Nigeria, the image of the country has been
dented. STANLEY OPARA looks at the
challenges and possibilities of ameliorating
the situation
Currently, there are over 1,000 legitimate
online malls that Nigerians cannot access as a
result of the bad image that the country has
been contending with for a very long time.
The irony of this challenge is that other
smaller neighbouring African countries have
unbridled access to these sites. In fact, to gain
access to some of these sites, Nigerians must
have to travel to these neighbouring countries
or other countries outside Africa.
The situation has degenerated to a point
where entries from Nigeria are automatically
aborted once it is detected that Nigeria is the
destination.
PayPal, one of the biggest global online
electronic commerce businesses, has refused
to establish business in the country despite
the huge market the country boasts. PayPal
allows payments and money transfers to be
made through the Internet.
Up till now, the world sees Internet crime as
Nigerian crime; and this has robbed the
country and its people of many opportunities
that would have ordinarily accrue to them.
Experts, however, say the Nigerian
government needs to take conscious and
calculated steps to convince the world that it
is serious about the fight against cyber
criminals.
One of the steps they stressed was very
critical to this campaign, remained the
passage of the Cyber Security Bill, which is
currently being deliberated upon in the
National Assembly.
This campaign was given a lift when the
International Telecommunication Union
appointed the wife of the President, Mrs.
Patience Jonathan, as the union's Online
Protection Champion.
The union said it believed in Mrs. Jonathan's
ability to spread the cyber security message
and push for necessary reforms, not only in
the Africa region, but across the globe.
Jonathan received her letter of appointment
from the Director, Telecommunication
Development Bureau, ITU, Mr. Brahima
Sanou, who met with her to discuss issues
related to cyber threats and cyber security in
the Africa region.
Under Jonathan is a global 'patron' for child
online protection and the President of Costa
Rica, Ms. Laura Chinchilla. The investiture of
the appointments was done at the ITU
Secretariat, Geneva on July 20, this year.
The ITU, through its International Multilateral
Partnership Against Cyber Threats arm, had
set up the Child Online Protection initiative in
2008 to safeguard the interest of children and
others online.
Between 2008 and 2013, issues bordering on
such had aggravated and could not be
matched with the model developed five years
ago; hence, the need to develop cotemporary
models, which encompass the World Cyber
Security Conference's idea.
Mr. Tim Akano of the West Africa Industry
Partner, ITU-IMPACT, was quoted as saying,
"We resolved that since cybercrime does not
respect geographical boundary, fighting the
menace can only be achieved through
partnership with other cyber security
organisations and institutions across the
world.
"We said there is the need for an immense
globally coordinated approach to the fight
against cybercrime. We also called on all
nations to support the programme of
actualising a safer online environment for our
younger generation through the much
canvassed Public Private Partnership
arrangement."
The World Cyber Security Conference, which
is an annual event, according to Akano, has
since become the biggest gathering of ICT
security experts in Africa since its birth three
years ago.
Reaffirming the importance of the recent
move of the ITU, Akano, who is also the
Managing Director of New Horizons, an
Information Technology training institute,
recalled his experience when he was applying
for franchise to run the institute at the United
States.
He said on the day he was to be given the
franchise, a panel in the US brought before
him a file of over 5,000 emails containing
fraudulent correspondences from Nigeria.
According to him, the development almost
cost him the franchise of New Horizons,
which is one of Nigeria's biggest IT training
platforms today.
Owing to the fact that much of these
cybercrimes are financial in nature, the role
of the Central Bank of Nigeria cannot be
overemphasised.
On the bank's position, Deputy Governor,
CBN, Mr. Tunde Lemo, said while cash served
the transactional purpose within the
economy, its social and economic costs were
astounding, whereas there were opportunities
to leverage digital technology to migrate a
part (not all) of the heavy transactional cash
by the use of electronic payment alternatives
He said, "Cybercrime has surpassed illicit
drug trade as global top revenue earner for
organised crimes. The cybercrime network has
become a highly organised ecosystem with its
own value chain including: researchers of
stronger attack methods; hackers who
compromise account data and make them
available to dump vendors."
The dump vendors are wholesalers of
compromised account data, who sell to
various street level fraudsters. He added that
there were fraud rings/networks spanning
across the globe currently.
According to Lemo, the industrialisation of
cyber fraud poses a great challenge to the
cash-less society in Nigeria. He said the
prevalence of fraud globally is contributory to
the growing technophobia as users were
apprehensive for the safety of their funds on
electronic payment platforms.
The reluctance in the adoption of electronic
payments, he added, was equally attributable
to security concerns as well as low level of
awareness on personal responsibility for the
protection of identity and account details
To deliver the global assignment of child
online protection, Jonathan had said there
would be investments in capacity building in
partnership with all relevant stakeholders,
both nationally and internationally.
A Technical Advisory Committee, which will
consist of 17 reputable individuals from both
within and outside Nigeria, is also being
looked at.
She is also considering the establishment of a
child online protection centre in each of the
36 states of the federation and the Federal
Capital Territory, with wives of each of the
states governors being encouraged to take up
the new assignment as state COP
ambassadors.
She also pledged to use her office as
President, African First Ladies Peace Mission,
to enlist the support of her colleagues to
champion the cause of COP in their respective
countries; while also working closely with
both the Nigerian Communications
Commission and various telecoms service
providers, to ensure there is a working system
in place.
She added, "We will intensify efforts to ensure
that the National Assembly passes into law,
the Cyber Security Bill, which I understand is
still receiving legislative attention, since its
submission.
"It is my hope that the National Assembly will
accord the passage of this important bill a
priority attention. Thereafter, we will embark
on a continental advocacy to ensure that
every country has strong cyber security laws
in place to protect our children and future."
The communiqué issued after the third World
Cyber Security Conference, held in Nigeria
with over 1,000 local and international
experts from various sectors of the economy
in attendance, had called on the National
Assembly to pass into law the Cyber Security
Bill 2013.
It maintained that Nigeria needed to have a
cyber security law that will guide government
agencies and private sector organisations in
planning their information technology
policies.
The communiqué added that the law was
meant to improve Nigeria's image and open
the doors for more direct foreign
investments.
Commenting on the new move by Nigeria to
redefine its image, world cyber security
expert and Chief Executive Officer, Data
Sentry, Texas, Mr. Tim Pierson, said, "This had
left a very good and permanent impression on
the international community, especially those
of us in the cyber security arena – who have
been patiently waiting for years to see
tangible evidence of Nigeria's seriousness at
the highest level in fighting cyber crimes."
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