Experts warn on continuous cyber attacks

CYBER security experts have said that much needs to be done to prevent highly destructive cyber attacks, especially on the nation’s critical infrastructure.

  During  a presentation at the Cyber Security Expert Association Of Nigeria (CSEAN) conference in Abuja, a representative of the Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Abdul-Hakeem Ajijola, said, ‘’the Inadequate training and a culture of complacency among many owners and operators of critical infrastructure are significantly raising the risks of highly damaging cyber attacks throughout the world.’’

  According to the President of CSEAN, Remi Afon ,the year 2014 had some of the most recorded targeted cyber-attacks and data breaches ever experienced worldwide and year 2015 promises to be worse.

  He said, ‘We have seen high-ended data breaches of large organizations with data, personal records and financial information stolen and sold on the black market in a matter of days.”

  According to him, cyber threats will continue to multiply. The advent of the digital world, and the inherent connectivity of people, device and organizations, opens up a whole new playing field of vulnerabilities. And that we are moving into the era of big data and Internet utility.

  He also said, “Cyber risks are growing and are changing rapidly. Every day, hackers are working on new techniques for getting through the security of governments and organizations. They are doing this so that they can cause damage, access sensitive data and steal intellectual property.

  He, however, advises Internet on active security-awareness that as old sources of cyber threats fade, new sources will emerge to take their place. Cyber criminals are stepping up and their breaches are becoming both common and devastating,” he said.

  He continued, “the vast scope of cyber threats makes a compelling case for multi-stakeholder collaboration in curbing domestic and international threats. Nigeria is not immune from these threats. Nigeria is known in the information security world for the invention 419, no thanks to the ‘yahoo boys’,”

  Afron however, urged as a matter of urgency, for the need to introduce and strengthen laws of data privacy, children’s online protection, personal health data information protection and electronic communication privacy to ensure that data are used fairly and lawfully and not transferred out of Nigeria without adequate protection.

  He also commend the senate for passing the bill for an act to provide for the prohibition, prevention, detection, response, investigation and prosecution of cybercrime and other related matters 2014, and call for the assent of the bill by the president.