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Tag: cybercrimes

  • Nigeria not fighting cybercrimes enough, says Angaye

    Former Director-General, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Prof Officer Angaye, has accused the Federal Government of not doing enough in combatting the menace of cybercrimes in the country.

    Delivering a keynote address at a retreat organised by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) for members of the Senate Communications Committee at Protea Hotel, Ikeja, at the weekend, Angaye said the existence of Cyber Crime Act 2015 was not enough to combat the activities of cyber thieves in the country.

    He argued that much more is still needed to be done in the area of raising the skilled manpower needed in the area of cybercrimes.

    The forum, which had “Improving Socio-Economic Development f the Nation through Qualitative Telecoms Services” as its theme, had all members of the committee, except its chair, Senator Gilbert Nnaji, in attendance. He  was, however, represented by his Deputy, Senator Ademola Adeleke.

    The university don, who acknowledged the critical role telecoms has played in the economy and the milestones so far attained, however, said much still needed to be done concerning regulatory approach to qualitative telecoms services delivery in the country.

    According to him, there is need to simplify the licensing regime to accommodate rapid technological changes and emerging competition in the industry, adding that reviewing the regulatory framework will attract more private sector players.

    Angaye said there is also need to facilitate convergence through unified licensing framework; strengthen infrastructure sharing framework; coordinated policy to engender the transversal services such as financial inclusion development; bridging existing ICT access gaps in areas that are not viable; stimulating investment content and internet management via exchange pints and a robust regulatory framework for the operation of certificate authorities (CA), digital certificates and crpyptography.

     

  • Cybercrimes ‘greater than ICT advancement’

    Cybercrimes ‘greater than ICT advancement’

    THE internet has become part of everyday human existence. It has not only promoted commerce and broken artificial fetters erected by distance, it has also impacted positively on education, health, agriculture, entertainment, governance and many others. But with these have come cybercrimes.  The Director-General, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, says tackling cybercrimes will be one of the cardinal focus of the agency under his watch. He spoke on the sideline of an event in Lagos, reports LUCAS AJANAKU.

    Promoting tech development

    NITDA through the Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (OIIE), which is a semi-subsidiary of NITDA, organises events which allow innovators to showcase what they have.  The reason behind creating the office is to reduce the burden on NITDA, it is just like an arm of the agency, that  is designed to handle the issue of ICT, innovation and entrepreneurship.  So any role played by it is a role that is being played by NITDA because the office is representing the agency itself. So it is just like a machine, it is just like the arm or subsidiary of the agency. The national coordinator of OIIE is a member of NITDA management team. So this is an indication that it is just a semi-subsidiary, the office of the OIIE reports to the Chief Executive Officer of NITDA about their proposed events and seeks approval.  So what I am trying to say here is that the office is part and parcel of the agency. So it has been established under the tech body of the main agency to allow the office operate semi-independently.

    The wisdom behind pitching is to identify our young innovators, the young talented Nigerian who has ideas to see how we can support them to at least deliver or rather achieve their dream.  That is the wisdom behind doing that. It is just like a competition where you invite them to come  and pitch so that you can at least see those that have some potential which you can support. So that is the wisdom behind the idea, supporting them could be in different forms. For example in October, we could be travelling to Dubai to Gitex, when going to Gitex, we used to sponsor them at the event. Some could be supported by multinational companies that participated in Gitex. For example, if we recall, last year among the Nigerians that we sponsored, one emerged among the finalists and some multinational companies indicated their interest to support the idea and we have kept in touch with them.  So the role NITDA plays (whenever somebody pitches there and at least some companies indicate some interest to incubate the idea), is that we always try to make sure that it is a win-win situation. What I mean by a win-win situation is, that it would be a winning situation for the country and the young innovator himself. On the other hand, we ensure that it is a winning situation for the company that intends to incubate the idea. If you allow them to go to the company by themselves, they may be marginalised, and the idea could be taken away without verification or without any reason. But as long as a government agency like NITDA is in-between it, that would be impossible to happen. We must ensure that before anything is done, there must be written agreement; there must be a memorandum of understanding on what to do and how to do. This is very critical.

