Accra-Ghana, Oct. 27, GNA -The Forestry Commission has held a cyber-security awareness conference as part of this year’s Global Cyber Security Awareness Month to motivate staff to pay attention to cyber threats and climate change.
Organised by the Information Communication Technology (ICT) Department of the Commission the two-day programme was on the theme “Cybersecurity and Climate Change, the Twin Threat to Humanity”.
In a speech read on his behalf, the Deputy Minister responsible for Lands and Forestry, Mr Benito Owusu-Bio, said the fight against climate change and cybersecurity must always be recognised as a key ingredient for a sustainable future.
He said institutions and individuals were at a greater risk of cyber security threats and needed to safeguard electronic equipment against harmful attacks.
He said cybercrime perpetrators usually target loose links and called for creation of awareness among staff to prevent such occurences.
He pledged the Ministry’s full commitment to supporting the process while encouraging it to extend the awareness campaign to the Ministry and its Agencies.
Mr Owusu-Bio noted that rallying behind technology to combat cyber threats needed more complicated and resilient systems, which leads to increased energy consumption and the generation of Green House Gases (GHG), with devastating impact on the climate.
“It is very gratifying to note that the Forestry Commission has advanced in the digitalization agenda of the government by implementing several systems to ensure efficiency and effective management of its mandate.”
Mr John Allotey, the Chief Executive Forestry Commission, called for attention to period upgrade of systems software to ensure the prevention of risks of cyber security.
On his part, the Deputy CEO of the Forestry Commission, Mr Nyadia Sulemana Nelson, said cyber security was a key issue that required the full attention of corporate organisations to thrive in the technology world.
“This awareness creation programme is geared towards the capacity development measures for the five pillars for staff participation,” he said.
Dr Joseph Adu Minta, Director, ICT of the Commission, said staff needed to be alert of the surge in cyber security crime due to technological dependency and urged them to be careful with their in cyberspace since hackers are becoming more skilled by employing new attacks methods.
