CSEAN applauds Nigerian banks over dual-level authentication
Mr. Remi Afon, National President of the Cyber Security Experts Association of Nigeria (CSEAN), has commended the Nigerian banks for instituting dual-level authentication in the nation’s financial system.
Mr. Afon gave the commendation while speaking at the 2016 National Cyber Security Awareness Month Event organised by the American Embassy in Lagos at the weekend on “Recognising and Combating Cyber Crime” and described the dual authentication by banking institutions in the country, as one of the best guard against cyber fraud in the world today.
He explained that the dual authentication by Nigerian banks enables customers to get alert prior to completing a transaction through electronic mail (email) and or by mobile phone one-time password.
He also expressed his excitement with respect to the effect this kind of authentication will have particularly on domiciliary accounts and amounts to increasing cyber concerns and efforts at checkmating fraud by Nigerian cybersecurity professionals.
He decried the fact that a standard is not being offered in developing economies as of today.
Commenting on cybercrime facts, Mr. Afon cited Symantec as emphasizing that cybercrime has now surpassed illegal drug trafficking as a criminal money-maker, just as anti-virus company pointed out that somebody’s identity is stolen every three seconds as a result of cybercrime.
The CSEAN president also cited Verizon which reportedly said that 89 percent of cybercrime breaches globally had a financial or espionage motive, while Forbes predicted that cybercrime costs have been projected to reach $2 trillion by 2019.
According to him, cybercrime damages are expected to cost the world $6 trillion by 2021.
Afon disclosed that as at November 2015, there is over 97 million Nigerian internet users in the country based on the records of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).
He also quoted the office of the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) which recently revealed that between 2012 and 2014, Nigeria lost some N64 billion to cybercrimes, while the Office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) disclosed that the N127 million is lost annually to cybercrime in Nigeria, and Ultrascan noted that $9.3 billion cost of cybercrime originate from Nigeria, globally.
Afon highlighted some of the progress made by Nigeria in the past few years including the signing of the Cybercrime Act on May 15, 2015, followed by the launch of the National Cybersecurity Policy and as at February 05, 2015, established the National Cybersecurity Strategy; while the Cybercrime Advisory Board was inaugurated in April 20, 2016.
He hinted that Cyber Crime prosecutions are picking up in the country which is a demonstration of the seriousness in combatting cybercrimes.
He stressed that Nigeria has established Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERRT.ng) currently under the care of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and ngCert created under the supervision of the National Security Advisor (NSA).
