Efem Nkanga
16 July 2008
Lagos — Global InfoSwift Technologies Limited (GIS), a leading technology solution provider in Nigeria, is set to address security challenges confronting the nation's financial institutions.
This is particularly against the backdrop of a recent report, that internet crime resulted in about $240 million losses last year alone. This figure is a $40 million increase over reported losses in 2006.
Managing Director of GIS, Solomon Edun, stated that as financial institutions in Nigeria are merging complex information technology infrastructure and migrating their products and services online, their vulnerability to theft, fraud and intellectual property theft is increasing.
Edun said the retrieval of consumers' personal identity data and financial account credentials is often achieved by stealing credentials directly using key-logging mechanisms and phisher-controlled proxies or by misdirecting users to non-authentic websites.
It is on record that Nigeria has been identified as number three amongst the top ten cybercrime countries in the world, only after the United States and United Kingdom. This statistics from the Internet Crime Complaint Centre highlights an ever-increasing concern around the nature and dynamics these fraudulent attacks are taking place, with electronic mail and web pages being the most common channels of cyber crime.
Edun reiterated that this is reason that GIS has positioned itself with its extensive knowledge in addressing security concerns within the Nigerian financial sector. The Anti-Phishing Working Group reported that in December 2007, Financial Services continue to be the most targeted industry sector at 91.7 per cent of all attacks recorded during that month. "We predict that this trend is there to continue and this is why we offer vast portfolio of services to assist organisation's identify, manage and mitigate enterprise security risk," he said. "In particular, our penetration and vulnerabilities test and corporate identity protection services allow enterprises to stimulate real-world attacks, test possible vulnerabilities and, through a comprehensive strategy to address threat and vulnerability management and incidence response management, introduce the ability of an organisation to resist attacks from unauthorised users."
National Bank regulators in Africa understand the ever-increasing threat surrounding cyber crime and identity theft and, as a result, they are issuing the necessary governance denominators around security processes and controls for other banks to follow. In fact, it is only through a systematic process to assess the probability of a potential security threat and its associated cost implications to the bottom line, that a bank can allocate the necessary resources to mitigate it.
According to Afolabi Oke, Executive Director of GIS, a comprehensive information security programme, involving the understanding of the information assets requiring protection is crucial to assess the impact to the bottom line which any loss or malicious use of confidential information may cause. "Global InfoSwift privacy and enterprise security offerings enable organisations to assess the vulnerabilities and security readiness of an organisation's applications against security standards and best practices," he said. "By evaluating the sensitivity of specific information assets, such as applications, data, e-mails as well as customer and financial information, Global InfoSwift is able to recommend a level of security readiness that is commensurate to the risk exposure of a specific financial institution.
Oke said another important factor to increase the level of protection for online consumers is for banks to create information security awareness programmes and campaigns on behalf of their customers. "In consideration to the incumbent threats imposed by cyber crime and fraudulent attacks, banks must show a duty of care and increase their consumers' security level in relation to online security practices," he said. "The goal of awareness campaign is crucial to increase the level of security awareness of the banking customers and encourage electronic interactions among the banks in Nigeria. In fact, an appropriate campaign can also help reduce incidents of fraud in banks and ensure that good security practices become routine and second nature.
Oke therefore advised customers in Nigeria to be aware of their responsibilities and behave consistently in accordance with BASEL II and banking best security practices.
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