Journalists from the public and private press participated, this December 19, 2023 in Lomé, in an awareness session on the concept of cybersecurity. A meeting organized by the National Cybersecurity Agency (ANCy) to make journalists allies in order to properly protect Togolese cyberspace.
Media professionals are trained on cybersecurity issues and the various cybersecurity threats that often appear on the eve of the end-of-year holidays. “We wanted this awareness during this period because we noticed that every time we approach the end of year periods, there are a lot of scam tricks and scams that abound on the internet notably false information sites and false links which promote and naively our compatriots fall into this trap,” commented the director general of the ANCy, Cdt Gbota Gwaliba.
Indeed, scammers encourage Internet users to click on fake links and share them. “Once you click on these links, they collect your usernames, passwords and can now access your accounts and make online transactions by hacking your data; publish them, ultimately asking you for ransoms and this creates a lot of serious harm to all of our populations. This is why we said to ourselves that we must involve media professionals,” explained Commander Gbota Gwaliba who invited journalists to serve as relays to the population.
At this awareness session, media professionals learned about the different digital channels of Ancy where awareness messages are published. They are also informed of the existence of the Computer Incident Alert and Response Center (CERT) to whom each citizen can easily contact to report cases of suspicion of a malicious site or link. “You can go to the Ancy site and declare this incident so that the technical teams can verify and delete it or make an alert that we will broadcast so that the population can be protected,” added the Director General of the ANCy.
Created by Decree No. 2019-026/PR of February 13, 2019, the ANCy is placed under the technical and administrative supervision of the Minister responsible for the digital economy and digital transformation and the Minister responsible for security and civil protection. This agency is the national authority on information systems security in Togo. It provides support to the services of the Togolese Republic in matters of defense and security.
Atha ASSAN