Lead, Financial Crimes and Anti-Money Laundering at E-Crime Bureau of Ghana, Eric Kwaku Mensah has hinted that vulnerability does exist in the technology space and processes.
In recent days, peoples’ Ghana Card details have been used for the registration of SIM cards by different individuals without their knowledge.
This issue of breaches of citizens’ personal data has come as a shock to most Ghanaians and has left serious doubt in people’s minds about the credibility of the processes used by the National Identification Authority for the registration of the National Identity card.
Reacting to the use of the cards without the consent of individuals on 3fm, Mr. Mensah said it is due to the people involved in the registration process leading to the recorded cases of multiple SIM registration with citizens’ personal data.
“Now, what is happening is that when you look at protocols generally, we have something we call the technology, the processes, and the people. And when criminals actually are able to find out loopholes within either the technology that has been deployed or the processes, the protocols of the registration, or even the people involved, and some people actually mentioned that telco staff are involved, they are all part of the people factor. So, vulnerabilities do exist and that is what these criminals are preying on to actually do this SIM registration fraud.”
He further asserts that “criminals themselves use social engineering schemes to get telco staff to onboard them. So, they pick IDs and use that for registration. And of course, sometimes negligent or non-compliant staff or agents of these men would just take it up and do the registration. Another thing is that they also impersonate. So, using crafty social engineering schemes, the owners of these identity documents are not aware, they don’t know that their IDs have been used to register multiple Sims.”
According to him, fraud is not exclusive to Ghana alone but a global issue, even in advanced countries, and believes that it can not be eliminated.
Mr. Eric Kwaku Mensah added low-security consciousness of most Ghanaians plays a major role in SIM registration theft.
He, therefore, called for the proper keeping of identity documents and also urged people to desist from purchasing pre-registered SIM cards which according to him is illegal and can attract legal implications.
Meanwhile, the National Communications Authority and the Telcos have issued directives saying they are actively working on a short code for individual subscribers to verify the number of SIMS associated with their Ghana cards.
Mr. Mensah, therefore, appealed that the shortcode be made in a way that criminals will be unable to take advantage of it.
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Source: Eric Sekyi/ATLFMNEWS
