From Adanna Nnamani, Abuja
A group of cyber security experts in Nigeria has decried the low level of cyber security literacy in the country, citing it as a major factor promoting Internet crime.
ICT professionals, on the platform of the Cybersecurity Challenge Nigeria Initiative (CYSEC NG), called on the government to collaborate with talents in the private sector to improve cyber security enlightenment.
The group stated this recently to brief journalists on the organization’s upcoming fifth National Hackathon, Awards and Cybersecurity Conference at Base University in Abuja.
According to the director-general of CYSEC NG, Mr. Victor Idonor, the event, titled “Emerging cyber threats: landscape and defense,” is aimed towards bringing together students, information security professionals, financial organisations and government agencies to provide solutions to emerging technology challenges through interactive discussions, exhibitions, ethical hacking dimensions among others.
He said, “I think one of the major causes of cyber insecurity in Nigeria is lack of awareness. So many people are not enlightened about cyberspace. Sometimes, when their social media handles are hacked, ordinarily, this is something that could be easily retrieved but because they are not aware they are unable to do anything to get it back. We need to do a lot. A lot more needs to be done in the Nigerian system. Reasons being that a lot of times we have persons studying cyber security in different institutions in Nigeria and most of them heard of cybersecurity as a department for the first time when they gained admission into these schools. The government, through its relevant agencies need to strengthen awareness creation in cybersecurity.
Also speaking, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Central Soft Support Services and CYSEC NG Principal Consultant, Mr Andru Abu said the organization was doing all within its powers to educate and train the Nigerians, particularly the youths and children on cyber security threats and ways to mitigate them.
“For over six years, CYSEC NG has grown to become one of Africa’s leading Cybersecurity Community. Today, we had the honour of training over 45,000 person’s cutting across beginner to advanced professionals. The purpose of CYSEC NG is not only identifying Nigeria’s next enabling platform for skill acquisition, youth employment and local content development. This year’s event is planned to attract over 700 cybersecurity professionals from various industries including Telecommunications, financial services, insurance firms, oil and gas, other privately-held organisations and also government Ministries, he stated.