Nigeria to redouble cyber crime fight
GOVERNMENT
| March 14, 2012, 9:02 a.m.
With cyber crime now costing the world over USD114 billion, Nigeria’s NCC has given the assurance that it is doubling its efforts to crack down on this form of crime.
Speaking at a conference on Regulatory Imperative for Cybercrime and Cyber Security in Nigeria, the Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC), Engr Eugene Juwah, said his agency had dedicated a new department to tackle cyber crime.
His statement noted: “The NCC has created a new department called New Media and Information Security to fight against cybercrime.”
Muhammed Rudman, Chief Executive of the Nigeria Internet Exchange Point, said this month that cyber crime costs global economies USD114 billion in stolen money and the cost of resolving attacks. He said cyber crime had become bigger than the global black market in marijuana, cocaine and heroin combined.
ICT Minister Omobola Johnson says there is evidence that cyber criminals are already exploiting vulnerabilities and loopholes in national and regional legislation.
Nigeria’s lower house said earlier this year that the government was giving due attention to the cyber crime problem, and that the country’s cyber security bill will be passed into law this year.
The chairman of the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Committee at the Nigerian House of Representatives, Hon. Ibrahim Shehu Gusau, said that the National Assembly was working to ensure that the cyber security bill was passed into law before the end of this year’s legislative session.
