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ITSSP Amplifies its Voice on Critical Cyber Security Issues Mitigating smooth ICT Development

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The Information Technology Systems and Security Professionals (ITSSP) is  set  to address critical cyber security issues mitigating smooth development of information security in Nigeria.

 

Professor Adesina Sodiya, President, Information Technology Systems and Security Professionals (ITSSP) disclosed this on tuesday during a press conference meant to address critical cyber security issues mitigating smooth development of information security in Nigeria.

 

Sodiya, bemoans business owners for their unwilling to invest in basic security management and control systems, and assumes  that the IT department will take care of any security issues that may arise.

 

He emphasized that it is important for the organisations to understand the nature of threats against their businesses and the impact of a breach on production, finances, intellectual property and reputation.

 

He said, “Organizations must continuously monitor their networks and have the ability to detect and mitigate intrusions as quickly as possible.

 

“Every organisation must develop information security policies, procedures and plans; and these need to be updated regularly and enforced to help keep pace with the constantly evolving threat landscape. Human beings are often the weakest link”.

 

According to Prof. Sodiya, an extremely high proportion of attacks involve social engineering approach.

 

“Many Nigerians, and even people all over the world, are still increasingly fallen victims of socially engineered attacks.

 

“In 2016, there are records that financial institutions in Nigeria faced Distributed Denial of Service Attacks (DDoS).

 

“This confirms that online activities are not completely secured.

 

“Security awareness and training are therefore indispensable.

 

“Attackers may be using customized attacks, but operating methods typically remain the same.

 

“Looking ahead at the future, security will probably be established by balancing controls and risks to produce scalable and flexible strategies.

 

“More persistent internal monitoring and sharing of security intelligence are necessary for a more effective security approach.

 

“For a security strategy to be workable for the present and the long terms, it is important to look ahead.

 

“Organizations tend to focus on reacting to security threats rather than being proactive.

 

“Functioning in this way provides no future growth in the adoption of the security framework.

 

“It is essential that organizations remain flexible and adaptable to achieve the long term security benefits.

 

“The organizations current security state, relative to the risk they are willing to take and effective security alignment will determine the achievable desired security posture for the future”.

 

Vice President of ITSSP, Liberty Echewodoh, highlighted the need to understand that information security in not only about firewalls, antivirus software and passwords.

 

“Information security is a continuous process that requires modern approaches and persistent management.

 

Collaborative strategy and efficient practices are required in protecting valuable assets of organisation to achieve major security goals of confidentiality, integrity and availability (CIA)”, he said.

 

Meanwhile, Professor Sodiya, added that in the light of the above, it will then require inter-professional expertise and collaboration from IT Security Experts, Investigation officers, Prosecuting officers, Lawyers, Judges and Courts with enough experience to adjudicate in any judicial resolution that involves e-driven activities.

 

“It is therefore an enormous task to focus on capacity building and sustainability in an environment that is embracing multi-facet e-services like ours without equal amount of energy geared towards developing necessary structures.

 

He listed the challenges as:

In financial sector, the enormity of fraudulent activities going on daily as being reported periodically by the Fraud Forum Unit of CBN is alarming.

 

The Central Bank of Nigeria, the Courts, and Federal Bureau of Statistics cannot provide sufficient data that can mitigate such activities adequately.

 

Some banks also experienced distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack in the last two years.

 

More and more individuals and organisations continue to experience different levels and types of cyber-attacks in Nigeria.

 

It has been forecasted that the next world war will be fought in the cyberspace. How prepared are we?

 

There is now cold cyber war all over the world.

“Do we have well experience information security experts in various organization?

|What is the level of cyber readiness in various organization?

 

“Where is IT Security Policy for National, State, Agencies, Higher Institutions of learning, as well as coordinating strategies; Media houses both Print and Electronics are not left out because they currently depend on e-platforms to function effective nowadays”.

 

In view of the above, ITSSP calls for full Implementation of the Cybercrime Act 2018; “Professional bodies should be included in the Council”, the President said.

 

“ITSSP calls for efficient and coordinated Computer Emergency Response (CERT).

 

“The Cyber Security Act that domicile in National Security Adviser’s office should create a civil arm of Cyber Security in executing its mandate like (Computer Emergency Response Team ‘CERT Nigeria’) with the professional agencies such as NITDA, CPN, Nigeria Computer Society (NCS), NBA where civilian population can easily relate, because the NSA is currently being viewed as arm forces affairs only.

