The Information Security Society of Africa-Nigeria (ISSAN) has expressed worry about Nigeria’s leading role in online fraud in Africa.
ISSAN, which claimed that some $2 trillion was at risk, said all efforts must be harnessed to correct the menace.
The President of ISSAN, Dr. David Isiavwe, who disclosed this at a webinar, organised by the group with the theme: ‘Securing Cyberspace To Enable Emerging Business Realities,’ said cyber attacks on financial institutions and organisations, were on the rise and called on banks to be more proactive and to ensure full protection of the cyberspace in order to mitigate the effect of cyber attacks.
Isiavwe, therefore, called for collaboration and information sharing among financial institutions, which he said was key to securing the cyberspace that would enable emerging business realities.
Advising banks, financial institutions and businesses to put safety measures in place to guard against cyber attacks, the Director, Payment Systems Management at CBN, Jimoh Musa, said organisations must be ready at all times to prevent cyber attacks on their networks, because the attackers would not stop at anything in launching online attacks.
“Cyber attacks can lead to economic dislocation and business disruptions, which would in turn lead to data compromise and organisational downtime,” Musa said in his keynote address.
He, however, advised on timely information sharing by affected banks among financial institutions, addressing insider compromise, as well as carrying out regular capacity building programmes that will keep staff abreast of cyber attacks.
The Director of Information Technology at CBN, Mrs. Rakiya Mohammed, who delivered the technical paper at the webinar, spoke on the many benefits of CBN’s Digital Currency, also known as eNaira, and the security features surrounding it that would lead to safe and seamless digital currency transactions in today’s digital era.