     

    Spread of programme

     

    Location is just a geographical place. Sometimes an idea could be incubated outside but it is for Nigeria. For instance, in the case of Apple, you can hardly see a company only residing in one place. Some companies are officially and geographically in the United States but what they manufacture is in Asia, so this is just immaterial, as long as the idea is for the country, and we champion it, it doesn’t matter where that idea is developed because it is just a mere geographical location. It is just like you have many companies in Nigeria assembling their products and you can’t see Nigeria written on anyone of them and we don’t feel they are for Nigeria. So we would still import them because the name of the other company is still written on their products. There are many companies here, ICT companies. So we are no longer interested in the geography of the company. Rather, we are more interested in the interest of the country, in the interest of our young innovators so that whatever is done with their own ideas, they are well acknowledged and at the same time, it should be for their own benefit and for the benefit of the country. Any other thing would come second but that would be our priority. So there is a less emphasis on geographical location because it doesn’t make any serious difference. There are many companies, for example Microsoft is in the United States, it’s in Redmond but you can hardly see them doing anything there, but they are all over the world.  So sometimes, it is a credit for you to be a bit multinational, we are not aiming at producing what we need and consuming it locally. We are more interested in producing what we need, we consume and then we also export. So exporting doesn’t mean you produce locally in Nigeria and export but as long as the idea is demanded somewhere and the idea is from Nigeria, and the interest of Nigeria is protected as a country, then there is no problem, rather it is an achievement indeed.

    Basically what we do is advertise. So we put it on social media, we advertise in the traditional media, through newspapers, we also come up with jingles. So we created a form and a portal where every Nigerian has the opportunity to send in their pitches into that portal. So once we get the needed information, we select our panelists, then they spend a week or more depending on the numbers of information that has been submitted.  Then we have different stages, we have stage one, two and three to be able to reduce them. Some of them do not have a technical glimpse of it, so we quickly remove them. About then we look at the innovation inside that technical work, we reduced them to 30, because some of them were just doing repetitive things without really adding value to the country in general. So we reduced them to 30, and  got more consultants. For each of these stages, different judges are used.

    We started the processes since last year in our ICT innovation policy. We are working on that. I assure you that as long as we get somebody who needs our support and they want to develop their ideas, their apps and many more, we will go out of our way and provide help for them to develop their idea.  We are thinking about the ICT ecosystem in Nigeria. So whatever our effort may be, it is to influence the ICT ecosystem.

    Those we think that their idea need our support; we are willing to support them 100 per cent. Sometimes this support doesn’t need to be in cash, it requires at least mentoring, giving the connection of government by the agency of government to link them up with other centres. For example, it is already on the plan that we need to be sending some of them to Silicon Valley, the kind of support and guidance they would get from there and the motivation, the facilities that they have over there cannot be found here. So this is the idea that as long as we feel they can grow from there, we can go ahead and send them.

     

    Cybercrimes, security

     