 

“Strong Collaboration with relevant government agencies. In order to effectively curb the menace of cyber criminals in Nigeria, we seek strong collaboration with relevant stakeholders like CBN, NIRA, NCC, NPF, ICPC, EFCC, NITDA, NBA and banking institutions in Nigeria.

 

“Relevant government security agencies like Nigeria Police Force (NPF),   Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission   (ICPC), Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), and National Identity Management Commission (NIMC).

 

“There is need for adequate and accurate cybercrime data and statistics in the country.

 

“The system for realising this should be developed and maintained by ITSSP. ITSSP will develop an intelligent incident handling system.

 

“Support for capacity building in all areas of Information Security.

 

“NITDA and other stakeholders should support the development of high level skill in Information Technology.

 

“Of greatest importance is capacity building in this area, the Cyber Crime Art of 2015 in trying to address this established a fund for such development to be managed by its board.

 

“As it is now, this fund account is yet to be opened not to talk of collecting fund into it despite the fact that the Board had been in existence for over a year; just like NITDA also set up Information Security Department saddle with responsibility of Cyber Security.

 

“Civil arm of Cyber security coordination to complement what was done by NSA.

 

Mr. Rogba Adeoye,  ITSSP National Secretary, In his contribution, said that all stakeholders must join and cooperate in fighting the cyber security warfare.

 

“We need to be proactive and not only reactive. We need to rapidly promote and develop information security in Nigeria”, he said.

 

Information Technology Systems and Security Professionals (ITSSP) is an information security group of the Nigeria Computer Society, with the major goal of promoting and developing Information Security in Nigeria.


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Ugo Onwuaso is an ICT enthusiast. He believes technology should be used for general good. He holds a Master of Public Administration (MPA) degree from the Lagos state University. Dear Reader, Your support matters. But we believe that technology makes life more exciting and helps improve the lives of people around Nigeria and indeed the world. That is why, we have devoted our energy to independent reportage of technology and finance and how they affect lives. Our incisive and analytical view of how technology news affects the daily life help individuals and organizations make up their minds. Quality journalism costs money. Today, we're asking that you support us to do more. Kindly support our effort to deliver technology and finance journalism to everyone in the world. Donate as little as N1,000. Bank transfers can be made to: UBA Plc 1017156876 Communication Week Media Ltd

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Telcos Resume SIM Card Sales after 2-Week Halt

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Telecommunications operators have resumed full SIM swap and related services following a four-week nationwide outage linked to the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC)’s migration to a new verification platform.

Telcos Resume SIM Card Sales after 2-Week Halt

The outage rendered millions of subscribers unable to perform SIM-related tasks such as swaps, replacements, and activations.

Operators in the industry say the disruption began on June 26, 2025 when telcos temporarily halted SIM registrations and swaps due to unforeseen technical challenges during the transition to NIMC’s upgraded identity verification system.

The migration was mandated to enhance the integrity and efficiency of national identity management but caused major service interruptions across all Nigerian networks.

However, July 21, both MTN and Airtel confirmed via their social media handles that SIM swap services have now fully resumed.

MTN announced: “SIM swaps have now resumed. We can confirm that NIMC services are fully operational and appreciate their support in the migration to a new platform for NIN verification services for the telecommunications industry.

In a public update issued via its MTN Nigeria Support handle on X (formerly Twitter), MTN confirmed that SIM swaps have now resumed.

Telecom operators complained that the portal was unreliable or inaccessible, which resulted in the suspension of SIM swaps, number porting, and new SIM registrations, even though NIMC maintained that the platform was operating as intended.

Unexpected technical difficulties arose during the switch to the new platform, according to the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria.

Real-time NIN verification for SIM registration, replacement, and network migration was impacted by these issues.

“Unexpected technical difficulties have surfaced, impacting real-time NIN verification for SIM registration, replacement, and porting, following a recent directive from the National Identity Management Commission mandating Mobile Network Operators to transit to a new identity verification platform,” ALTON stated in a previous joint statement signed by Gbenga Adebayo, chairman, and Damian Udeh, publicity secretary.

 


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Nigeria, Others Achieve 84% Adult Mobile Phones Penetration

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The World Bank has affirmed that 84 per cent of adults in low-and middle-income economies, including Nigeria, own personal mobile phones.

The bank in its Global Findex 2025 report said mobile phone ownership was widespread and nearly everywhere. It said data from the Global Findex 2025 Digital Connectivity Tracker, revealed that “86 per cent of adults worldwide, and 84 per cent of adults in low- and middle-income economies, own personal mobile phones.”

