• Meta moves against sexual extortion on Instagram

Nigeria is believed to record over 4,000 cyber attacks daily, according to technology security firm, Nitroswitch.

The organisation said the development underscored the rising cyber threats across the federation.

While urging swift action, Nitroswitch, which restated the inevitability of breaches, submitted: “It’s just a matter of ‘when’ not ‘if’, pointed out that the security landscape has evolved in recent years.

Nitroswitch, which TechnologyTimes, described as an indigenous firm, stressed that cyber attacks have become more aggressive, persistent and proficient, eluding and damaging traditional security architecture in the process.

Meanwhile, the most populous black nation has ranked fifth in a global report on sources of cybercrime activities, coming behind Russia, Ukraine, China and the United States, rated as first, second, third and fourth.

According to researchers at the Department of Sociology, University of Oxford and University of New South Wales, Canberra, which conducted the study, it is the first-ever World Cybercrime Index to access the most significant sources of cybercrime at a national level.

Other countries that made the top 10 list include Romania, North Korea, the United Kingdom, Brazil and India.

One of the authors, Dr. Jonathan Lusthaus, explained: “Due to the illicit and anonymous nature of their activities, cybercriminals cannot be easily accessed or reliably surveyed. They are actively hiding.

“If you try to use technical data to map their location, you will also fail, as cybercriminals bounce their attacks around Internet infrastructure across the world. The best means we have to draw a picture of where these offenders are located is to survey those whose job it is to track these people.”

Also commenting, Dr. Miranda Bruce of the University of Oxford and UNSW Canberra, submitted: “The research that underpins the Index will help remove the veil of anonymity around cybercriminal offenders, and we hope that it will aid the fight against the growing threat of profit-driven cybercrime.

“By continuing to collect this data, we’ll be able to monitor the emergence of any new hotspot, and it is possible early interventions could be made in at-risk countries before a serious cybercrime problem even develops.

“For the first time, we have reliable data on the location of cybercriminals, and we also have a way to measure their impact. Government agencies and private enterprises tasked with tackling cybercrime now have a much better understanding of the scale of the problem in their backyard.”

According to the report, the data that underpinned the Index was gathered through a survey of leading cybercrime experts from around the world.

Participants were asked to consider five major categories of cybercrime and nominate the countries that they considered to be the most significant sources of each of these types of crime.

Similarly, the parent company of Facebook, Meta, is rolling out a set of new features and tools to protect users, especially teens, from sextortion on Instagram.

The efforts include using machine learning (ML) to detect nudity in direct messages (DMs), restrictions on messaging teens, educational resources, and industry collaboration to stop sextortion across platforms.

Sexual extortion or sextortion involves persuading a person to send explicit photos online, and then threatening to make the images public unless the victim pays money or engages in sexual favours.

Meta highlights how sextortion scammers may use DMs to share or request intimate images to then use for extortion.

It noted that the new tools are to prevent unwanted exposure and educate people on the risks involved.

According to a statement, at the core of the organisation’s approach is a “nudity protection” feature for Instagram DMs, which utilises on-device ML to automatically blur nudity in messages for users under 18 globally.

“Warnings are issued to senders and recipients upon detection, with reconsideration prompts for forwarding. Recipients view blurred images with options to block or report, alongside safety tips on the risks of sharing nudes. The nudity protection feature will soon start testing on Instagram DMs,” the company clarified.