The Foundation of Generational Thinkers, FOGET, has sounded an alarm over the lack of security of most of Ghana’s online portals and websites leaving them vulnerable to hackers.
In a statement in Accra, during the week, FOGET, a non-governmental organization, NGO, focusing on youth empowerment, pointed out that the lack of security for the various websites and portals in Ghana is worrying and is a big risk to the country’s security.
The statement pointed out that most of the websites owned by government ministries, departments and agencies have no form of security except for making them vulnerable and at the mercy of hackers.
FOGET however singled out the Social Security and national Insurance Trust, SSNIT; Ghana Revenue Authority, GRA; Ministries of Finance and Foreign Affairs as some of the few state institutions that have fully secured their websites.
In commending them, the statement praised them for being up to scratch with their websites considering the sensitive data that they capture and work with. These state departments handle a lot of very sensitive data that affects all aspects of Ghana’s socio-economic life including pension funds, tax and the overall finance of the country hence they must be the leaders in data security and therefore praised them for their security consciousness president of FOGET Mr. Prosper Afetsi said in the statement.
‘Even the banks cannot be exonerated when it comes to website security as the over 20 banks in the country are not beyond the hackers as the majority do not have secured websites, the most vulnerable are the various NGOs operating in Ghana.
‘With what our research has revealed, we are sounding the alarm to all who own or operate websites to be aware that they stand a big risk of their services being disrupted and their funds stolen as they have left the doors to the heart of their operations wide open, this will definitely affect their operations negatively if they do not wake up with a sense of urgency,
‘They must know that they hold the future of their clients and the nation in their hands, this lack of sense of security on the part of the owners of these websites and portals will in the end damage their lead to their own downfall and failure,’ the statement added.
According to FOGET, all Ghanaians must be educated to know when they are on a secured website or not and that should guide them when they are entering their data or performing a financial transaction online.
Concluding, FOGET reminded all website administrators and owners of online portals to make security of their websites a priority when building and launching them.
