Uche Usim, Abuja
The Senate Committee on ICT and Cybercrime, the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation (OAGF) and Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) are collaborating to secure all ICT infrastructure in the country, to insulate the nation’s economy from cyber attacks. The Accountant-General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris disclosed in Abuja while hosting members of the Senate Committee on ICT and Cybercrime
According to Ahmed , the OAGF, being the hub of government’s treasury, cannot toy with cyber security, especially now that the bulk of its operations have become fully digitized.
Ahmed noted that the collaboration with ONSA was to further fortify its ICT infrastructure and quickly close any identified gaps that can compromise its operations. .
He pointed out that the full embrace of ICT saves the country about N4 billion daily that would have been gulped in manual operations.
He said: “We’ve achieved substantial gross savings in the sum of about N21 billion in respect of the six hundred and two (602) MDAs paid on IPPIS. In recognition of the significant role played by the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (OAGF) in the automation of Public Financial Management (PFM), the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) has designated GIFMIS and IPPIS infrastructures as Critical National Information Infrastructure (CNII).
“Therefore, the OAGF and ONSA have been very engaged in an immense effort at protecting these infrastructure from cyber crimes in line with the vision and mission of Cybercrimes Act 2015, to this end, the following measures have been put in place to mitigate risk and enhance national cyber security:
In his remarks, the Chairman, Senate Committee on ICT and Cybercrime, Senator Yakubu Oseni said that criminal elements around the world have chosen to turn ICT revolution into a nightmare, urging all ministries and agencies to IP their game.
“The gains of digital technology are being dampened by rapid evolution of cyber security threat landscape, with increased attacks in both sophistication and severity. Reports indicate that there is currently a dramatic rise in cybercrime such as the ransomeware epidemic, the refocusing of malware from personal computers (PCs) and laptops to smartphones and mobile devices, the deployment of billions of under-protected Internet of Things (loT) devices, the legion of hackers-for-hire and more sophisticated launching of attacks on governments, defence infrastructure, businesses, educational establishments, etc. Indeed, the invasion of the cyberspace comes with grave consequences, and is already costing the world huge losses in trillions of dollars, and is posing serious danger to life.
“In Nigeria, concern is not only about the cyber security threat landscape, but also about weak systems. Oversight findings have revealed serious gaps in digital technology in Nigeria.
“The country still lags behind in infrastructure sophistication, data management and digital security and knowhow, which are critical to the development agenda. In some cases, funding on digital technology infrastructure is inadequate compared to the enormity of need and challenges therein.”