Aventura Technologies, Triplecyber to Establish Cyber Security Centre

Aventura Technologies Ghana, local representative of the American security giant has teamed up with Israeli firm TripleCyber, to build an ultra-modern cybersecurity centre (SOC) in Ghana.

The partnership which was launched in Accra on Monday is designed to avail to Ghana both technology and skilled personnel in the cybersecurity world.

The Chief Executive of TripleCyber, Nadav Tavor, said beyond the monetary losses, cybercrime could paralyse a whole nation and its critical infrastructure.

Critical installations such as power generation and distribution systems, water systems, financial systems can all be targeted by cyber criminals because they run on softwares and other operating systems that make them vulnerable. This means they must be properly secured.

TripleCyber and its partners Aventura Technologies, Mr Tavor said had experience in designing cybersecurity solutions to telecom companies, service providers, financial and utility companies across the world.

The Chief Executive of Aventura Technologies Ghana, Mr Emmanuel S. Asiedu, said the partnership with the Israeli company would achieve great things for Ghana.

Apart from the modern cybersecurity solutions centre, the two companies would help train Ghanaians in the cybersecurity industry.

"The overarching objective of this partnership is to create jobs and produce world-class cybersecurity experts capable of managing the ultramodern systems we are building. We are determined to help produce Ghanaians who will take charge of our country's cybersecurity so that we don't have to rely on foreigners which poses serious risks to us as a nation," Mr Asiedu said.

A lecturer at the Ghana Telecom University College (GTUC), Dr Kester Quist-Aphetsi, said Ghana had to learn from the experience of Israel which took cybersecurity education seriously and has thus become a superpower in the field.

A Board member of Aventura Technologies Ghana, Prof. K.O. Boateng, said the government of Ghana was right in promoting an aggressive digitisation agenda.

Interconnectivity would spur Ghana's growth, he said, but insisted this imposes an obligation on the state to protect its cyberspace.

The country must also take its Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education seriously as that is the only way to produce the needed human resource who can train to become cybersecurity experts.

He stressed that since Ghana found it prudent to deploy police officers to fight physical crimes, it must produce skilled people in the cybersecurity space.

Prof. Boateng believed the partnership between Aventura and TripleCyber presented great opportunities that must be taken advantage of by the government, companies and educational training institutions.

It has been predicted that the next world wars would be fought in the cyberspace and would be catastrophic for humans than bombs and guns have been.

This week it had to take the combined efforts of many international experts and security agencies to bring charges against a multinational cybercriminal ring which used a malware to steal $100 million from bank customers.

Statistics show a sharp rise in cyber crimes in Ghana with sophisticated methods being adopted by criminal gangs.

Ghana's Interior Minister Ambrose Dery last year revealed that about $95 million was lost to cyber fraud between January and August - the amount projected to hit $120 million by the end of the year 2018.

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