The Regulator of Nigeria’s financial sector, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has lamented the unrelenting attack on the financial sector, saying the banking sector lost a whopping N40 billion to cyber-assisted crimes last year.
The apex bank’s Chief Information Security Officer, Taiwo Longe said the economic cost of cyber crimes has assumed an alarming dimension such that its costs now far surpass that of illicit trade in narcotics.
According to him, the global cost now stands at about $288 billion, which far exceeds that of illicit drugs.
He spoke during the opening session of National Cyber Security Forum (NCSF 2014) organised by the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) in Lagos, with Towards Multi-Stakeholders Partnership for National Cyber Security Engagement as its theme.
Longe said the criminals perpetrate their trade using web phishing, network intrusion, emails and others methods. He advised every organisation to take the issue of having a security blueprint in place very seriously. He added that there is need for proper information security management to reduce ‘vulnerability and risk’ of attack.
He said with the growing threat of cybercriminals, the need for policy framework to address the menace has become more imperative now than ever before. He added that awareness is another key element in driving the process of fighting cybercrimes because people must be aware of the potential risk they face so that they could take precautionary measures.
Longe urged the banks not to relent in innovating on better ways of securing their information as the cyber criminals too were not sleeping, always working ahead to beat them.
Paul Balo is the founder of TechBooky and a highly skilled wireless communications professional with a strong background in cloud computing, offering extensive experience in designing, implementing, and managing wireless communication systems.
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
