Ghana looks to become a judicial training hub on cybercrime and e-evidence within ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) having launched a training course in Accra designed for the legal community in English speaking countries.

The course, which has the backing of the ECOWAS Commission and the Council of Europe, mirrors the one offered in Senegal earlier in this year specifically for francophone and lusophone countries.

Ambrose Dery, Minister for Interior of the Republic of Ghana launched the course in Ghana's capital where 29 judges, magistrates and prosecutors from Ghana (as well as Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Gambia) will acquire the necessary skills to adjudicate on cases concerning cybercrime and e-evidence.

A statement from the Council of Europe reads, "Following the introductory course, further support will be provided by the Council of Europe to develop knowledge and advanced capabilities, and to integrate the cybercrime courses into training curricula and strategies of each national authority represented at the course. The introductory course will be followed by the regional delivery of the Advanced Judicial Course, in 2018."

The Council for Europe is currently providing similar training opportunities for legal authorities in countries including Costa Rica, Mauritius, Morocco, Myanmar, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Tonga.

Africa a target

According to the Panda Cybersecurity Report 2017, released this week, several African countries have been the target of cybercrime between January and October 2017 - including Algeria, Egypt and South Africa, which are among the top ten targets globally.

The report analysed 75 million new, distinct malware files over ten months, translating to 285 000 samples per day.

"Cybersecurity events that occurred this year have proven that the traditional security model is not able to detect and prevent advanced threats. Hackers are constantly adapting malware variants to avoid detection – a major change we saw in 2017 is the removal of the human element as a success factor in cyber-attacks. Attacks can now react in real-time to the victims' network and adapt, without human interaction to achieve their goal," reads an excerpt from the report.

The company predicts 2018 will be defined by fileless attacks, greater levels of risk associated with mobile devices, as well as more intense focus on cryptocurrencies as an avenue of attack.

Global attacks such as WannaCry and Petya reinforce the need for new generation security technology to mitigate risks, the company adds.

Mark Thomas, Security Strategist at Dimension Data, says a spike in attacks can be expected during the festive season

"Over the next six weeks, we'll see an increase in email phishing campaigns, ransomware attacks, banking trojans, as well as the emergence of fraudulent websites that promote special deals such as discounted holiday packages. Fraudulent gift cards, which may take you to an untrusted site or allow a download of a file to your computer that could compromise your device, will also become more prevalent."