Senate yesterday stated that Nigeria has lost about $450million to 3, 500 cyber-attacks on its information and communication technology, ICT space, representing over 70 per cent of hacking attempts so far on the technology in the country.
Leadership newspaper report that The senate, which relied on revelations from studies to arrive at the amount, expressed worry that the government servers are currently under serious threat.
It lamented that the ICT shortfall in Nigeria is enormous, while its cyberspace is porous and that the system lacks a well-structured and effective approach to cyber-crime control, according to the oversight findings of the Senate Committee on ICT and Cybercrime.
The Senate therefore urged the National Security Adviser, Major General Mohammed Babagana Monguno (rtd) to alert all security agencies and financial institutions about the current and threatening dimensions of cyber-attacks in the country.
It also mandated its Committee on ICT and Cybercrime to immediately convoke a National Stakeholders’ Conference on Cyber Security with a view to stimulating a collective reflection among relevant stakeholders and articulating a national and broad-based approach to keeping the country ahead of the challenges.
These were sequel to a motion, titled: “Worrisome dimension of cyber-crime and insecurity, urgent need for concerted efforts to secure Nigeria’s cyberspace”, sponsored by Senator Abdulfatai Buhari (APC Oyo North).
Leading the debate on the motion, Senator Buhari noted that “in view of voluntary and involuntary insider compromise, together with poor information technology standards in the country, Nigeria’s security and financial system could be an easy prey to the heightened threatening ramifications of e-crime.”
The lawmaker therefore affirmed that there was an urgent need to up-scale Nigeria’s consciousness towards protection of the country’s cyber-space.
Details of the motion
Worrisome Dimensions of Cybercrime and Insecurity : Urgent need for concerted efforts to secure Nigeria cyberspace.
SPONSOR: SEN. BUHARI ABDULFATAI (OYO NORTH)
THE SENATE
Notes that the positive posture of ICT revolution is being dampened by malicious activities of criminal elements in society which invade the cyberspace ,presenting risks to businesses, national economies and security such as malicious use of the social media,identity theft,electronic fraud, data damage or alteration and espionage etc;
Aware that these elements have developed several hacking technics , one of the most recent being Ransomware known as Wannacry worm or WannaCrypt which infects computer operating systems and networks, encrypts files and ask for ransom.
Worried that cyber attacks are taking a dangerous dimension all over the world , for instance the Lloyds Banking Groups and Barclays Bank of UK suffered 48 hours online attack from 11th to 13th of January this year in which the criminals attempted to block about 20 million accounts, bombarded Lloyds,Halifax and Bank of Scotland with millions of fake requests designed to grind the groups’ systems to halt and asked for a huge ransom in bit coins to end the attacks which were being prevented by the Denial of Access (DOS);
Further worried that on the 12th of May alone this year as least 200,000 targets in over 150 countries were hit by cyber attacks which Internet protocol suggested to have originated from the Middle East particularly Syria and Iran , as well as from Kenya supposedly using a malware known as Lazurus to compromise systems in banking and information networks with no clear evidence yet as to how the act was perfected and that the criminals are already targeting Nigeria;
Alarmed about revelations from studies that 70% of hacking attempts so far ie about 3500 cyber attacks on the Nigeria ICT space have been successful resulting in loss of over $450 million and that government servers are currently under serious threat;
Further alarmed about the oversight findings of the Senate Committee on ICT and Cybercrime which revealed that ICT shortfall in the country is enormous, that Nigeria ‘ s cyber space is porous and that the system lacks a well structured and effective approach to cybercrime control;
Concerned that in view of voluntary and involuntary insider compromise together with poor information technology standards in the country , Nigeria ‘ s security and financial system could be an easy prey to the heightened threatening ramifications of e-crime;
Further concerned that there is an urgent need to up scale Nigeria ‘ s consciousness towards protection of the country ‘s cyberspace;
Accordingly resolves to :
- Urge the National Security Adviser to alert all security agencies and financial institutions in the country about the current and threatening dimensions of cyber attacks ; and
- Mandate the Senate Committee on ICT and Cybercrime to immediately convoy a National Stakeholders Conference on cyber security with a view to stimulating a collective reflection among relevant stakeholders and articulating a national and broad based approach to keeping the country ahead of the challenge.
