The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and the National
Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) have committed to work with
the media stakeholders for the adoption of October as the annual celebration of
the National Cyber Security Awareness Month (NASCAM), reports ITRealms.
The two key agencies under the supervision of the Ministry
of Communications also commended the media group working in concert with other
stakeholders for the adoption of October as the Nigerian National
Cyber-security Awareness month.
At separate meetings with officials of NCC and NITDA last
week, the media group operating under the aegis of the Centre for Cyber
Awareness and Development (CECAD), a non-governmental organisation (NGO), was
given the nod to convene a stakeholder meeting in the last week of October.
Director of Communications, Mr. Olubayo Abiodun said in
order to underscore the importance of the advocacy campaign to Nigeria’s
national interests and its assets, the Office of the National Security Adviser
(NSA) to President Muhammadu Buhari has been contacted on the initiative.
According to him, the involvement of the NSA is pivotal to
the advocacy campaign because of the rising tides of cyber-security challenges
ravaging the entire socio-political, economic, military and technological
ecosystem of the global community.
He said that the initiative is a Public Private Project
because all government Ministries, Department and Agencies as well as the
private sector will be involved. According to him, the real sector of the
economy where the private sector is playing active roles including the banking
and finance, manufacturing, maritime, aviation, educational, transport,
telecoms and ICTs, Oil and Gas, broadcasting and stockbroking institutions will
be prominently engaged. In the public sector, he said the military and
para-military institutions and other security services, educational
institutions, Nigerian Stock Exchange, Security and Exchange Commission (SEC),
hospitals, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NIMASA and other key government
institutions susceptible to cyber-attacks will be involved in raising the bar
on the awareness campaign.
Mr Abiodun said that the week-long event would help raise
the bar on the multi-stakeholders awareness across government, corporate
institutions and private citizens through the principles of the Public Private
Partnership (PPP). Justifying the need for the advocacy programme, the group
hinged its position on the increasing threats of cyber-attacks to national
security, economic crimes, political instability and social insecurity as a
result of the vulnerability of national, corporate and private databases via
identity theft.
The week-long programme, he said, will involve series of daily
activities delineated to accommodate sectorial emphasises on every facets of
the lives of the nation and its people, stressing that the daily line up of events will
include awareness focus on government and its agencies, banks and financial
institutions, telcos, tower companies and ICTs, education, health, tourism, transport,
military/security communities.
The central theme would be on how to enhance
safer connections to the Internet without compromising corporate and individual
safety. Families will also enjoy primary attention in the course of the
awareness programme in order to ensure the safety of all and sundry,
particularly children from dangers inherent in the uncontrolled access. On the
last day of the event, there will be a stakeholders meeting to round off the
weeklong activities with a Presidential declaration of the adoption of October
as Nigeria’s celebration of cyber security awareness in line with global best
practice.
As said by Abiodun, the NGO noted that criminals, terrorists, and countries now
use the Internet technology to wreak havoc in countries ill prepared for the
cyber-attacks because of the increasing adoption of digital platforms in
national frontiers.
"Nations are increasingly deploying e-government,
e-commerce, e-health, cashless society, e-learning, digital entertainment, and
e-agriculture among other electronic engagements in all spheres of life," he said.
Pointing out that this has resulted in getting sensitive data stored online, consequent upon of
this development is that cyber-attacks have become more profound with
unauthorised access to the data stored online. The increasing incidences of
identity theft and e-fraud are consequences of the plurality of Internet
technology across the national climes.
As a consequent of this, he said, the Nigerian nation and its
citizens have been under increasing threat from cyber-attacks following the
proliferation of digital platforms in the rapid integration of its social,
political and economic facets into the digital economy.
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