Stakeholders identify awareness, security standard to fight cybercrimes

Cybersecurity stakeholders have urged relevant organisations to ensure that the cybersecurity framework, focuses on the global security standards to ensure that the country earns global trust.

This came as the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) recently inaugurated the Control Objectives for Information and Related Technology (COBIT 5) National Implementation Committee at the NITDA headquarters in Abuja.

Against this backdrop that Ahmed Adesanya, IT Security and Connectivity consultant, said that now that the country has adopted and also in the process of implementing a cybersecurity framework, emphasizes should be led on ensuring that the framework harmonizes with global information security standards such as payment system security PCI DSS and ISO 27001 certification which banks and other organizations have attained.

“If COBiT 5 framework focuses on global security standards it will give Nigeria the needed global trust and collaboration especially on our indigenous products now that the government is encouraging local content to boost the economy,” he said.

He also stressed the need for capacity building as part of efforts to sustain the initiative. For Oluseyi Akindeinde, cybersecurity expert and chief technical officer, Digital Encode, there is need to intensify effort in educating customers as well as subscribers on the antics of electronic fraudsters as part of war against cybercrimes.

“A lot of the challenges faced by banks in fraud are still largely people related. The banks have pretty much taken care of the processes and technology. Bank’s information systems monitoring is at an all-time high now. Phishing however, is still prevalent in the financial industry as it targets the customers of these banks. As financial inclusion takes off, the fraudsters have also upped their game in this regard targeting unsuspecting customers.