The call by the Acting Director-General of the Cyber Security Authority (CSA), Dr. Albert Antwi-Boasiako on business owners to consider cybersecurity as a critical risk issue and invest in baseline cybersecurity measures including creating awareness among employees is one of the leading stories in the Ghanaian press on Wednesday.
The Graphic reports that the Acting Director-General of the Cyber Security Authority (CSA), Dr. Albert Antwi-Boasiako has urged business owners to consider cybersecurity as a critical risk issue and invest in baseline cybersecurity measures including creating awareness among employees.
He explained that malicious cyber actors are getting more opportunistic, more sophisticated, and better organized by the second and therefore urged businesses, no matter their size to invest in cybersecurity measures.
“As we prepare for the New Year, we encourage every business, no matter the size, to consider cybersecurity as a critical risk and governance issue by investing in baseline cybersecurity measures including awareness creation among employees.
“The CSA has launched the Directive for the Protection of Critical Information Infrastructure which establishes baseline cybersecurity measures for all designated Critical Information Infrastructure (CII) owners. CII owners are mandated to comply with this Directive to ensure the protection of Ghana’s CIIs,” he said.
The Acting Director-General, who made this known in an end of year statement, noted that the CSA in the coming years will work to ensure a secure and resilient digital Ghana by working closely with stakeholders particularly members of the Joint Cybersecurity Committee (JCC) and non-governmental actors.
The newspaper says that Aqua Africa Limited, a United-Kingdom business focused on providing water access solutions in challenging communities has signed a logistics and warehousing partnership agreement with LMI Logistics Limited for a 1,880 sqm of storage space lease in Tema-Ghana.
The partnership agreement places LMI Logistics as the fore logistics and warehouse manager for the UK Export Finance funded water project that aims to alleviate up to 280,000 Ghanaians from the plight of daily water poverty across Ghana.
Acquiring the warehouse is in preparation for the Rural Communities and Small-Town Water Supply Project for the twelve (12) communities listed by the Ministry for Sanitation and Water Resources (MSWR) across five (5) regions of Ghana.
As part of the project, the UK business is pleased to see the safe arrival of 630 solar panels, a key component for delivering green energy to their preliminary project. The leased space from local business, LMI Logistics, will allow the company to store components such as solar panels to be used for the project prior to their dispatch to the relevant communities.
Being an emerging leader in the development of climate-smart, social-impact projects, Aqua Africa is utilising solar power with an integrated revenue-capturing ‘pay as you fetch’ system to provide safe, clean water to areas of the greatest need, reducing the plight of daily water poverty across Africa.
Mr Philip Foster, CEO, and Founder of Aqua Africa Limited, said: “This is key progress for the project and will benefit Aqua Africa to have access to secure storage facilities upon their arrival in Ghana.”
The Graphic also reports that the Emirates airline on Tuesday suspended indefinitely the entry of travellers from 10 African countries including Ghana.
The airline said passengers on direct and transit flights from Ghana, Angola, Guinea, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Cote d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Zambia and Zimbabwe would not be permitted to travel to Dubai from December 28, 2021.
It added that outbound passenger operations from Dubai to these destinations remain unaffected.
“Affected customers do not need to call us immediately for rebooking. Customers can simply hold on to their Emirates ticket and when flights resume, get in touch with their travel agent or booking office to make new travel plans,” Emirates said.
“Emirates regrets any inconvenience caused. In order to receive the latest updates on their flights, customers are also advised to ensure that their contact details are updated by visiting Manage Your Booking.”
The move is the latest restriction on global travel aimed at limiting the spread of Covid-19, particularly in light of the emergence of the Omicron variant.
The newspaper also says that Black Stars of Ghana will end 2021 as the 52nd best men’s national team in the world according to December’s rankings released by the Federation of International Football Association (FIFA) on Thursday.
With the next rankings due to be published on February 10, 2022, this means Milovan Rajevac’s Black Stars – who are eyeing a fifth AFCON crown – will head into the tournament as the eighth-best team on the African continent.
The Black Stars, who have amassed 1428.97 points, are ranked behind Senegal (1st), Morocco (2nd), Tunisia (3rd), Algeria (4th), Nigeria (5th), Egypt (6th) and Cameroon (7th).
Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, only 352 full internationals were played in 2020. Not since 1987 (323 matches) had so few games been played in a calendar year.
By contrast, planet football made up for lost time in 2021 with a record-breaking 1116 matches played.
And while the quantity of games changed radically from one year to the next, the top-ranked team in the FIFA/ Coca-Cola World Ranking has remained the same! For the fourth year in a row, Belgium (1st) end the calendar year in pole position, albeit only just ahead of Brazil (2nd) by 2.1 points. France (3rd) complete the podium for 2021.
For their part, Canada (40th) are the year’s ‘Most Improved Side’ having picked up no fewer than 130.32 points over the last 12 months. Their journey to the semi-finals of the 2021 Gold Cup as well as impressive results in FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ qualifying have been major factors in their rise.
GIK/APA