Expert warns Nigerians against activities of digital criminals
An Information, Communication Technology (ICT) expert, Mr David Afolayan, has warned Nigerians not to leave themselves vulnerable to hackers, while seeking information on social media platforms, particularly on Corona virus (COVID-19).
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Afolayan, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), GISKONSULT, gave the advice in Ibadan on Friday, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
The expert stated that hackers were taking advantage of the ignorance and carelessness of people who were eager to get information on the ongoing Corona virus pandemic, to wreak havoc.
He stressed that people needed to be educated on safe use of social media platforms.
“Criminality has changed over the years and being online exposes us to another group of people known as digital criminals
“These set of people are in various categories; some people do it for fun, some as a hobby, others as a career or occupation.
“Some are even doing it for their countries, spies who get information for their governments from across the world.
“The nature of digital criminals is complex and complicated; everyone needs to be aware about the pitfalls that are online,” he said.
Afolayan stated that some of the ways people could minimise the risk of falling into the traps of these criminals was to install paid antivirus on their devices instead of the free device protection.
He advised people not to open e-mails sent from people they did not know, as well as ignore messages with catchy headlines from even people they knew as such persons’ devices might have been compromised.
He enjoined people to use strong passwords that were not easy to crack, such as those combined with numbers and numerical codes.
According to the ICT expert, Nigerians should not open e-mails that go into their spam messages as developers of platforms like Gmail and Yahoo have currently installed algorithms that identify compromised or suspicious mails.
He said: “If a device has been compromised, it starts misbehaving, becoming slow or it will be very hot as if it has been used extensively.
“What this means is that someone is connecting into your device to retrieve personal information, or possibly using it to transmit information to cover his tracks.
“Once you notice this, switch off your device and remove the battery, that will disconnect your device from the online user; and at least for that moment, whatever the hackers are doing will be disrupted.
“Once you put the battery back, switch off your internet and use another device to change your passwords on all your social media platforms.
“Then give the compromised device to an expert to run anti-virus check for malware infestation that might have caused the device to misbehave.”
Meanwhile, he also advised phone users to wipe their devices with moist cloth or wipes, as part of the safety measures against virus infection, such as the Corona virus (COVID-19).
