With increasing cyber threats in the global security arena, technology experts say Nigeria needs to prepare against attacks. STANLEY OPARA looks at the trend vis-à-vis the country's survival strategies
Globally, issues bordering around cyber security are on the front burner. Countries that were, hitherto, not concerned about the issue, are increasingly getting interested.
As it is right now, the world is moving towards an era where the cyber space is seen as a 'battle arena'.
In this light, technology experts are saying the biggest warfare the world had ever known may be that of the cyberspace.
Nigeria, however, has yet to see the extreme of this development, as most cyber threats and attacks have been on smaller scale, affecting individuals, companies, and very few government agencies.
Amid these fears, the President, Nigeria Internet Group, Mr. Bayo Banjo, recently said Nigeria had yet to see the real cybercrime.
He said, "Rather, what we see here are cyber-assisted crimes. Cyber-assisted crimes are the last category of cybercrime. They are slightly harder to identify and categorise. Any crime in which cyberspace or computing technology plays a minor role would be considered a cyber-assisted crime."
According to him, the country's judiciary system lacks the required structure for cybercrime handling; a condition he stressed, needed to be addressed as soon as possible considering the level of advancement seen in the cyber arena.
He said, "We have cases of Internet abuse, and that should be checked first because the level of abuse is on the increase. Too bad, our judiciary is not even equipped to handle this."
Speaking on the secret $40m Internet surveillance project awarded by the Nigerian government to an Israeli tech firm to spy on Nigeria's over 47 million Internet users, Banjo said, "This is about the worst thing we can ever do to the country. I say so because when a foreign body has knowledge of your moves as a country, they will end up always manipulating you.
"A country could be dominated as a result of this. This is a matter of security. Nigerians could be used for this.
"Now most countries are using what they know about a particular country to fight that country."
The NIG boss said the country had yet to see real hackers, as about 90 per cent of the Automated Teller Machine crimes were in-house arrangements.
He said a major threat facing the country's cashless policy is the activities of hackers, saying government needed to take precautionary measures to check the problem.
"We need good and relevant legislations (laws) and an equipped judiciary to be prepared for this," he stressed.
In the same light, the Group Head, Information Technology at First Bank of Nigeria Plc, Mr. Rasheed Adegoke, told our correspondent in an interview that the Nigerian finance sector is not just aware of the threat, as the number of cases had moved ahead of those threats.
According to him, one area for instance where there is huge threat and fraud is in the area of electronic cards, as cards have always been susceptible to fraudsters leveraging that platform to defraud customers of financial institutions.
He said, "Two years ago, the industry decided to move out of the magnetic stripe cards and move into the chip and pin cards, which are much more secured platforms for deploying card-based solutions. That was a deliberate decision in other to move ahead of fraudsters because the mag-stripe cards are quite easy to clone.
"We saw that there was already a real threat and they were already even some incidents that were happening within the industry. Now, we have seen a significant drop in threat of fraud. Developments like second card authentication had really helped. But for the card channels like Point of Sales terminals and ATM, the frauds that happen are usually those caused by compromise of the card holder."
In 2012, the Nigerian Communications Commission said it had intensified the war against cybercrime in the country through the improvement of its type approval process.
The Executive Vice Chairman of the commission, Dr. Eugene Juwah, sho spoke at a conference on the Regulatory Imperatives for Cybercrime and Cyber Security in Nigeria, said the commission was constantly inundated with complaints of offences committed by some Nigerians.
He listed type approval as one of the efforts that the regulatory agency had to explore in checking the menace of cybercrimes.
Juwah said, "The commission receives complaints frequently from the International Criminal Investigation Organisation, police and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on cybercrimes committed by some Nigerians through the Internet locally and in foreign nations.
"The real concern is not just with the dissemination of inaccurate or misleading information, but above, all with malicious content. Fraud, theft and forgery exist online just as they do offline. If users are to benefit from full advantages of the Internet, then confidence in the infrastructure is primary and of utmost importance."
He also said, "Cyber threats such as malware and attacks are becoming extremely sophisticated. This is especially true with the increased presence of organised criminal groups online. The Internet has ceased to the domain of the technically competent."
Worried by the threat of cybercrime to national security and the economy, the Federal Government had also announced plans to establish a centre to help fight against the increasing wave of online crimes in the country.
The Director-General, National Information Technology Development Agency, Prof. Cleopas Angaye, had said the centre would also help the wife of the President, Mrs. Patience Jonathan, to function as the Global Champion for Child Online Protection. He called on Nigeria to lead in the fight against online crimes, adding that recent events had shown that cybercrimes posed significant threat to the nation's security and economy.
He said, "Government and agencies have been called upon to embrace the Internet in their lives and operations. For most of us, it is now part of our daily routine for communicating, exchanging information, developing policy, giving directives and processing transactions.
"Our use of the Internet has also created new opportunities for espionage, both national and industrial, along with criminals who seek to access our personal and corporate secrets, steal our resources and intimidate Internet-dependent governments and agencies."
The NCC was quoted by Premium Times recently as saying that the Nigerian government is ill-prepared to fight Cyber crime.
The Director, New Media and Information Security, NCC, Mr. Sylvanus Ehikioya, had said the Nigerian government cannot prosecute computer hackers yet, because of non-existent laws.
He said, "But until we pass the Cyber Security Bill, there is nothing that the Nigerian government can really do.
"Because, as of now, if you hack into any computer system, you cannot be prosecuted because there is no enabling act."
