Concerns over implementation of national cyber security standard

Cyber security experts have expressed concerns over delays in the implementation of national cyber security standard already adopted by the country, Nigeria Communications Week has learnt.

This is coming as the date for the implementations European Union Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is few weeks away.

It would be recalled that National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), the regulator in this sphere has adopted COBiT 5 as the country’s cyber security standard and has gone further to inaugurate the implementation committee, which is yet to commence work on the process of implementation by both private and public organisations.

Ahmed Adesanya, IT Security and Connectivity consultant, expressed concerns over the continued delay in implementation of the adopted framework even as EU’s GDPR is expected to take effect from May 25 this year.

According to him, “if we don’t implement our adopted cyber security framework before May 25, organisations in the country will face a huge penalty in the way of fine.

Because, all organizations make payments to individuals and corporates based in Europe as such are required to meet up with EU’s GDPR.”

He however, urged NITDA to expedite action in implementation of COBiT 5 national cyber security standard.

Adesanya added that implementation the standard will assist to secure the country against impending cyber- attacks such as Distributed denial-of-service (DDOS).

More so, Microsoft has advised businesses in Nigeria to pay attention to the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Mr John Edokpolor, Lead Commercial Attorney, Microsoft MEA Emerging Markets, said that May 25 would be the deadline for compliance with the regulation.

According to Edokpolor, failure to adhere to GDPR requirements can prevent trade and other dealings with EU businesses after the deadline.

“The new legislation is a milestone on a journey into a new era, where data is the fuel powering companies of all shapes and sizes, from all sectors.

” GDPR is a new European law designed to protect the privacy of citizens by setting new standards in terms of how personal data is handled.“

” As the law affects any organisation with ties to Europe, it is relevant to businesses around the world,” he said.

Edokpolor said that as companies increasingly embraced the cloud, they had an unprecedented ability to capture and store massive amounts of data.

He said that advancement in business intelligence technology had given organizations the ability to pull insights from data predictive in nature.