Dr. Gustav Yankson
It has
emerged that 86 Ghanaian top companies have had their login credentials sold
out to criminals to perpetrate fraud against the country.
The
affected institutions include financial institutions such as banks, the
telecoms sector, IT companies and even state institutions.
According
to the director in charge of the Cyber Crime Unit of the Criminal Investigation
Department (CID), ACP Dr Gustav Herbert Yankson, some criminals are hacking
into such sensitive systems with ease and are getting access to sensitive data
of those institutions.
He said
the affected companies have been informed to change their login passwords as
soon as possible since the criminals are using it to access sensitive
information that could disrupt the functioning of their organizations
temporarily.
Dr.
Yankson told DAILY GUIDE yesterday that the Federal Bureau of Investigations
(FBI) in the United States is leading investigation into what he called “the
dark web market place” to clamp down on criminal activities within their space
and share their investigative reports on those concerning Ghana with the Cyber
Crime Unit of CID.
He said
the FBI report indicated that Remote Desk Top Protocol (RDP) access credentials
of the affected companies are being compromised in a rampant manner.
He said
the report indicated that access credentials were sold out to criminals between
October 2014 and January 2019.
“There
are 86 credentials about Ghana that have been sold out on the dark web. So the
CID wishes to alert the general public who are using computer networks to make
sure that they improve on their cyber security within their organizations,” he
advised.
Dr.
Yankson revealed that what were on sale were the IP addresses, the port
numbers, the login credentials including usernames and passwords.
He said
the FBI discovered that some of the passwords of these companies “were so weak
that the criminals found it easy accessing on the dark web.”
He
mentioned that “some companies only used alphabets and numerical in creating
the passwords while others used names.”
For
proper cyber security, the Cyber Crime Unit boss said “it must contain a
mixture of numerical, alphabets – including capital and small letters –
currency signs, asterisks, etc. to make their passwords very strong.”
“It
means our cyberspace is still not secure so network holders, individuals,
companies, government and all must shore
up our game when it comes to cyber
security and put in measures to make sure that our cyberspace is protected,” he
said
The police CID, according to Dr. Yankson, is preparing to sensitize organizations to how to properly secure data.
By Linda Tenyah-Ayettey
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