Staff of the Information Technology department of the Multimedia Group Limited have undergone a four-day training on cyber security and digital forensics facilitated by the e-Crime Bureau at the e-Crime Cyber Training Lab.

Key objectives of the training were to equip the Technical Team of Multimedia Group to understand existing and potential cyber threats targeting media organisations, build competencies of participants to develop and apply timelines to reconstruct cyber security incidents and apply appropriate countermeasures against cyber-threats.

The media landscape has in recent past reported a myriad of incidents of cyber-attacks targeting IT infrastructure of organisations in Ghana.

Media organisations, as a fourth estate of the realm, are gradually being identified as targets of cyber criminals and political groups in a quest to access confidential data and cause reputational damage by destabilizing operations using sophisticated cyber-attacks on the IT infrastructure and medium of communication.

Intelligence and investigations conducted on electronic facilitated crimes by e-Crime Bureau has revealed that the human resource capacity of technicians and IT staff to detect and respond to the threats of cyber-attackers are inadequate to deal with the issues.

It has therefore become imperative for companies to equip their technical workforce to be up to the task when it comes to issues of cybercrime prevention, detection and investigations.

It is against this background and in keeping with its mission of empowering people that the Management of Multimedia Group have invested in developing the technical expertise of their staff to be prepared against any future cyber-attack.

The training also sought to equip participants with the requisite skills to extract data, capture and analyse network traffic from user activities on computer systems for forensic evidence.

The training which was delivered by a team of cyber and digital forensic analysts at the e-Crime Bureau provided practical skills in incident response management, malware identification and analysis and techniques in conducting cyber-based investigations regarding Multimedia’s IT environment. It further helped participants to acquire industry skills in conducting forensic analysis in email, browser, website, mobile and other digital platforms of communication.

The training also touched on addressing the technical challenges of organisations that lead to website attacks, social engineering attacks, compromise of sensitive information on operating systems among others.

The training has essentially equipped the IT department with the capacity to understand emerging cyber security risks targeting IT infrastructure and develop the necessary knowledge and skills to manage the threat.

Staff who partook in the training expressed great satisfaction with the level of professional and practical delivery of topic areas. They also emphasized that the training was worth attending as the presentations and lab sessions were easy to understand.

Staff also recommended that capacity building in cyber security be extended to all staff of the Multimedia Group as well as other media and corporate organisations to enhance the management and security of the digital platforms on which information is transmitted to prevent the reputational and financial damages associated with cybercrime incidents.

It is the expectation of e-Crime Bureau that the training will go a long way to make a significant impact in securing the media landscape against the threats of cybercriminals since the Multimedia Group is a pioneer and key stakeholder in the broadcasting industry in Ghana.