From Adanna Nnamani, Abuja
Nigeria is battling a new wave of cyber fraud perpetrated by youths looking for quick wealth.
This horror, according to social scientists, is propelled by deep decay in societal norms and values such that wealth, regardless of source, is elevated and celebrated above hard work, dedication and passion for legitimate success.
Social commentators are worried that the get-rich-quick bug seems to have bitten so many young Nigerians that they have delved into ritual killings all in a bid to acquire spiritual powers that can control their victims to quickly fall for their antics.
Members of the House of Representatives are already urging the executive to declare this malaise a national epidemic.
According to information released by Statista, a global provider of market and consumer data, in February 2022, 1,700 males and 337 females were arrested in Nigeria for advance fee fraud in 2019.
Overall, males represented the vast majority of individuals arrested in Nigeria for financial and economic crimes.
A recent report from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) placed Nigeria as the 16th country worst affected by cybercrime.
Experts have attributed different factors to the phenomenal increase in cyber scammers in Nigeria. Some of the factors include decay in societal values, poor cyber awareness and non-implementation of the law.
Others are poor equipment of law enforcement agents, poverty and unemployment, among others.
In an exclusive interview with Daily Sun, the director-general of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Mr. Kashifu Inuwa, said strategic efforts were already in place to protect government agencies from cyber fraudsters.
He explained that cyber-security in general and cyber-fraud/cyber-attacks in particular remain critical areas of concern to the agency.
He said: “It is because of this realization and the need for us to have a coordinated approach to tackling cyber security issues that we established the cyber security department.
“One of the effective means of tackling cyber security issues is creating awareness. This, we know, is not only our best defense but also a means of being in line with global best practices. We have held such awareness seminars at least once in each of the six geo-political zones and have proved to be very successful.
“As part of our activities, we monitor government websites/portals on a 24/7 basis. We proactively monitor to ensure websites are not hacked and, when they get hacked, we instantaneously analyze the attack pattern and offer strategies towards resolving the attack and bringing back the website/portal online. We also collaborate with other cyber security organisations, both nationally and internationally, to access trending cyber threats and use the information to send out advisory to all MDAs to ensure security measures are implemented before such attacks hit the Nigerian cyber space.
“These have been helping us a great deal towards mitigating the threats of cyber-attacks. We also conduct periodic cyber drills for network administrators of MDAs with the aim of improving their capacity in responding to cyber threats. In addition, we conduct an annual ‘October cyber security awareness event,’ in collaboration with other regulatory agencies, as well as private sector organisations.
“In an attempt to consolidate these efforts, we identified cyber security as one of the pillars in SRAP and we have initiatives such as creation of framework for adoption of indigenous cyber security solutions; implementation of the information security and digital assets management guidelines for federal public service; harmonise national public key infrastructure implementation initiatives; capacity-building training for national cyber defence team; and establishment of local cyber security/information security professionals’ certification authority/body.”
Prof. Sodiya Adesina, president of the Nigeria Computer Society (NCS), said Nigeria needs to begin to evaluate its strategies, policies and guidelines to adequately fight cyber crime.
According to Adesina, “What we need to do as a nation is to continue to review our strategies, we need to continue to review our policies and our guidelines towards ensuring that we protect ourselves from these cyber criminals. They are not even only targeting financial institutions again, it’s now all kinds of institutions. Even individuals are falling victim of cyber attacks and fraud daily. I want to start by informing you that Nigeria has a Cyber Crime Act of 2015. Though we are asking that we should review the act, but why we have not got to the level where we have to start enforcing or talking more about reviewing the act is the fact that many of the provisions in that act, how far have they been implemented? And it is when you test an act very well and comprehensively that you will know whether the provisions are adequate to curb a crime or not.”
He further explained that victims are discouraged to pursue cases of cyber fraud and get justice due to the rigours and processes involved.
Adesina said: “The reason it is difficult to track and make arrests of cyber criminals is that cyber crime has evolved to be a coordinated attack.
“People are discouraged by the rigorous procedures involved such as getting a police report, court affidavit and the rest. So, many end up forgoing the money they were duped of, especially if it is not a very huge sum, leaving the criminal to continue with his antics on his next victim.
“If for instance, you lose N2,000 and they subject you to all kinds of things such as asking you to get a lawyer, how would you be able to fund it? And that is why one of the things we are proposing is that we should have a centre. Like in some countries we have the Bureau of Public Prosecution that, if you have a legal issue and you do not have the funds, they can help you to handle it, so that people will not be frustrated because some of those minor ones are even the ones rampant in Nigeria.
“There are guys that all they do is to sit in their homes and think of ways to dupe individuals. There are some that are coordinated and people that are perpetuating them are not even within the country. They coordinate the attacks from different countries. There are so many things involved but, in tracking them, we need a lot of knowledge and expertise. We also need a lot of infrastructure, especially cyber policing. Our police, how many gadgets are they using in carrying out their operations? What is the level of introduction of IT?”
He mentioned that the Office of the National Security Adviser, and the NCS were working out techniques to protect organisations and people from cyber fraud.
“I know, recently, the Office of the National Security Adviser, they have started some programmes, engaging stakeholders, trying to develop a new cyber security policy. In fact, they have even computed it. They are just taking it to stakeholders to review it.
“At the level of the Nigeria Computer Society, we are trying to develop a multilingual attack reporting system that anybody will be able to report attack incidences and we will be able to intelligently profile the attack so that we can analyse, get information, and also advise the government appropriately on the most common attacks we are facing in Nigeria, and how to prevent them,” Adesina disclosed.
Rogba Adeoye, executive secretary, Information Technology Systems and Security Professionals (ITSSP), and past chairman of NCS, Lagos Chapter, said that although Nigeria has fantastic cybercrime laws, it lacks the institutional structures to drive them. He recommended awareness creation, training of law enforcement agents in cyber security and establishment of special courts to curb ICT-related crimes.
“There are so many cyber laws that people do not even know they exist. But the problem is the structure to drive or implement the laws. For example, you are supposed to get a license to operate a cyber cafe. But how many people are aware of this? There is a proliferation of cyber cafes without proper supervision. And these are also channels through which cybercrimes are committed. Starting with the police to the lawyers up to the judges. They all need to be trained in cyber security to familiarise themselves with ICT terms and jargon, so that they can easily handle cyber-related cases without being at a loss. Also, we can have something like a special court that focuses on treating cases of cyber fraud.”