Stakeholders in Nigeria’s converged information and communication technology, ICT and broadcasting sectors have urged the federal government to consider the adoption of the month of October as the national cybersecurity awareness month in line with global best practices as a matter of urgent national priority. The call was made at the National Cyber Security Awareness…
Stakeholders in Nigeria’s converged information and communication technology, ICT and broadcasting sectors have urged the federal government to consider the adoption of the month of October as the national cybersecurity awareness month in line with global best practices as a matter of urgent national priority.
The call was made at the National Cyber Security Awareness Month (NASCAM) conference held in Lagos, recently.
The consensus of most speakers and participants at the one-day conference, stressed that cyber security should be given additional attention by the government going by the exponential growth of internet related activities in the country and the growing vulnerability of the government, corporate and individual citizens to the threats of cyber criminals.
Delivering a paper on Internet Jurisdiction: A Catch-22 Situation and the Trajectory of Nigeria’s Judicial System, Kunle Adegoke, managing partner M. A. Banire and Associates said, “The evil effect of cybercrimes can be hardly exhaustively appreciated as same may seem to be limitless.
According to a report, “Cyber-crime costs the global economy about $445 billion every year, with the damage to business from the theft of intellectual property exceeding the $160 billion loss to individuals from hacking”. A 2012 report said that Nigeria lost over N2 trillion to cybercrime in 2012 and $200 million per annum. The amount of loss annually occasioned now can be better imagined as youths today see cybercrime as an open sesame to sudden riches.”
While commending the Nigerian government for enacting the enabling law to deal with cyber criminality, he called for the strengthening of the existing laws because “The computer has created a different world of cyber existence where man can live without laws of ancient regime. The benefits of burden of human relations have occasioned cyber-crime as well.”
He expressed concern that “it is not good for technology to run faster than law.’’
