No loopholes in digital addressing system - Ghana Post

Ghana Post has dismissed claims of interference with its security set up for the controversial digital addressing software, GhanaPost GPS.

The Deputy Manager in charge of Finance and Administration, Kweku Tabi Amponsah told Joy News Monday their checks do no show a breach of security.  

The $2.5 million software has been criticized by some IT expert as being less secured, amid claims that they have been able to hack into it.

Although it has been barely a month since the digital property address system was launched to formalise and transform Ghana’s economy, there have been many concerns.

Problems such as internet connectivity and usability, and the originality of the idea by software developers, Vokacom, have been among the key concerns.

However, it is emerging that the software is also fraught with a number of security lapses that expose users to identity theft.

An IT expert, Stefan Froehlich, told Joy News data that has been fed into the digital addressing system could also be hacked and manipulated.

Since the new addressing system will be used in the national ID card next month, Stefan Froehlich has adviced the government to resolve the issues before the ID card project rolls out.

 “Yesterday I posted a proof of concept on my Twitter page where I signed up with [some numbers], 0 and nine digits, and I was able to sign on successfully. This means that it is possible people can fake their addresses.

"I can sit on the internet and listen to other people’s communication to their servers, that means I can steal people’s identification, I can steal people’s names and numbers and that is basically identity theft right there,” said Froehlich.

But Ghana Post has denied such claims, adding any such attempt will be treated as a criminal case.

Mr Amponsah said, “it has not come to my notice personally that somebody has been able to hack into the system and make changes.  

“The issue of hacking has to do with legality so if somebody is able to do that then the appropriate quarters will have to look at what the person did," he added. 

“Hacking is illegal I will not encourage anybody to do that. The system is secured and we have not had any issues. The system is kept at a secured location with multiple firewalls that people will not easily be able to access,” he assured.

Acting Managing Director of Ghana Post, James Kofi, also defended the system saying “we have been looking [for the breaches in the system] but we haven’t found what they [IT experts] are talking about.”

He told Emefa Apawu on the Joy FM’s Newsnight programme “our doors are opened if they find loopholes the can come to Ghana Post Head Office and show us what they have.

“Our technical team is there and we can look at it together. As of now, we have 24 hours monitoring and there has not been any kind of intrusion.”

Mr Kofi said they have not approached anyone as they do not want to encourage any hacker. 

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