Technology researcher and CEO, Compsoftnet Technologies, Mr Taiwo Akinremi,has warned the Federal government to brace the challenge of protecting the country's critical infrastructure and assets that guarantee social amenities, like water, electricity grid and even banks as they face severe threats from global hackers.
According to Akinremi, as cybercriminals rampage across the globe, targeting the invisible lifelines of modern society, Nigeria's federal government must brace the pressure to fortify its critical physical infrastructure, like power stations, water plants, hospitals, and financial hubs.
He said these are the backbone of the country's survival, but unfortunately they are perilously exposed to digital attacks that could unleash chaos.
Akinremi who is also the Vice Chairman, Generic James Supporting Organisation, GNSO Council, noted that "the domino effect of digital disruption is that Nigeria's critical infrastructure sectors are intertwined like threads in a tight weave. Knock out electricity, and water stops flowing, ATMs freeze, factories halt. The 2023 grid collapse showed how fragile the system is. Now, digital threats loom larger, and the time for the government to act is now" he added.
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Akinremi, whose research is at the intersection of resilience of critical infrastructure and governance, noted that addressing the complexity of today's threat landscape goes beyond conventional strategies to leveraging systems but thinking deeply to provide the appropriate analytical lens for the environment.
"Complexity theory teaches that critical infrastructure operates as a non-linear system meaning that simple cause-and-effect relationships often break down, and a small, seemingly insignificant change can have a disproportionate, emergent, and devastating impact across the network.
"Critical infrastructure encompasses assets whose incapacity would cause a debilitating effect on national security, the economy, or public health. This includes sectors such as energy, water, healthcare, defense, transportation, and financial services. The fundamental challenge in protecting these sectors lies not in the failure of a single component, but in their characteristic of interconnectedness and interdependency. A cyberattack in one sector can instantly cascade across others.
"The consequences can range from water supply contamination, disrupting communication networks, halting transportation systems, and paralyzing emergency services".
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He told Vanguard that Nigeria's push for digital transformation has made the country a hotspot for cyber threats.
"Last year, attacks on African nations surged by 42%, with Nigeria a prime target. Hackers, some backed by hostile states, are zeroing in on Critical Infrastructure like the energy grid, healthcare systems, transport networks, and banks. A breach here isn't just a glitch; it's a national emergency waiting to happen".
Akinremi is not alone in calling for strategic measures to protecting the country's critical infrastructure.
Recently, a cybersecurity analyst at NIPSS, Dr. Aisha Mohammed, cautioned that "Critical Infrastructure isn't bricks and mortar anymore. It's code. And that code is under siege. Imagine Lagos without power for days, or hospitals unable to access patient records. This isn't science fiction, it's our reality."
The experts warned that unless the federal government provides hardened physical infrastructure and air-gapped backups, the pledge of upgrading data centres and encrypting them with a paltry budget of N15 billion may not scratch the problem.
