Information Technology expert, Mr Owusu Bediako-Poku, on Tuesday, urged Ghanaians to be security conscious as cybercriminals are using automated cracking tools to identify passwords primarily attributed to network administrators and use default passwords for new accounts.

Mr Bediako-Poku who is also the Vice President of Information Systems Audits and Control Association (ISACA) Accra Chapter, noted that in order to make passwords stronger and increase the security of businesses’ sensitive information, employees must be educated as to what represents a strong password.

He said that one of the major challenges associated with office security had always been the ‘people’ factor, as the majority of breeches usually start with the people.

“It takes people to configure, it takes people to respect rules, it takes people to swipe cards, it takes people to set strong passwords, it takes people to download malicious attachments to emails; so it has always been people,” he added.

Mr Bediako-Poku stated during an IT panel discussion in Accra dubbed “Home and Office Security Seminar: Threat and Risk Management”, organised by the PCN Information Communication Technology Training Centre.

The event aims at creating more awareness on the need to be security conscious at home and workplace and the current trends on how to protect soft information.

Mr Bediako-Poku said there was a need to work on the people, after getting the technology and processes right.

He suggested that all employees should be educated on the importance of cybersecurity and should observe information security health checks; such as basic controls, access management, data classification and abiding by organisational policies.

Mr Kobina Nkum Akwa, an IT Governance Expert, also urged the public to be mindful of their personal security in their homes and workplaces; as most attackers still relied on poor security habits of the public to succeed in their operations.

He pointed out that technology was inevitable; so businesses needed to capitalise on it properly to ensure that they use it to their advantage, regardless of the threats it poses.

Mr Akwa said everyone needed to be extra vigilant; declaring that issues regarding security had the risk factor and so people should be proactive in putting up preventive measures to curb such risks.

Mr Prince Kpasra, Manager of PCN Training Centre, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, said the seminar aimed at sensitising the public to be security conscious wherever they find themselves.

Mr Kpasra said with regards to security, the citizenry must be proactive and noted that thinking of a possibility of a problem was always necessary to find countermeasures.

“There are lots of threats in our environment and lots of vulnerability within our own internal system and these two things poses risk to us; therefore, creating the awareness now and addressing challenges was a laudable initiative,” he stated.