His call follows reports in the French media of China bugging and stealing data from the $200 million African Union (AU) Headquarters in Ethiopia it funded and built.

[contextly_sidebar id=”WRJQhnXkan49xg4m34BYF8RNTA75Nf58″]Speaking to Citi News on the reports, Dr. Antwi Danso called on the government to as a matter of urgency, build a robust system to avert any such attacks since they were a threat to the country’s security.

“The Chinese, the Americans and several other countries have cyber commands, proper cyber commands… whose work is always to look at the internet and see which country is trying to target or attack their country.”

“Let’s take cyber awareness very seriously. Let’s let the people know that it is now a weapon. Let us take it as that. It is no longer a computer kind of detection. It is now real warfare. If we take like that, then we can have people trained to know how to deal with cyber warfare.”

Plans for Cyber Security Centre 

President Nana Akufo-Addo, in October 2017, said his government intended to establish a National Cyber Security Centre though no concrete plan has been outlined as yet.

President Akufo-Addo said this would be key to safeguard the national identification system, the digital addressing system, e-payments, digital financial services and the various e-government initiatives.

He assured that the government will enforce existing legislation and will empower the Data Protection Commission to ensure enforcement of the provisions of the Data Protection Act, 2012 (Act 843).

Denials from China

China has since dismissed the reports it bugged the AU headquarters as “preposterous”.

The Chinese ambassador to the AU told reporters the media in Ethiopia that claims, first reported by French news outlet, Le Monde was “very difficult to understand”.

The article said the discovery resulted in all the AU servers being switched.

Le Monde spoke to a number of anonymous sources, who claimed the alleged transfer was taking place late at night and was only spotted in January 2017 due to the spike in activity between midnight and 02:00, despite no-one being in the building.

It was suggested the alleged data transfer had been taking place since 2012 when the building was opened.

AU officials brought in security experts from Algeria to sweep the entire headquarters for potential bugs leading to the discovery of microphones in desks, according to Le Monde.

–

By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Ghana needs to upgrade cyber security systems – Antwi Danso appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

According to him, those are just knee-jerk approaches to the issue which needs proper solution.

“It is one of the kinetic ways of solving a problem using full force. But this is not the first time we have operation cow leg and I believe that is not the way of resolving it. Maybe in the interim, the specific Agogo situation yes, but what about all over Ghana?”

[contextly_sidebar id=”3sxjB9LVt3kC7UXGwz1Ztbin9cio51By”]Speaking on the Point Blank Segment on Eyewitness News, Dr. Antwi Danso explained that most of the herdsmen who are bearing the brunt of Operation Cow leg are usually not the rightful owners of the cattle hence such strategy must be re-looked.

“It is not the herdsmen who own the cattle. Medical officers, military officers, chiefs, politicians among others own the cattle so why are we blaming the herdsmen? The very people who own the cattle what have we done to them? I’m not saying what they are doing is good. If they rape women and kill people, that is criminal and we have to deal with them.”

Background

Following complaints of alleged atrocities being committed by nomadic herdsmen and the destruction of farms in Agogo in the Ashanti Region and parts of the Eastern Region, government re-launched Operation Cow leg which comprised police and military personnel tasked to flush out such people from those areas.

Recently, 200 additional personnel were deployed to Agogo and Sekyere Afram Plains districts after some military and police officers were shot at Agogo.

A statement signed by a Deputy Minister of Information, Curtis Perry Kwabia Okudzeto, said the joint security team has been tasked to “push back the herdsmen from new areas they have occupied, arrest perpetrators of recent acts of violence for prosecution, and augment the efforts of Operation Cow leg, an ongoing security operation aimed at dealing with the activities of herdsmen in the area.”

Ranching is the solution

But speaking on Point Blank on Tuesday, Dr. Danso said the only solution to the issue is to resort to what he referred to as ranching.

“It’s about time we started ranching system. The breeding of cattle in Ghana must have some modernity to it,” he said.

Antwi Danso explained that with ranching, cattle can be taken care of professionally without causing havoc to any farm or property, adding that “if we don’t do this the Fulani menace will continue forever and forever.”

–

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

The post Operation Cow leg can’t solve herdsmen menace – Antwi Danso appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

“They were given two years to stay in Ghana, and the two years have elapsed, what next. And for me they have to leave the country. They must be made to leave by the tenets of the agreement. And agreement tells how its termination can be. So I don’t see why this thing cannot be done, because if they are not made to leave, the security implications are dire,” he told Umaru Sanda on the Point Blank segment on Eyewitness News on Tuesday.

[contextly_sidebar id=”RPEXrGcxVxlpZMOqrAa9C3WZ99CHcs9d”]Ghana’s controversial agreement with the United States of America for the two-year stay of the two former Guantanamo Bay detainees, Mahmud Umar Muhammad Bin Atef and Khalid Muhammad Salih Al-Dhuby, ended on January 6, 2018.

The government has said it is discussing the future of the two, who were in detention for 14 years after being linked with terrorist group Al-Qaeda.

Despite the concerns that met Ghana’s decision to host the two Yemeni men, their two-year stay passed without any incident.

But Dr. Danso insists that the two must leave the country because hosting them “has brought lot of insecurity to us already.”

“Remember when they were brought in, the Ghana government said the Syrians could come and visit their relatives here. How many Syrians came in and who are they? All these things have security implications. The government must come out and tell us,” Dr. Danso added.

Background

The move to host the two in the country was criticized by many observers including the then-in-opposition New Patriotic Party, who described the two as a security threat despite assurances to the contrary by the US.

Two citizens; Margaret Bamful and Henry Nana Boakye, further sued the former Attorney General and the Minister of Interior contending that the two were being hosted illegally.

The two were justified by the Supreme Court, which declared as unconstitutional the agreement between the Mahama government and the United States.

The apex court ordered the government to send the agreement to Parliament for ratification or have the two detainees sent back to the US.

According to the judgment, government needed the approval of Parliament before entering into any international agreement, just as in the case of the two detainees.

When the matter came up for discussion in Parliament, the House was informed that the agreement that was reached under a note verbale and Memorandum of Understanding.

A note verbale is a piece of diplomatic correspondence prepared in the third person and unsigned.

Parliament subsequently ratified the agreement for the two for detainees to be in the country for two year.

–

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

The post Return GITMO 2 now – Antwi Danso to gov’t appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.