Remmy Nweke
4 August 2004
Lagos — Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Chief Akin Olujinmi, has said that the draft Nigerian Computer Security and Protection bill has been completed and would improve the economic well-being of Nigerians when passed into law.
He made this disclosure in Lagos, in an address at a one-day seminar of the Nigerian Cybercrime Working Group (NCWG) co-ordinated by Joint Action Committee on Information and Communications Technology Awareness and Development (JACITAD).
He said that the bill soon to be sent to the National Assembly, would benefit Nigerians economically, socially and politically.
NCWG was established on March 10, 2004, by President Olusegun Obasanjo, bring about all important reforms in both ICT and legal sectors, as it hopes to accomplish this within the framework of the proposed law and the contemplated institution thereof.
He said that the law being proposed will deal specifically with computer security and ICT infrastructure protection, just as it will create a central institution that would be responsible for the enforcement of its provisions, seeks to regulate the security of computer systems and networks as well as protect sensitive ICT infrastructure through prohibiting three kinds of conducts, namely against computer systems, utilizing ICT systems and against ICT infrastructure in the country.
On the conduct against computer systems which encompasses whether such conducts are carried out with unlawful intent or for the purpose of committing crimes or not, he said, offence of this category, would include activities such as unauthorised access to computer systems, access exceeding authorisation, computer systems and network interference, systems intrusion, data interception, denial of service, computer trespass, electronic mail (e-mail) bombing and so on.
Conducts utilizing ICT systems to commit unlawful act or crimes, the minister said, are such offences as computer contamination, illegal communications, computer vandalism, cybersquatting, cyberterrorism, cyber-pornography, online intellectual property theft among others.
The offences in this category include corrupting a minor; cyber-soliciting and compelling prostitution; sending obscene materials to minors over the Internet; indecent online exposure; tampering with computer evidence.
The unlawful conducts committed against critical ICT infrastructure in the country, he said were consistent with the trends in other countries utilizing ICT to drive economic and social development, hence it was necessary to make provisions to specifically protect those infrastructure that are critical to economic and social well being as well as collective security of the country.
"So, contaminating computer network systems used for air traffic controls and civil aviation, for instance, should not be treated as a mere offence of computer contamination, and should be penalised heavily on grounds of public policy because such acts target interests bordering on public safety and national security," he explained, stressing, it could be targeted at ICT infrastructure for telecommunications, oil and gas, banking and financial as well as energy.
To this end, his office has provided as a general rule in the draft bill that criminalizes the use of ICT systems to commit any act prohibited and punishable as a crime under any law in force for the time being in the country.
Additionally, Justice Minister said the law shall create a duty on all Internet Service Providers (ISPs), who are defined in the law to include both telecoms and applications service providers, to retain relevant traffic and transactional records of all activities on their networks and systems.
He expressed confidence that when this law is passed and the relevant institution created, the nation would be better off in its ICT development with substantive and procedural legislative provisions to deal with computer systems and network violations.
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