SIM Registration: Sam George Fears Australia Telecom Data Leakage Might Happen In Ghana

Member of Parliament for Ningo Prampram constituency, Samuel Nartey George has warned that the mode of the ongoing SIM re-registration exercise in Ghana makes the country vulnerable to cyberattack.

He says Ghana risks facing the same attack Australia is confronted with after the leakage of personal information from the country’s second-biggest telecom, exposing personal details of about 10 million customers, as reported by Aljazeera.

The Ghanaian lawmaker explained that the National Communication Authority (NCA) through its directives to the Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) in collecting “fresh biometric data” of citizens with regard to the SIM re-registration exercise flouts the law.

He referenced that Regulations 9(3) of L.I. 2111 makes it clear that it is again ONLY the National Identification Authority (NIA) that “may by notice published in a Gazette specify the types of instruments approved as portable identity card readers for the purposes of these Regulations”.

In a social media post, he asked, “Are the devices being used by the MNOs for collection of citizens biometric data approved by the NIA? The answer is NO!”

“This has become even more important to raise at this time because of the ‘biggest leak’ of confidential citizens data in Australia this past few hours. That breach was not a sophisticated attack but as a result of simple lack of requisite security infrastructure around the holding of such critical personal information.”

“Is Ghana the next to suffer same because of the shambolic implementation of a not complex public policy? Have we exposed Ghanaians to a grave danger of identity theft and fraud by way of incompetence on the part of the policy maker and timid acquiescence on the part of industry players fearing harsh sanctions for standing up for what they know is right?

“The Ministry, the Regulator and the Service Providers are all complicit in this almost criminal abuse of our laws and unjust treatment of the Ghanaian people”.

Source: opemsuo.com/Hajara Fuseini