From the 11th – 15th of December, 2023, about three hundred (300) Officers of the Nsawam Medium Security Prison benefitted from a training programme in basic Cybercrime and Cyber Security awareness.

Present at the opening ceremony of the five-day training were some top officials of the Service. DOP. Patience Baffoe Bonnie (Esq) in her opening remark charged the officers to master the skill and utilise them in order to reap positive outcomes from the training now and in the future. She was thrilled with the level of interest from the officers. She also stated that she is confident that the officers will make good use of the training.

The Officer –In-Charge, Assistant Director of Prisons, Patrick Thomas Seidu in a briefing indicated that the use of electronic devices and the internet has come to stay with us. It is therefore important that officers of the Prison Service are abreast with emerging crime trends to protect themselves and their electronic devices from the grips of cyber criminals.

In a presentation by the Head of the Public Affairs Unit of EOCO, SO Faustina Lartey, highlighted various safety measures to deploy in order to stay digitally secured and the dangers associated with clicking malicious links while on the internet. She further advised officers to stay clear off public Wi-Fi, public charging ports and the use of auto log-ins for apps on their digital devices since these expose them to cyber-attacks.

She concluded by stating that a false sense of urgency or pressure, accompanying a request for personal information, unsolicited contact by strangers, offers which are “too good to be true” deals, unusual requests and suspicious links are some of the social engineering cues that people must look out for in order not to fall prey to the tricks of these criminals.

Seidu Osman an Officer of the Anti-Money Laundering of EOCO in his presentation said cybercrime investigation is the process of investigating, analysing and recovering critical forensic digital data from the cyberspace. He went on to explain that digital forensic involves the collection, preservation and analysis of digital evidence. It also includes the recovery of deleted files analysing metadata and examining network traffic logs.

He finally took the officers through the ways to take inventory and application of chain of custody and its legal implications in respect to abetment, conspiracy, aiding and dishonestly receiving proceeds from a crime.

At the end of the five-day training about three hundred (300) Prison Officers including the top hierarchy benefited from the training programme.

DOP. Patience Baffoe-Bonnie (Esq) in her closing remarks expressed her profound gratitude to the resources persons from EOCO for taking officers of the Nsawam Medium Security Prison through the training. She stated that the objective of the training had been achieved and that officers must stay vigilant.