Chinenye Anuforo

The Nigerian Telecommunications Commission (NCC) has engaged telecom stakeholders and service providers on their role in the quest to curb the ugly trend of cybercrime in the country.

This move was made at the 87th edition of Telecom Consumer Parliament (TCP) that was convened yesterday in Lagos State.

Speaking at the quarterly forum, the NCC board chairman, Senator Olabiyi Durojaiye, decried the negative impact of cybercrime on individuals and corporate bodies that fall victim. He also lamented the huge dent on the image of the country at the global scene.

“Opportunities and space presented to us via the Internet are limitless,” Durojaiye said. “Hence our youths, instead going into cybercrime, should focus on tapping into the gains of the Internet and create viable inventions that would make them the next Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg. Cybercrime perpetrators should be made a face capital punishment or life imprisonment because they are enemies of society.”

Also, NCC’s executive vice-chairman, Professor Umar Danbatta, in his speech, harped on the need for telecom service providers to be more proactive towards securing cyberspace for their individual and enterprise customers.

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“We believe that the time has come for organisations and telecoms service providers alike to begin to use next-generation authentication, as against the hitherto user-password authentication system. The ITU, in a report, says the latter is vulnerable to hacking and all forms of cyber attacks.

Danbatta further tasked the mobile network operators on the need to educate their consumers, regardless of their size and scope of operations, and equip them with tips they need to stay protected while using the Internet on their networks.

“We believe that implementing these suggestions will help telecom service providers and other Internet-dependent organisations in sustaining their activities in an increasingly connected world and containing the menace of cybercrimes on their finances and reputation, on their employees and customers,” he said.

Addressing the forum on the theme “Challenges of Cybercrime: The Role of the Telecoms Service Providers,” Mrs. Felicia Onwuegbuchulam, the NCC director of the Consumer Affairs Bureau, said their goal was to bring the issue of cybercrime on the front burner.

“Cybercrime is a global phenomenon with levels of pervasiveness differing from country to country and from region to region,” she said. “It is more pronounced in Nigeria, as it costs individuals and organisations financial losses, among other dangers it poses to victims. It is, therefore, our concern in NCC to see that risks associated with the Internet are addressed and mitigated too.”