EXCEPT urgent measures
are taken against the increasing menace of cybercrimes in Nigeria, the
country’s goal of becoming major Information and Communications Technology
(ICT) hub in the continent may be hampered.
This
was the submission of the Lagos State Chapter of the Information Systems Audit
and Control Association (ISACA) at the weekend at the end of a-day conference
programme, aimed at equipping its members with adequate knowledge on cybercrime
prevention, detection and investigation.
At the
conference, which was a Continuing Professional Education programme to
device strategies to curb cybercrimes in Nigeria, the Vice President of the
association, Mr. Peter Ineh said it was high time IT professionals get trained
on strategies and ethical practices in detecting and preventing cybercrimes
which he described as a cankerworm that has robbed us of our image as a nation
and has ruined some businesses and organisation in the country.
In
his highlight of the role of regulators, organisations and IT practitioners in
preventing cybercrimes, the Chief Executive officer of Infotech Risks Security
Limited, Mr. Salman Akorede said the reports of cybercrime in Nigeria was
disheartening as the country ranked third in the world and reported by the
American National Fraud Information Centre as the fastest growing online scam
in the world.
The implication
of this, according to the Infotech security expert, was that an average
Nigerian is a target.
Akorede said the
negative effect of this on both individual and corporate bodies was enormous as
it has led to diminish consumer confidence, loss of productivity, loss of trade
secrets and refusal by most merchants to include Nigeria in e-commerce
transactions. He said we therefore must be cyber security conscious in order to
protect our intellectual property, our image as individuals and as a nation and
build trust relationship to business partners.
According to him,
the Federal Government ought to establish agencies for specific cyber security
promotions and regulatory agencies considering the amount of resources and funds that are lost to
cybercriminals on a yearly basis. He also suggested the need for government
bodies to promote awareness and partner with some organizations that are
inclined to cyber security and to regularly conduct research into potential
attacks methods, techniques in order to develop counter measures for cyber-attack.
On the part of
organisations, Akorede advised that there must be established mechanisms to
prevent, deter, detect and recover from attacks through effective application of cyber
security standards. He said organisations must create an effective cyber
security culture, align with government agencies in public private partnership
initiatives and activities, achieve compliance with applicable laws and
regulations and also leverage on compliances for competitive advantages by
incorporating compliance into their day to day business operations.
Sharing
with journalists on the steps being taken by the association to forestall
cybercrimes in the country, the ISACA Vice President, Lagos Chapter, said the
association is working with some government agency to push a bill called
Personal Identification Information Bill.
Ineh explained
that the purpose of the bill was to secure customer identity information. The
bill was to regulate how organizations collect personal information from
customers and their responsibility to protect such information.
The association
vice president also said the agency was making efforts to increase awareness
among the populace on how to manage personal information. He said the awareness
project require concerted efforts on the part of government agencies and
private organisations because if the populace is well educated on the tactics
of cyber criminals, they will not
fall for it.
The
Guardian Nigeria