    I have special interest in cyber-security.   First, I have always believed that as long as we are online, we are always exposed to danger. And secondly, the rate at which cybercrime is spreading globally is even greater than the rate of ICT advancement. That is the reality of the situation. As an expert said, cybercrime is at the speed of light while cyber-security is at the speed of law. If we say at the speed of law, you can start a process of establishing an Act; it can spend between five and 10 years without achieving this. That is how law is, it takes time. You need to go to the National Assembly with a draft, start the hearing, public hearing, this and that, but cyber-crime is at the speed of light. And that is why what we started now is by establishing a cyber security department. Before I came to NITDA, there was no such department, now we have established the cyber security department and that is why you would see that NITDA now is proactive when it comes to cyber security issue. Like Wannacry, all of them as you see, in Wannacry, NITDA was the first agency, not in Nigeria but in Africa to alert the public. We were the first to alert on Petra. So now we are proactive, we try to be proactive immediately, and that is why our interventions supported a lot of organisations because our intervention did not only rely only on that publicity but also we went farther to the extent that we contacted Microsoft which sent us the patches for the Windows and we distributed to the relevant MDAs to at least update their own operating system.  And we strengthened our computer emergency and response team in NITDA which is very active now. We are monitoring all over the country; we are alerting relevant MDAs. Cyber security is all about enlightenment, because no matter how your system is well secured, if you are not well educated, then for sure, you would be harmed. Our people are good at opening any message that comes to them. Any email they open, particularly those that promise to give money online, they would just see an attachment from Mali, or Morocco or South Africa or from Zimbabwe saying that my husband died last year and he left behind $60 million and I am looking for somebody that is trustworthy, and I want to give such person the money, and I am as well about to die with cancer. My doctor said in the next few weeks, I would die, so I want to give you $50 million; $25 million is for you, $25million is for charitable activities. Our people are eager to open emails. So that is why we need to create awareness; so cyber security is all about creating awareness. If your people are well enlightened, 70 per cent of the problem is solved already. No matter how well our system is secured, as long as our people still open unsolicited emails, opening and downloading any email without knowing the sender; and as long as our people are still using pirated copies of software on their operating system, and many more, it will be difficult for them to be secured online. So that is why creating awareness is very important. And also the issue of our young innovators, that is the reason why we bring them together. If you bring them together, this would support you to give them the necessary guidance.  We give them the guidance, support and motivation they need. That is the wisdom behind bringing them together. Among the things we did, we studied all their apps, their strength and their weakness. When it comes to their strength, we commend them and when it comes to their weaknesses we point them out and see how we can improve them.

     

    Financial support

     

    We are willing to support them with the little resources at our disposal. We would always do that, our last start-up, we supported them. And like I said, the support will continue even after pitching. And as long as they are willing to progress in that field, NITDA is willing to support them. This financial support is only to show our appreciation and to show that the country is proud of them.  But if their ideas require more than that, we are willing to go to any extent to support them and even if we don’t have the financial strength to do so.  That is the wisdom behind using our connection to link them up, either national or multinational firms that can support them. We are willing to do that.

    Amendment  to NITDA Act

     

    I always believe that whatever is done by human being is subject to amendment. No one is infallible. That is very natural. Even in the constitution of our country, you would see as amended, constitution 1999 as amended. This is to show to us that we are human and not infallible, only almighty God is infallible. As a matter of fact, I have certain reservations in my heart which I think should be amended. I was asked this question few days ago during our budget defence at the National House Assembly whether our Act needs amendment and I said yes.  It requires amendment and we are in the process of doing that. A committee has been set up, we have even finished the in-house review of the Act and we came out with the area that we think should be amended.

    Local content

    Firstly, when I came on board, local content or national content development and entrepreneurship development are part of my pillars. This is because if you want a country to be successful economically, you must develop its national content.  Secondly the question I asked them at OEI was what do you think NITDA can do to support you? Do you think we have a role to support you? They said yes, I identified some challenges they had and what we have done so far for them because we have been monitoring every MDAs. Any MDA we see patronising  foreign products while we have it at home, we send a letter officially and we notify them that we can sanction them based on what they have been doing which I think it is very important.  We send a letter to Bank of Industry, we send a letter to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), calling their attention to the fact they are not allowed to patronise any foreign product without seeking clearance from NITDA to confirm whether we have it locally or not, so we have been on top of the situation. And we have even been monitoring budget. During budget defence, we follow all the MDAs to see their ICT budget, as long as we see it, we monitor the implementation. To that extent, we have sent letters to all 400 MDAs in Nigeria, I signed them one by one, notifying them about our local content and the development of the ICT content in the country and many more.  And we are monitoring even what they have been doing and because of this, we are trying to enforce executive order 003. Before the executive order, we have existing national content policy in place, Section 14,sub-section 2 and 3 which we have been using as well to ensure that we enforce the local content. And I think we are doing what we can at the moment. As we all know, Nigeria is not a small country like the Gambia with three million people.  This is a country of around 180 million people, with between 70 million and 90 million online daily. So the capacity that can handle this population need to be a very huge too. My meeting with the OEMs allowed me to identify their capacity at the moment, because producing what can take care of 90 million digitally populated country like Nigeria is not a small work. So we have to do it bit by bit. Let me understand the capacity. Base on order 003, at 40 per cent minimum that can be incremental with time. But we have to start somewhere and now we begin with 40 per cent. So the meeting centered around their capacity, quantity and quality. And we even challenged them about the quality and some challenges or observations we have been receiving from their customers and because of that, they have agreed with us that they would establish their customer centers in Abuja and in other strategic places where they can at least contact customers and get feedback and where if there is a problem, you can sort it out for free or as the case may be.

