prioritizing investments in IT solutions.

“Within our institutions the management level must appreciate the need for cyber security solutions. Because from what we are seeing now cyber security has been left entirely in hands of the IT department without much interest from management. Because management does not fully appreciate cyber security issues it becomes difficult to get the funding needed to put the right systems in place.”

The Information Technology Conference by the Ghana Insurers Association’s brought together leading personalities in Ghana’s insurance sector to deliberate on the steps that need to be taken to protect insurance companies from the scourge of cybercrime.

On his part, the Managing Director (MD) of SIC Insurance Company Limited Stephen Oduro, stated that insurance companies must protect their data with improved investment into IT systems to prevent cyber fraud.

“IT should not and I stress, should not be an afterthought. We should do all we can to prevent these unnecessary budget cuts as far as IT expenditures are concerned,” Mr. Oduro said.

For Abena Biney, a partner at leading audit firm Deloitte, senior management must elevate the attention given to IT, to the level of other functions like Marketing, Finance and Human Resource due to its growing importance.

“I think we should pay attention to the cost-benefit analysis. Ignore the IT, worst case scenario what could happen? Your company could get shut down. Ask yourself a question, with one hack into your system, how much can you lose? Based on your answer don’t let IT be a second thought when you are doing your budget.”