Emma Ujah
29 August 2008
WITH an increasing rates of global cyber fraud, it has been discovered that Nigerian banks have lost over N7.3 billion to cybercrime related activities.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Global Network for Cyber Solution, Mr. Segun Olugbile, disclosed at a Press Conference in Abuja, yesterday.
He said that banking industry, as one of the most strategic sectors of the economy needed protection from cyber-criminality considering the huge amount of funds lost in that sector annually.
He pointed out that some of the rampant cyber corrupt practices in the banking sector include online financial fraud inside-out, identity theft, system penetration by outsiders, data and network sabotage and denial of service attacks.
Mr. Olugbile whose organisation recently convened a national stakeholders' conference on Cybercrime and Cyber security to address the challenging issues and their impact on Nigeria, said global loses $200 billion dollars annually in direct and related damages to Cybercrime which also said was a threat to world peace and security.
"The quantum effect of the emerging monstrous challenge of Cybercrime to developing economies translates into a colossal digital nightmare to the African Continent and indeed, particularly to Nigeria", he said.
The CEO added that there were reliable case studies to prove that an attack on a national infrastructure could, by virtue of its catastrophic consequences, completely paralyze the machinery of Government.
He therefore urged the federal government to declare Cybercrime and Cybersecurity as a National emergency, which deserved conscious political will and special budgetary resources to effectively engage the challenges presented by its impact.
Mr. Olugbile also called on Nigerian legislators to enact into law National Information Infrastructure (NIIA) Act, provide legislative framework for cyber crime and security and establish Cyber Crime Reporting and Response Centre, as well as, a Cybercrime and Cybersecurity Training Centre.
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