     

    Support for successful ideas

     

    We continue to look for international donors that are willing to support the ideas. We are identifying our young innovators, young talented Nigerians that have great idea and proposed apps that we feel that if they developed, they could be useful globally. And don’t forget recently a Nigerian by origin in the US developed an app which was bought by Apple at $1 billion. This is a particularly an indication that Nigerians are doing well everywhere. What I think what we need to do now is to get more funding. Secondly, to give them more motivation, guidance and counselling and how we can bring them up because they need guidance, as long as they  don’t have it, the moment they start their idea, they think they are successful, as one colleague said we should remain silent about our ides till we are successful. The success would make noise for us. That is very important.

    We are doing a lot. We have met OEMs.  The idea of that is to see how we can enforce our local content. That is the best way you can support them. To make sure that the local content is well patronised. And if you look at the recent executive order of the President, 003, ICT is to be encouraged to be developed locally. The executive order said that at least 40 per cent of our ICT gadgets would be local content. And I think by enforcing local content is one of them. And the reason for that is because it centers  around how to support them because we even asked the question, what do you think NITDA can do to help you to be successful because I am after the challenge of how  to support you? So you need to carry me along. I need to support you and you need to support me, it becomes a collective effort immediately. We even have a committee that we work with to see where NITDA as a representative of the Federal Government could support them, which I feel startups are just the primary while OEM are the secondary level. If you are supporting OEMs, by implication you are supporting startups. This is because the idea begins from the foundation and grows up and that is what we are battling with now.

     

    Actually there could be timeframe which is difficult for me to say it now, because we would continue meetings with OEM. The meetings centers around seeing their capacity, the quantity of what they can produce. Nigeria is a country of around 100 million people and maybe we have 90 million on the internet on daily basis. So the manufacturers that can take care of these 90 million people I think is a huge one. So that is why let us annex they capacity of what can be developed locally and what can be assembled locally as thye case maybe.  But it is  very important and that is why the enforcement is very important and we  doing it wisely because you cannot do anything without knowing what we have on the ground.  So that is why we invite all of them, let us know the capacity of what you have on ground, what they produce locally and let us know the quality of what they produce. However we have our observations and suggestions which we have for them which I presented to them, but this is a clear indication that if we identify the capacity of what they can produce, the support they need from us or from federal government or from the banks for them to produce more. If we get that benchmark, it would allow us to know what to do next, because I think it is very important we need to take it step by step. ..That is the issue on it and we are on top of the situation so far.

     

     

     

  • Teenagers warned against sexual abuse, cybercrimes

    With the prevailing level of insecurity in the country, being assertive is a quality one needs to stave off rapists, kidnappers and other anti-social elements on the prowl. Security consciousness, therefore, requires alertness and self-confidence.

    These assertions came from the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Fatai Owoseni.

    The commissioner addressed a gathering of secondary school pupils in Lagos at the National Theatre, Iganmu, for the annual Goge Africa Foundation and Counselling Seminar last week.

    He said: “One of the commonest factors about criminals worldwide is that they often identify soft targets.  So, when you are on the street, walk with confidence; be bold enough to look into their faces.  Criminals want the lilly-livered they can easily intimidate.”