The report pointed out that mobile phones and the internet had become widespread and essential to daily life in every economy around the world.

A earlier overview had indicated that Nigeria had a high mobile phone penetration rate, with estimates around 85 per cent to 87 per cent in 2024.

This translates to over 200 million mobile connections, making Nigeria a leading market in Africa for mobile phone ownership and usage. While the overall penetration is high, there’s a growing trend towards smartphone adoption, with forecasts predicting over 140 million smartphone users by 2025.

According to DataReporter, a total of 150 million cellular mobile connections were active in Nigeria in early 2025, with this figure equivalent to 64.0 per cent of the total population.

However, note that some of these connections may only include services such as voice and SMS, and some may not include access to the internet.

There were 107 million individuals using the internet in Nigeria at the start of 2025, when online penetration stood at 45.4 percent. Nigeria was home to 38.7 million social media user identities in January 2025, equating to 16.4 percent of the total population.

These headline stats offer a great overview of the “state of digital” in Nigeria at the start of 2025, but in order to make sense of how digital trends and behaviours have been evolving over time, we need to dig deeper into the data.

According to the World Bank, “as of 2024, individual ownership of mobile phones reached 86 per cent of adults worldwide.

“For many people, barely an hour goes by without their using a mobile device to make a call, ext a friend, read the news, access business information, post a meme on social media, pay for something, play a game, engage with a colleague or a customer, or search for information.

“As access to and use of digitally connected technologies increase, people, businesses, and governments place an increasingly high priority on online interactions. “Digitally connected technologies have clear, well-documented benefits.”

It further highlighted that access to mobile phones and the internet was associated with reduced poverty, increased consumption, and more employment for individuals in lowand middle-income economies.

“Women also experience these benefits, as internet access enables access to flexible jobs3 and has been shown to increase female labor force participation. “Mobile phones also facilitate information sharing.

For instance, in agricultural contexts, farmers’ access to real-time prices and buyer demand data can inform their decisions on where to sell, enhancing market efficiency and reducing the distances they would otherwise travel to get the best return for their product and time.

“Internet access also helps create jobs and aids individuals and countries in exporting goods and services,” it added. The World Bank further noted that owning a mobile phone furthermore enabled financial access through mobile money and other mobile financial services.

It added that these financial accounts and services, typically offered by mobile network operators or fintech firms and accessed via networks of local agents, were associated with lower rates of poverty, increased consumption and savings,and greater resilience to economic shocks.


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Sophos Secures Leadership Spot in 2025 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Endpoint Protection

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Sophos, a global leader of innovative security solutions for defeating cyberattacks, today announced that it has been named a Leader in the 2025 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Endpoint Protection Platforms (EPP), marking the 16th consecutive time the company has received this recognition.

Sophos has been recognized in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Endpoint Protection Platforms (EPP) since the inaugural publication for this category in 2007.

Sophos’ market-leading endpoint security solutions include Sophos Endpoint powered by Intercept X, Sophos Extended Detection and Response (EDR/XDR), and Sophos Managed Detection and Response (MDR).

Over 300,000 organizations trust Sophos endpoint security solutions to defend against cyberthreats, including advanced remote ransomware attacks and active adversaries.

Unique to Sophos, the solution includes adaptive defenses that automatically disrupt attackers by dynamically adjusting protection levels based on threat context.

“Sophos’ strength lies in its prevention-first strategy, designed to stop breaches before they start, adapt defenses in real time, and strengthen detection and response when it matters most,” said Kyle Falkenhagen, SVP, Product Management, Sophos. “We believe that receiving this recognition in the highly competitive endpoint security market for 16 consecutive reports reflects our relentless focus on developing innovative solutions that stay ahead of the global threat landscape and the adversaries we face every day.”

Sophos and Secureworks: The future of protection, detection, and response

Following Sophos’ acquisition of Secureworks in February 2025, combining two leading and complementary portfolios to offer a comprehensive suite of solutions for small, midmarket and enterprise organizations.

Secureworks Taegis XDR customers can use Sophos Endpoint to elevate their cyber defenses, at no additional charge, delivering both improved protection and return on investment.

The integration of Secureworks also adds a new Counter Threat Unit (CTU) to the Sophos X-Ops advanced threat response joint task force, further expanding the rich threat intelligence that informs all customers’ defenses.

Backed by Sophos’ advanced security technologies and a broad network of intelligence contacts and partners, the CTU plays a critical role in identifying and tracking threat actors and analyzing anomalous activity, uncovering new attack techniques, threats, and major shifts in the threat landscape.


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