Data Protection: Bureau to host stakeholders in Abuja - ITREALMS

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No fewer than Two hundred stakeholders from across the country would be in Abuja next week to discuss the need for a principal Data Protection Law in Nigeria.

The two-day event, scheduled to hold on 26th and 27th of July, 2022 at Rockview Hotel Royale, Abuja, shall bring together representatives of relevant public institutions, the private sector and civil society organisations to deliberate on the way forward towards strengthening the legal framework for data protection in the country.

ArikAir data leak: Paradigm demands data protection enactment from FG, NASS - ITREALMS

ITREALMS:

 

Following the alleged data leak by ArikAir, an international social enterprise, Paradigm Initiative, has demanded from the Federal Government (FG) and the National Assembly (NASS) to enact a data protection law for the citizens, reports ITREALMS.

Reacting to the recent data breach which exposed some Arik Air passengers’ data stored on Amazon S3 Bucket, Paradigm Initiative described it as vulnerable and unprotected in a press statement made available to ITREALMS.

Also, ITREALMS recalls that on 30th October, Justin Paine, an internet security expert and head of trust and safety at Cloudflare, had alleged discovery as a serious data breach that had rendered some Arik Air passengers’ data stored on Amazon S3 Bucket exposed vulnerable and defenseless.

This data included information such as their names, email addresses, phone numbers, travel schedule, and even card details.

Paradigm Initiative, ITREALMS gathered, is compelled by this event to, once again, call upon the Nigerian government, particularly the legislature, to enact a data protection law for its citizens and residents in line with international best practices.   

Section 37 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria expressly states that “The privacy of citizens, their homes, correspondence, telephone conversations and telegraphic communications is hereby guaranteed and protected.” Data protection is, therefore, an inherent responsibility where privacy has been granted.

Proper care must be taken to protect every information submitted to data custodians and processors, but much more than that, the Nigerian government must clearly and expressly mandate every data holder or processor to secure data in their care. This must be done by the enactment of a law in which all necessary legal and technical standards are laid out.

As it stands, Nigerians are extremely vulnerable and exposed by the absence of the country’s firm stance against the poor protection of data. And as data breaches occur in the country, there is no legally stipulated process, redress or resort for the aggrieved, no laws detailing data protection responsibilities on the data holders, no real laws to guide the judiciary.

Although there are some data protection Bills at the National Assembly namely; Data Protection Bill (HB02), Protection of Personal Information Bill (SB 310), and the Digital Rights and Freedom Bill (HB 490) which is closest to becoming a law. The Bill which has been passed by both houses of the National Assembly, contains provisions for data protection. These provisions align with internationally recognized principles of data protection and are clear and unambiguous.

The Digital Rights and Freedom Bill (HB 490) has however not been transmitted to the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria for his assent. It has been over 7 months since the National Assembly passed the Bill. We call on the national assembly to immediately transmit this Bill to President Muhammadu Buhari.

Paradigm Initiative also calls on the federal government to ensure that the alleged data leak is not swept away but rather thoroughly investigated. Nigeria cannot afford to continue to miss important learning opportunities and wakeup calls such as this one. Appropriate actions have to be taken, and they must be taken now.

Nenye Dom/GEE

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Nigeria needs framework for data protection

ITRealms:

Participants arising from a one-day breakfast session on “Identity is the new money,” says Nigeria lacks the framework for data protection, reports ITRealms.

The event organized by eMaginations Limited under its eNnovators Breakfast Series (EBS), is a quarterly breakfast event packaged for the Dreamers, Drivers and Doers (3Ds) of technology business in financial services industry across Africa.

According to the Event Director, Sola Fanawopo, EBS offers opportunities to network, learn and plan strategically.

A communique endorsed by Fanawopo, participants called for the government to enact data privacy law to protect consumers’ personal information and ensure that they have the confidence to take advantage of benefits of the ever-changing marketplace.

Also, the government was advised to encourage to establish identity brokerage services, ‘banker for data’ or ‘ISP for identity services’ I-Brokers is  trusted third party that helps individuals and organizations share private data the same way banks help exchange funds and ISPs help exchange e-mail and files.

They also pointed out that i-brokers when licensed will help bridge the gap between relying (RP) party and identity service provider (IDP) by providing public infrastructure for digital identity, security, and privacy using the open standard data interchange protocol. Besides, I-Brokers will alleviate the number of integrations required between RPs and IDPs.

Government, they further said, should make life easy for consumers of ID services by promoting the concept of “Connect to One, Connect to All.”

While those in the private sector as Information Technology (IT) firms should exploit the opportunities of absence of ID management platforms to invest in identity management services so that local competence can be developed in the industry.

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