Professor Goski Alabi, the Consulting President, Lawer University College, has urged universities to invest in cybersecurity to protect their Information Technology (IT) systems from cyber-attacks.
She said institutions of higher learning faced a constant deluge of cyberattacks, hence the need for them to put in place a robust cybersecurity system to combat such threats.
Prof Alabi made a call in her remarks at the opening of a three-day training workshop in Data Protection and Cybersecurity in Accra.
The workshop, organized by Lawer University College, is being attended by 42 participants drawn from universities, corporate entities, and state organisations.
It seeks to build the capacity of participants in cybersecurity management and how to combat hacking of data.
Prof Alabi said the problems of academic integrity and academic fraud were not only limited to Africa or to Ghana in particular, and that it was a global phenomenon.
“And what we are saying more and more has to do with concerns over sextortion; that is sex for grades, but for some of us one of the biggest challenges that academic institutions are facing globally has to do with cybersecurity,” she said.
“And I think it is important that we recognize this, because it affects academic integrity and also ushers in issues of academic frauds and a lot of academic risks and unreliability into the system.”
Prof Alabi said there was, therefore, the need for universities to have a concerted and comprehensive approach towards addressing it.
She advocated continuous professional development as a requirement for every institution to train their IT and information security officers, as well as cybersecurity officers.
“I am aware that we dwell a lot on information security, but it is time we started focusing more on building capacity for cybersecurity and cyber intelligence.”
She urged universities to fortify their cybersecurity systems to guard against academic frauds.
She said the Lawer University College have trained its staff, both in-house and other international consultants that support their IT system, while the IT staff have been specifically trained in cybersecurity.
Prof Alabi said the University had also been collaborating with Franklin University in building the capacity of its staff in cybersecurity.
“Specifically, because we are an open university, who do more with online learning; we are the first, so we need to make sure that our systems are well protected,” she said.
“That does not mean that there have not been any attempted attacks. There have been some attacks, and it is the more reason we are suggesting that there is a need for capacity building. But each time because our staff are well vested in the area, they can bounce back.”
She, therefore, called on the universities to come together and “face the monster (cyberattacks). Hiding behind the scenes is not going to help any of us,” she stated.
She said all the universities were being affected and attacked in one way or the other, so the need to come together to equip themselves and even get International Cybersecurity Organisation certified cybersecurity experts in the universities to help protect their information management systems.
Prof Alabi appealed to the Ministry of Education and the Commission for Technical and Vocational Education and Training, to ensure the implementation of the Recognition Prior Learning Policy to recognise and validate competence obtained outside the formal education and training systems for the purposes of certification.
Mr Philip Debrah Danquah, Acting Principal Consultant, e-Crime Bureau, who chaired the function, said reports and industry analyses had shown that despite gains made, cyberattacks, fraud, phishing, data breaches and sophisticated hacks had resulted in demand for skills required to detect, respond, and prevent the breaches to improve upon business posture of institutions.
