Nigeria lose $649m to cyber criminals, Expert ….As Conference issues Communique

Success Damian:

Cyber Security Expert, Taiye Lambo, Founder/CTO, e-Fortresses Cloud Assurance & HISPI, has revealed that Nigeria in 2017 lost whooping $649m to Cyber criminals.

Lambo gave the statistics at the International Cyber Security and Cloud Conference which was held at Four-Point Hotel, Lagos recently.

Lambo, dwelling on the topic ‘The Business of Cyber Security and Cloud’ disclosed, “While Nigeria lost $649 million in 2017, Nigerian cyber criminals make 2billion a year.

He went further to state that $600 billion is the annual cost of cyber crime worldwide, “but it is Nigerians who get the negative name”, many Nigerians invented cyber crime while other countries monetized it. He argued “While Nigeria lost 649, million dollars in 2017, Nigerian cyber criminals make 2billion a year. He maintained that while the bad people are gaining, Nigeria is losing as a country.

Lambo also disclosed that Cyber security market share will increase to 170 ^billion dollars by the year 2020. He advised Nigeria to develop its human capital for cyber security.

ATCON President, Olusola Teniola, in a goodwill message, stated that the cloud is just a computer stored somewhere, and decried any form of hacking.  He said there are smart individuals that built what Nigerians are enjoying in the cyber space.

He also decried the current over reliance on foreign soft-wares “We rely so much on soft-wares built by foreigners,” he asked Nigerians to come up with their own skills for positivity and not negativity, stressing also that trust and human development is very important aside technicality. 

At the end of the conference a communiqué was released for public consumption, part of which said “Nigerians must adopt gradual approach to move their businesses to the cloud and ensure data protection while in cloud; Cyber crime to cost the globe 6trillion by 2021 according to cyber security ventures, security concerns are barriers to adoption of public cloud in Nigeria; Cyberspace pose a lot of insecurity to cloud business and regulatory body should see it as opportunity to come up with policies  to protect online business since no nation that can boast of  is full proof  protection against cyber crime and hacking.”

The Communique went further to state that the issue of bad image and cyber attacks in relation to business compromise that are traced to Nigeria was raised but discussants advised that Nigerians must built trust and develop the right skills to address negative report about Nigerians no Cyber security since cyber criminals come from every part of the world.

It also stated that in spite of the security challenges local cloud business should be hosted locally to encourage data localization among Nigerian companies.

“There is a dire shortage of skills in cyber security, we need technical and non technical skills to address cyber security issues; Cloud security certification programmes are important and businesses and individuals should strive to attend and achieve cyber security certifications; Major gap exists in Nigeria cyber security framework when no  institution is taking ownership of responsibility; Non disclosure of cyber security attacks amongst finance institution and corporate organization is posing serious challenges to the economy and should e discouraged; Cyber Security agents must be well equipped to enable them do more to address cyber security issue in Nigeria.

It also said that Government should do more to increase awareness in data laws to address cyber security issues and also address the issue of porous cyber regulations, Nigeria therefore need proper structure in cyber security issues.