    Owoseni, who spoke through Frank Mba, an Assiatant Coommisioner of Police, identified various security tips  for youths can stave off sexual abuse and cybercrimes.

    The police boss, who lamented rampant cases of child abuse, especially rape in the society, said young girls need to be quickly aware when they are being stalked.

    “If you feel someone is trailing you, check your movement. You can cross to the other side of the road and pretend to be lacing your shoes to know if the person is still waiting. If the stalker is still there, walk into crowded places like malls, filling stations, markets, until the person disappears,”he said.

    Owoseni urged young girls to always walk in groups, and avoid dark places, especially at night. He warned teenagers against open display of valuable items that could make them potential targets, as well as working on their mobile sets while on highways.

    Sierra Oyerinde of the Christianah Fate Foundation, admonished teenagers to always speak out against what she called ‘ubiquitous sexual predators’ in Nigeria. According to her, research conducted revealed that 30 and 60 per cent of sexual abusers are immediate family members and friends of the family respectively, adding that the remaining 10 per cent are strangers.

    Speaking on: ‘Prevention of child abuse’ Oyerinde warned participants to watch out for abusers, who often plan their strategy gradually.

    “An abuser doesn’t just pounce on you; they first earn your trust,” Oyerinde began.

    “They (abusers) start by wooing you with gifts. When someone gives you gifts and tells you not to tell your parents, that gift is questionable. It’s a red flag. Sometimes someone asks you to send him your nude pictures with a threat that you will die in three days if you confide in anybody. It’s all lies. Speak up. Abuse thrives in secrecy, “she warned

    Chukwuemeka Fred Agbata, who spoke on: “Cybercrimes among youths” noted that internet is one of the easiest ways to deceive. As teenagers, Agbata suggested that the friends they cultivate on social media should comprise only family members and friends known by their parents.

    “Internet is the easiest platform where people can be deceived. There are people, who simply claimed what they are not online. This is why I suggested that at this stage of yours, your parents, family members and

  • NCC seeks fight against cybercrimes, others

    The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has advised the Federal Government and, indeed, other stakeholders in the information communications technology (ICT) field to focus attention on combatting cybercrimes and cyber security.

    Its Chief Executive Officer/Executive Vice Chairman, Prof Umar Dambatta, who gave the advice in Lagos in his opening remarks at this year’s edition of Beacon of ICT Distinguished Lecture/Awards Series at Eko Hotel and Suites, at the weekend, said the youth have embraced technology while government institutions are yet to do same.

    Represented by Executive Commissioner, Stakeholders Management, Mr. Sunday Dare, he said focus should be on developing the indigenous software ecosystem and other platforms that would allow the country to fully tap into the limitless opportunities provided by technology.

    He said: “Nigeria’s ICT initiatives must focus on cybercrimes and cyber security, indigenous software development, digital multimedia platforms, amongst others.

    “While our youths  have fully embraced ICT, our government, institutions both public and private are still in the process of adopting ICT in their operations and activities. Yet, the future lies in ICT. Nigeria must make deliberate policies that will accelerate ICT penetration. Our educational curricular must integrate ICT at all levels of education and our systems and institutions must be brought into compliance by training and re-training our people.

    “Thus, we must all see it as a privilege to be part of not just the event, but share in the experience and great possibilities of ICT revolution, revolution with no barriers or frontiers. Nigeria, though already plugged into the ICT ecosystem, is yet to harvest fully the dividends of the ICT revolution sweeping across the world.”

    He said the government has made some commendable strides in adopting ICT in various aspects of its operations, however, a more systematic and accelerated approach will yield more dividends; create more opportunities and jobs for the economy and the teeming youth.

    He said: “NCC is in the forefront of providing education in telecommunications and IT spheres. At the NCC we have embraced ICT. Beyond that, we have invested in it through the establishment of the Digital Bridge Institute (DBI) established in 2004 with campuses in Lagos, Abuja, Kano and Enugu, is modeled after similar ICT universities and institutions and might be in its way to becoming Nigeria’s first ICT university. DBI’s ADAPTI programme has substantially improved the IT skills of many students, public civil servants and members of the private sector and has trained 6000 since its establishment.

