According to her, enough measures have been put in place to prevent any external intrusion or hacking.

[contextly_sidebar id=”VfWPG9bVAtl0qLDS7u7eK5w1Kk9GpjMJ”]Speaking to claims by some tech analysts that the data of Ghanaians fed into the system could fall in the hands of hackers, Communications Minister; Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, said appropriate measures that come with the app make it almost impossible to hack.

“The proper firewalls and security features are being built into the system prior to it going live to protect against the very things that we all fear happening. I don’t know what someone else is doing to try to breach the defenses that are currently being built – they say the criminals are always one step ahead of us – but the knowledge on cyber security defenses currently available today, wherever it is in the world are what we are employing in the system we are deploying.”

Background

President Akufo-Addo about two weeks ago, launched the National Digital Property Addressing System, also known as the Ghana Post GPS in Accra, aimed at providing an effective means of addressing every location and place in the country, using an information technology application.

The app, which government said cost the country $2.5 million, has been criticized by some experts in the technology space as well as some civil society organisations.

For instance, President of policy think tank, IMANI Ghana, Franklin Cudjoe, described the system as amateurish and not new.

He also questioned the security risk to the data received by the system.

“I’ve read quite a number of reviews by industry watchers, and some of the comments they’ve made are not necessarily helpful – to think that you could input just any data and generate an address in itself sounds amateurish. There are basic web portals where you input any kind of data it could reject it, especially when you are filling forms. And to hear that obviously, that it is something with this app is quite troubling,” Franklin Cudjoe added.

Speaking at a press briefing to update Ghanaians on the level of security surrounding the software, the Minister urged people to disregard what she terms jargons being thrown about to scare citizens.

“…Those out there are raising concerns about what could possibly happen, we also want to assure them that we are mindful of those dangers and are taking steps to prevent those incidents from occurring here. No system is completely foolproof, but as far as the current knowledge goes, we are procuring the very best to protect our digital architecture,” Ursala added.

Ghana to pay Google $400,000 yearly

Meanwhile, it has emerged that Ghana is to pay tech giant, Google, an amount of $400,000 every year for embedding the company’s online map into the country’s newly designed National Digital Property Addressing System.

This was revealed by the Managing Director of Ghana Post, James Kwofie on Friday, at the press conference.

“In terms of the cost, what is being paid for is the back-end solution, data analytics, hardware i.e. the firewalls and servers, Google license, marketing and publicity as well as technical support, and GHc1.7 million VAT which goes back to the government. Contrary to popular believe, Google charges when you use their systems for local purposes or commercial activities. The Google license fee at the moment is $400,000 per year – that is the enterprise package,” he added.

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By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey & Farida Shaibu/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin

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This was revealed by the Managing Director of Ghana Post, James Kwofie on Friday, at a press conference organized by the Ministry of Communications following criticisms of the digital address system.

Mr. Kwofie made the revelation when he was giving the breakdown of the amount spent on the system which was earlier announced to be $2.5 million.

[contextly_sidebar id=”BbgTOGiNs7NCt9sW0baaAGXN4oVvVw8I”]“In terms of the cost, what is being paid for is the back-end solution, data analytics, hardware i.e. the firewalls and servers, Google license, marketing and publicity as well as technical support, and GHc1.7 million VAT which goes back to the government. Contrary to popular belief, Google charges when you use their systems for look-up purposes or commercial activities. The Google license fee at the moment is $400,000 per year – that is the enterprise package,” he added.

GHc3.5 million blown on publicity

He added that, an amount of GHc3.5 million was also spent on publicizing the system.

“Publicity like I said, is GHc3.5 million, and there are very expensive firewalls, we can’t say how many, but that also cost a lot of money,” he added

Background

President Akufo-Addo about two weeks ago launched the National Digital Property Addressing System, also known as the Ghana Post GPS in Accra, aimed at providing an effective means of addressing every location and place in the country, using an information technology application.

The app, which government said cost the country $2.5 million has been criticized by some experts in the technology space as well as some civil society organizations.

For instance, president of policy think tank, IMANI Ghana, Franklin Cudjoe, described the system as amateurish and not new.

He also questioned the security implications of the data received by the system.

“I’ve read quite a number of reviews by industry watchers, and some of the comments they’ve made are not necessarily helpful – to think that you could input just any data and generate an address in itself sounds amateurish. There are basic web portals where you input any kind of data it could reject it, especially when you are filling forms. And to hear that obviously, that it is something with this app is quite troubling,” Franklin Cudjoe added.

No data breach

But speaking at the press conference, Nana Osei Afrifa, Chief Executive Officer for Vokakom, the company that designed the app, assured that the data accepted by the system is safe.

He added that, ample measures have also been put in place to forestall any data breach.

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By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin

The post Digital address system: Ghana to pay Google $400,000 yearly appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

The Catalan giants announced on Wednesday that the controversial Uruguayan was “100 per cent” a Barca player, although the striker was conspicuous by his absence at a press conference due to his four-month FIFA ban from all football-related activity after biting Italian defender Giorgio Chiellini’s shoulder at the World Cup.

That incident, the third time in Suarez’s career that he had been banned for biting, prompted many in the game to urge Rodgers to get rid of his star forward before the start of the season.

But the Northern Irishman is adamant that the 27-year-old’s exit was more down to his desire to move to Catalonia than his antics in Brazil.

“He wanted to go and play in Spain, and unfortunately when a player no longer wants to play for you, we need as a club to look at it.

“It was his decision for him to go, he’s gone to Barcelona, a club he wanted to play for and now we’ll move on.

“I’m not sure if he would have gone regardless of the World Cup. But I never felt that towards the end of the season, and likewise he never said he would give us another year either. He had obviously signed a new deal so we had that.

“But I think we have had great service out of Luis and it’s one that we can’t worry too much about now, it’s done, it’s gone and our focus is here.

“There is a lot of work going on with the recruitment team in terms of getting in the right player and I am sure we can identify that.

“This club and many other clubs have shown over a period of time you move on, and believe me, it will be a really exciting season for us.”

Suarez will be ineligible to play for Barca, who reportedly paid £75million for his services – or even to train with his team-mates – unless any appeal lodged with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) is successful.

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Source: Sky Sports

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