The Africa Education Watch, an education think tank, has called on the education ministry to protect the CSSPS Portal from hackers ahead of school placement releases. Since 2019, hackers have been attacking the CSSPS portal, which uploads and checks school placements.
Hackers took control of the site days or sometimes hours after the Ministry of Education has released placements in the past. Based on experiences from 2019 and 2022, Africa Education Watch has called on the education ministry to tighten the security of the Computerized School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS) portal. It has recommended securing the system against system breaches to ensure a seamless placement checking experience for the public.
The Watch advice comes after GES in 2019 declared the CSSPS website had been hacked, a situation that ended with the majority of parents gathered at the Black Star Square to demand SHS placement for their wards.
After the 2019 incident, a group opposed to Ghana’s anti-gay legislation hacked the CSSPS portal in 2022. It came under cyberattack by a group opposed to Ghana’s anti-gay legislation. The CSSPS platform sent this text, “HackEd #GayLivesMattersToo https://csspsverify.tiiny.site,” to parents in the early hours of February 18, 2022.
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When the portal was hacked, the hackers were able to access all information on the site, including placements, phone numbers of parents, and other personal data on the site. The hackers also made it impossible for student placements to be checked on the portal.
EduWatch has called for a proactive security contract with the Ministry of Education to enhance the security, accessibility, efficiency, and effectiveness of the placement website, thereby ensuring a smooth placement process.
“It is our expectation that the Education Ministry has increased the security on the CSSPS website and expanded the capacity of the same to contain the expected higher traffic,” the Director of the Education Watch said in a social media post.
While parents and 2024 BECE graduates wait for the release of the school placement portal, the Ministry of Education has activated the Heads of SHS/TVI portal. Only heads of second-cycle schools can access this extension of the school placement portal. Heads of schools are able to access the data of all qualified and placed candidates in their school from this portal.
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Only authorised heads of schools, with the aid of their secrity credentials, can access this portal to help them confirm placement and enrol students into the Free SHS at https://hm.cssps.gov.gh.
The Protect CSSPS Portal from Hackers call is spot on, and EduWatch and the general public anticipate that the MoE will take the proactive suggestion into consideration.
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