Nigeria’s cyber security readiness has further come into scrutiny during a seminar organized by the Cyber Security Experts Association of Nigeria (CSEAN) recently.
President of CSEAN, Remi Afon, says the recent #EndSARS protests exposed the country’s cyber security vulnerabilities.
In his opening remark during a free cyber security seminar organised by the association Afon said a lot of ‘hacktivists’ and other Twitter users exploited the protest that lasted for about three weeks to steal sensitive information from the government and private citizens.
He cited Twitter users who changed their handles to Anonymous to increase their activities and ultimately got access to data that could be used to cause havoc.
As a result we saw financial institutions like the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) website being hacked. Analysts have over the years faulted the e-business culture in Nigeria especially government institutions for not paying adequate attention to cyber security.
Afon said two significant events happened this year that have actually impacted cyber security awareness. One is global, which is the COVID-19 pandemic, and the other is local, which is the #EndSARS protests.
With the Nigerian banking industry recording N15.15 billion loss to cyber-crime related activities and forgeries in 2018 only the need for government and other institutions to step up their cyber security resilience by collaborating with experts, cannot be over emphasized.
Cyber security experts were urged to adopt a more reliable online delivery method, stressing the need for them to think out of the box.
Meanwhile, Senior Programme Manager at Paradigm Initiative Nigeria (PIN), Adeboye Adegoke, Stressed that cyber security should be more of an approach and attitude than a technicality, Adegoke noted that the country’s health sector had yet to grasp what it means to conceal data of healthcare users.
He also challenged associations like CSEAN to engage the health sector in creating awareness on cyber security.
The Chairman, Mobile Software Solution, Chris Uwaje, indicated the need to focus energies on a National Software Ecosystem and Governance.
Sighting that the nation’s investment profile in software research and digital innovation capabilities were very low.
The Cyber Security Experts Association of Nigeria (CSEAN), has estimated that Nigeria loses about N127 billion to cybercrimes yearly.
The seminar was organised to create awareness as part of the National Cyber Security Awareness Month, which is observed every October.
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