The Ghana Domain Name Registry (GDNR), under the auspices of Ministry of Communications and Digitalisation (MoCD), has organized the maiden inaugural Domain Name Service (DNS) forum 2022 with the objective of creating the platform for discussions on how to improve the country’s local domain name space through the knowledge of world best practices in the domain market as well as put in place measures to protect the DNS industry in Ghana.
The programme organized by the GDNR was on the theme, 'Developing Ghana’s DNS Industry for a Thriving Digital Economy' which falls in line with the government’s digitalisation plan seeking to emphasize the use of technology for development.
This year’s 2022 DNS forum was a hybrid event with topics on intellectual property, Internet Protocol (IP), local content and DNS infrastructure. The event also had a panel discussion session on the topic 'Mitigating Cyber-attacks on Financial Sector with DNS Security'.
The Deputy Minister for MoCD, Ms. Ama Pomaa-Boateng (MP) who read the speech on behalf of the Sector Minister, Mrs Ursula Owusu-Ekuful (MP), said it was necessary to have conversations on Ghana’s local domain name space given the fact that everyone had become aware of the benefits of digital technologies that were safe and accessible by all citizen.
She reiterated that digitalisation had made it imperative for the government and all relevant stakeholders to have a discourse on DNS since there had been attacks on DNS particularly targeting the financial sector.
“According to the International Data Corporation (IDC) 2021 Global DNS Threat report, 91% of financial organisations have faced at least one DNS Security attack which are estimated to cost nearly $1.1 million to the financial sector”. Mrs Owusu-Ekuful explained.
She said it was against this background that the government appointed the GDNR as the manager of the .GH domain name registry with the aim to promote the development of the Internet Space in Ghana.
She stated that the GDNR, an Agency under the MoCD, was also responsible for the domain name operations in Ghana, adding that the GDNR’s objective was to encourage the adoption of the GH domain name registrations so that Ghanaians could have their goods and services online for their customers and promote E-commerce.
The Minister however explained that the GDNR was currently going through a transitional period before taking full duty as the manager of the Ghana Country Code Top Level Domain (ccTLD).
Mrs Owusu-Ekuful also indicated that as part of efforts to build a resilient digital ecosystem, the government of Ghana through the Ministry of Communications and Digitalisation in line with its digitalisation agenda was taking pragmatic steps to transform the economy by harnessing the power of the Internet to empower and improve the lives of all Ghanaians.
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Story by: Joshua Kwabena Smith