The country's attention to cyber security is below par, giving a field-day to electronic criminals who are perpetuating all sorts of crimes including email fraud, Albert Antwi Boasiako, founder of e-Crime Bureau, an e-crime tracking company, has said.

“We need to invest highly in cyber security as a nation. The key to minimising e-crime is to first and foremost embark on a serious awareness campaign. But as a country we have an attitude of not investing in security.”

Mr. Antwi-Boasiako noted that so many companies do not have simple anti-keyloggers, do not assess the vulnerability of machines, do not test the strength of their websites, arid those who use anti-virus usually download. the very cheap ones. He said this can be dangerous to their IT infrastructure.

“Technology is what is driving the world into the future, so we need to protect ourselves. We need to spend money. We haven't invested in cyber security as a nation. Look at how we have embraced technology; everybody is hooked onto it, but it is not something that can be enjoyed without security,” he stressed.

He was speaking at - a Counterfeit Detection and Fraud Prevention Training Workshop organised by the e-Crime Bureau and the Business and Financial Times (B&FT) in Accra.

The four-day hands-on practical training workshop, which ends on Friday, will equip participants to become aware of the latest modus operandi of fraudsters, especially those who are targetting banking and

“We are giving them the skills to detect counterfeiting in currencies, cheques, passports, identity .documents, business documents and other security documents,” Mr. Antwi- Boasiako said.

At the recent launch of a collaboration between the Government of Ghana and Commonwealth Cybercrime Initiative (CCI), President John Dramani Mahama indicated that a National Cyber Security Strategy to help deal with threats to Information and Communications Technology (ICT) will soon be presented to Cabinet.

He said , Ghana's huge investment in "ICT will only yield dividends if people are able to trust transactions conducted in cyber space, hence the need for the strategy.

Since its establishment two years ago, e-Grime Bureau says it has uncovered several cyber crimes to the tune of about $1 million.

The company is the first digital forensics -and cyber security firm with a dedicated e- Crime lab in Ghana. It has operational representatives across Africa to provide services to attorneys and paralegals, law enforcement and intelligence agencies, and government departments.