    “We are mindful that ICT has today become a one-stop shop for modern tools of development, for innovation, for employment opportunities and indeed for a smarter world. As the world races towards the 5-G revolution and the internet of things, IoT (Internet of Things), Nigeria must embrace fully the opportunities offered by ICT.”

    Speaking on Empowering youth through digital citizenship, the Managing Director, Sidmach Technologies, Mr. Peter Arogundade, said the theme should have been Empowering digital natives to transform to digital citizens. He identified three players in the digital space which include digital natives, digital immigrants and digital citizens.

    He said there was shallow digital literacy, adding that the space is still bedevilled by affordability, illiteracy, language barrier, disparities between rural/urban access and others, adding that there was need to put devices in the hands of the kids.

    He also stressed the need to expand digital citizenship education to include social justice, define and address internet governance and address the digital exclusion orchestrated by unserved and underserved areas. According to him, though the NCC, through the Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF), has been trying to bridge the gap, much still needed to be done.

  • Nigeria’s economic crisis needs bold, persistent strategy – Emefiele

    Nigeria’s economic crisis needs bold, persistent strategy – Emefiele

    The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Godwin Emefiele Thursday said that despite challenges being faced by the economy, there is need for all economy managers to be bold and persistent in finding lasting solutions to the problems.

    The CBN boss spoke at the 35th quarterly general meeting of the Association of Chief Audit Executives of Banks in Nigeria, held in Lagos.

    Emefiele who spoke on the theme: “Changing Business Environment: The Role of Internal Auditors” said the country was at a crucial point in its financial history as seen in the economy being in recession because of drastic fall in prices of crude oil.

    “The price of oil which is our main source of foreign exchange earnings and government revenue has significantly reduced, and may remain so for a long time. Money is scare for most citizens. Regrettably, because our economy is still largely import-dependent, this fuels the general rise in the prices of goods and services.  Hence, there is a noticeable decline in the purchasing power of the people. Indeed, there are many challenges. But, I also see opportunities,” he said.

    The CBN boss said that if the challenges are well tackled, the current situation can pave the way to future prosperity. “That is why the Federal Government and the CBN is constantly formulating and re-evaluating policies that we believe will set us on the path of greater economic prosperity. Where and when necessary, we must remain bold and persistent, and never afraid to try new ideas, as these are major requirements in a time of change. That is why I am confident that Nigeria will overcome our current challenges. But, I suspect that we can only overcome these challenges if we are ready to make fundamental change in many of our attitudes, orientations and practices,” he said.

    Speaking further, he said change is the categorical imperative of the moment, and applies to the CBN as the nation’s lender of last resort and the banking sector regulator; it applies to Deposit Money Banks (DMB’s) and other financial institutions – as financial entities and fiduciary intermediary agencies; and even, change is required from the public that we all serve.

    “For you as internal auditors, the changes may seem slow or rapid; they may be merely procedural or at times they may be radical. Whatever may be the case, the cumulative effect of change is to alter the business environment in which you serve. As a concomitant, you must also upgrade your capacities, operations and methods. If you do not do that, you will become victims of change. Therefore, you have a choice to either treat this gathering as a mere quarterly routine or treat is as an opportunity to analyze and prepare for the future. Let me explain why I hope you should choose the latter,” he stated.

    Continuing, he urged the auditors o understand that banking industry is built on people and is driven by services and technology. “People and organizations are becoming increasingly sophisticated. Their needs are more diverse and so are the services and the technologies to meet those needs. Indeed, technology is dramatically changing the face and environment of banking. Transactions of high volume and value are consummated with the click of a button”.

    “Similarly, transactions are conducted simultaneously in multiple jurisdictions, across boundaries and time zones. As a result, efficiency has grown exponentially. As a corollary, the risks of doing business are equally high. The possibility that a careless mistake, let alone a fraud, can destabilize an entire institution and have systemic effects on the industry should be of concern to all of us.  This should be more so at a time of economic fragility. That is why you must stay ahead of the curve and be on top of your game,” he said.

