25th February, 2017
By Kazeem Ugbodaga
Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo has said that the Federal Government has set up a 31-member Cyber crime Advisory Council to work closely with the private sector to curb the menace of cyber crime.
The acting president stated that effective management of risk associated with cyber crime required collaboration between the government and the private sector.
Osinbajo, who disclosed this at the maiden edition of the Cyber Security conference with the theme: “Monitoring, Detection and Prevention: Keys to Organisational Growth” held at the Federal Palace Hotel, Lagos, Southwest Nigeria, said that the challenges of cyber crime globally were high and that as a nation, the government must develop the necessary capacity to tackle cyber crime, and that all avenues that would give room to cyber criminals must be blocked thoroughly.
Osinbajo, who was represented by his Senior Special Adviser on Information and Communication Technology, ICT, Mr. Lanre Osibona, said while government was keen on enthroning a digital economy, avenues that would give room to cyber criminals must be blocked thoroughly.
According to him, government would establish the right environment that is secure for businesses to thrive, especially as it related to ICT development in the areas of smart cities and cyber security, among others.
Also speaking, Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, said that the development of ICT was one of the defining events of the 20th century and had resulted in a paradigm shift in the way things used to be done, bringing with it incredible improvement in efficiency and effectiveness, cutting across all spheres of human endeavour.
The governor stated that cyber-crime was a global phenomenon which posed potent threat to national security, organizational survival and corporate growth, among others.
Ambode, who was represented by the Commissioner for Science and Technology, Mr.Olufemi Odubiyi, said the benefits that had continued to accrue to humanity with the advent of ICT could not be quantified, while the issues of cyber fraud, hacking, among others could not be completely wiped out.
In his words: “The challenges, which I believe, are the reasons for this conference, would continuously lead to development of strategies that would prevent unauthorized access to vital or critical information and other resources.
‘This is very vital, considering the fact that cyber-crime strategies are continuously evolving. Counter cyber-crime strategies must therefore be dynamic and preemptive in order to forestall the potential colossal damage which may be monumental in terms of financial loss or threat to organisations going concern.”
Chairman and Publisher of the Guardian Newspaper, Maiden Alex-Ibru, said Nigeria had shown a growing awareness of the need to strengthen cyber security, which included initiating the registration of GSM users in 2011 and 2014 and the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, launching a centralised biometric identification system for the banking industry, tagged: Bank Verification Number (BVN).
She reminded the audience that the Cyber crimes Act 2015 was the first legislation in Nigeria that dealt specifically with cyber security, which was passed in May 2015 and gave effect to the 2011 Economic Community of West African State, ECOWAS directive on fighting cyber crime.