E-Business
Cybersecurity Experts Urge Capacity Building for Cyber Defense
Cyber security experts in the country, have urged the federal government to create a world class capacity as well as develop and train personnel to protect the nation’s infrastructure from cyber-attacks.
This is against the backdrop of several reports pointing at increase in cyber- attacks this year.
Oluseyi Akindeinde, chief technical officer, Digital Encode, emphasized on the need to set up a national Cyber security operations / digital forensics center across the country to be manned by competent people.
“This will need a high level of technical skills and technology resources if we are to combat cyber intrusions”.
This is coming in line with cyber security risk report published at the ongoing World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos.
According to the annual Global Risks Perception Survey (GRPS), cyber threats are growing in prominence, with large-scale cyber-attacks now ranked third in terms of likelihood, while rising cyber dependency is ranked as the second most significant driver shaping the global risks landscape over the next 10 years.
“Geopolitical friction is contributing to a surge in the scale and sophistication of cyber-attacks. At the same time cyber exposure is growing as firms are becoming more dependent on technology,” said John Drzik, president of Global Risk and Digital at Marsh, which partnered with the WEF on the report.
“While cyber risk management is improving, business and government need to invest far more in resilience efforts if we are to prevent the same bulging ‘protection’ gap between economic and insured losses that we see for natural catastrophes.”
‘Cyber attacks’ come in third place when looking at the five risks most likely to happen in the next 10 years. The top risk was ‘extreme weather events’, followed by ‘natural disasters’ and ‘data fraud or theft’ was the fourth most likely risk to come to fruition.
The annual report, released ahead of the annual WEF meeting in Davos, Switzerland this week, showed cyber security risks are also growing, both in prevalence and disruptive potential.
“Attacks against businesses have almost doubled in five years, and incidents that would once have been considered extraordinary are becoming more and more commonplace.”
The financial impact of cyber security breaches is rising, and some of the largest costs in 2017 related to ransomware attacks, which accounted for 64% of all malicious e-mails, WEF said.
More so, Akindeinde, frowned at the practice of none disclosure of cyber-attacks by organisations especially financial institutions.
“Banks and financial institutions need to come clean on cyber security issues as well as electronic fraud. There’s need to collaboration so as to bring an end to this menace,” he said.
Ahmed Adesanya, IT Security and Connectivity consultant, urged the National assembly to insert a tougher penalty in the cyber-crime act review, for non-disclosure of any cyber-attack by any government or private organization.
Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) has launched an investigation into allegations that the confidentiality and integrity of candidates’ personal data may have been compromised by hackers.
The Commission initiated the inquiry following concerns over possible data breaches during examinations.
Preliminary findings indicate that several examination centres may not have implemented adequate technical and organizational measures to safeguard candidates’ personal information, as required under data protection regulations.
Although the incident reportedly affected 379, 997 candidates, the NDPC’s investigation is poised to cover a systemic audit of data processing and third parties.
It will be recalled that JAMB recently admitted that a technical error on its platform affected a total of 379,997 candidates in 157 examination centres across Lagos and the South-East.
Further investigation led to the arrest of at least 20 suspects who are currently in the custody of the Department of State Services and the Nigerian Police Force.
Cyber security firm, Kaspersky, has once again warned that sophisticated cybercriminals increasingly target Africa as ransomware and advanced persistent threats (APTs) escalate across the region.
Speaking at the company’s annual Cyber Security Weekend for the Middle East, Turkiye and Africa (META) region, the cybersecurity firm’s Global Research and Analysis Team highlighted growing digital threats affecting African nations.
Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa emerged as hotspots, with Kenya recording one of the highest web threat incident rates at 20.1% in first quarter 2025.
“While ransomware is less prevalent in Africa due to lower levels of digitisation and economic constraints, countries like South Africa and Nigeria are seeing a sharp rise in attacks,” said Sergey Lozhkin, head of META and APAC regions at Kaspersky.
Kaspersky noted a 0.01 percentage point increase in African ransomware cases year-on-year, reaching 0.41%, still below global and Middle Eastern averages, but a troubling sign for the continent’s emerging digital infrastructure.
Experts warned that attackers are refining their tactics, shifting focus to unconventional entry points like IoT devices, smart appliances, and misconfigured hardware.
“As these economies expand digitally, sectors such as manufacturing, finance and government are becoming key targets,” said Lozhkin
The cyber-crime landscape is evolving quickly, fuelled by AI tools and dark web access to large language models, which enable less skilled actors to launch convincing phishing and malware campaigns.
Groups like FunkSec, which uses AI-generated code and a low-cost ransom model, are redefining ransomware operations.
“African organisations face the dual challenge of expanding digital footprints and limited cybersecurity awareness. This makes layered defense strategies, including network segmentation, real-time monitoring and regular staff training, essential,” stated Lozhkin
Kaspersky continues to monitor 25 active APT groups in the META region, including SideWinder and MuddyWater, some of which are known to target African institutions.
To bolster defenses, the firm recommends using tools such as its free Anti-Ransomware Tool for Business and the Kaspersky Next suite for threat visibility and response.
Nigeria recently launched a new joint case team to step up its response to cybercrimes that affect people and businesses at home and abroad.
The ‘Joint Case Team on Cybercrime’ brings together Nigeria’s key justice and security agencies to work as one, making it easier to detect, investigate, and prosecute digital offences.
It is supported by the UK National Crime Agency, the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, and the Commonwealth Secretariat, as part of a wider effort to promote international cooperation on cybercrime.
Speaking at the launch in Abuja, Prince Lateef Fagbemi SAN, minister of justice and attorney general of the federation described the initiative as “a bold and transformative stride in Nigeria’s justice system.”
He said that although Nigeria has a national legal framework to address cyber offences, laws alone are not enough.
Nigeria is among the countries most affected by cybercrime around the world, with increasing financial losses.
NDPC Probes Suspected Data Breach in Examination Centres
Airtel’s AI Spam Alert Flags 9.6m Spam Attempts
Vitel Wireless Completes Interconnectivity with all Major Telcos in Nigeria
Nigeria Approves $500m for AfDB’s Trust Fund Replenishment over Next 15 Years
Nigeria Among Hotspots as Kaspersky Warns of Rising Ransomware Threat in Africa
E-Business2 days agoNigeria Launches Cybercrime Team with Commonwealth, UK Support
Telecom2 days agoTelecom Subscribers Decline By 43m in One Year
Telecom2 days agoNCC Orders Telcos to Compensate Subscribers for Outages More than 24 Hours
E-Financial2 days agoSERAP Drags CBN to Court over Alleged Failure to Disclose LG Allocations
General News2 days agoHEDA Sues FG, Oil Giants over Alleged Unlawful Oil Licence Transfer
Telecom2 days agoIHS Nigeria, NSCDC Partner to Protect Telecoms Infrastructure
Telecom1 day agoEngr. Ikechukwu Nnamani Receives Two Prestigious @ABoICT Awards
Telecom1 day agoFG to Deploy 80 Percent of 7000 Telecom Towers to North