    He said internal auditors must be proactive in identifying and addressing new risks or emergent issues in organizational controls and compliance requirements. The auditors, he added, cannot afford the luxury of professional complacency. Nor can they accept the risk of individual capacity atrophy or the consequences of group obsolescence.

    “Banks must maintain good internal control, ethical practice and sound risk management. Nigerians expect this, especially at a time of challenging operating environment.  All banks must be healthy and stress-free, so that they can absorb any unexpected shocks.  Therefore all the necessary measures for capital adequacy and indices of sound risk management must be in place and fully enforced. As internal auditors, you must all be proactive, look out for any factors that could destabilize the system, quickly identify and deal with them. You must pay particular attention to banks and customers operating in risk-prone and highly volatile sectors of the economy,” he said.

    Emefiele also urged the auditors to be vigilant and guard against fraud.  “For the sake of emphasis, I would like to specifically cast your minds to the issues of cyber-security and cyber-crimes. As Internet penetration continues to gather steam in Nigeria, greater volumes of transactions will be consummated online; and on various electronic formats and platforms”.

    “Unfortunately the electronic medium is very attractive to certain class of criminals: those that are dexterous in the use of information technology tools and protocols to perpetrate cybercrimes. This new trend in criminal activity will have an increasing impact on the Nigerian banking environment, especially because for the perpetrators, cyber-crimes can seem relatively low-risk; and if successful, there can be high yields. That is why you must be vigilant. Prevention is better than cure,” he said.

    He explained that the losses due to cybercrimes across all sectors have been estimated globally to hover between $400 to $550 billion in 2015. The figure could rise to $2 trillion by the end of 2019.

  • NITDA seeks global collaboration to fight cybercrimes

    NITDA seeks global collaboration to fight cybercrimes

    The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) is seeking global collaboration to tackle the menace of cybercrimes. It said since cybercrimes is a global phenomenon, the whole world must sit together and find a way of collaborating to fight them.

    Its Head, Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships and Inter-Agency, Mr John Kennedy Chime, who spoke in Lagos, said since information communication technology (ICT) has taken the centre stage, creating efficiency and wealth in many forms in all sphere of human endeavours, there is a need to maintain a minimum standard of security.

    The NITDA as a Federal Government agency, he said, is mandated to regulate Information Technology (IT) in Nigeria, adding that it does that through policy, standards, enforcement and multi-stakeholders’ engagements.

    He said it is not easy to do away with cybercrime totally, but stressed the need for continuous stakeholder’s engagement with the private sector, security agencies and other agencies globally so as to monitor developments and follow up.

    According to him, the people engaged in cybercrimes are also working ahead of regulators, adding that NITDA has developed means of checking and tracking the criminals so that the system does not get damaged.

    He called for multi-stakeholders collaboration, urging the private sector to key into what the Federal Government has done with a view to coming out with solutions to the challenge.

    Chime said the Cybercrime Act, which was signed into law by former President Goodluck Jonathan, is the beginning of the fight against cybercrime, but noted that there is more to be done in the area of enforcement and information monitoring aspect. “This is because, as the law is being enforced, the criminals are also looking for better ways to perpetrate their crime and are coming up with new apps,” he said.

    He continued: “The private and public sectors have so much idea and this is why we call for stakeholders’ relationship, which is the best approach to proffer solutions to the problems.

    “This is not a problem to be solved by one person, but people should come together to look for an agency like ours, that is in charge of IT regulation in Nigeria. We have so many information and relationship with other organisations, which they may not have. With a team work, we will have the ways to together, fight this cybercrime and get the best from it.”

    Dr Chime noted that in the banking sector, there has always been the application of new software that ensures that intruders are kept at bay.

    He encouraged the use of genuine apps that will fight fraud, warning that if criminals get access to a bank’s data, it could lead to the extinction of the bank and some of its customers whose life savings may have been affected.