Benjamin Babine, Abuja
The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Ali-Pantami, has disclosed that cybersecurity teams in the country have been intercepting many phishing attacks aimed at infecting systems or extracting sensitive information from Nigerians.
The minister made this known on Friday through a press statement signed by his Technical Assistant on Information Technology, Dr Femi Adeluyi. He said some of these attacks include campaigns that defraud citizens by offering essential products and services at suspicious prices.
According to him, others were aimed at spreading fake news and misinformation “to cause panic, create instability and promote distrust and video-teleconferencing hijacking (also called ‘Zoom-bombing’)”.
Pantami called on Nigerians to be extra security cautious while interacting online, especially when banking online.
He went on to appeal to Nigerians to observe basic cyberspace rules such as ignoring suspicious online offers, being circumspect in sharing VTC details, using complex passwords, keeping software up to date and refraining from sharing unverified information.
He urged Nigerians to see social distancing as a positive development that would support the implementation of the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy, NDEPS, for a digital Nigeria.
While noting that the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly transformed individual interactions, the minister expressed his happiness that several meetings, lectures and other forms of interactions the country have been moved to online platforms. This, he said, was an implicit requirement of social distancing.
He, however, said, “this migration to home-based unsecure digital platforms, often with outdated security systems, can make users more vulnerable to cyberattacks.”
