Information technology experts are angry with the manner, especially, the Federal Government handles issues related to IT security in the country, as the trend at the global level remains worrisome.

The experts under the umbrella of Information Technology Systems and Security Professionals (ITSSP), the Infotech security group of the Nigeria Computer Society (NCS) at its inaugural roundtable conference, emphasized that the government, apart from getting its policy sets right, must eschew nepotism, engage professionals with the right tools and review the educational curriculum, as basic steps to address the challenges.

Apparently, the experts bemoaned the lukewarm attitude in government in spite the escalating IT security breaches.

Notable breached in 2014 include the eBay, which affected about 145 million members; Michaels Stores which reported that 2.6 million payment card numbers and expiration dates and 400,000 at Aaron Brothers could have been obtained in an attack; Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services where the server hosting names, addresses, dates of birth and Social Security numbers on roughly 1.3 million people were attacked; and the latest being Sony Corporation where over 77 million playstation network users where affected, spanning an attack that started in 2011.

“In Nigeria, such cases,” according to Wilfred Mamah, a representative of Accenture, “are not even reported for fear of ‘reputational lose’, but the truth is that companies, especially banks are losing a lot’.  

Meanwhile, Mr. Rogba Adeoye, president of ITSSP and a fellow of NCS, said, even the financial sector is much more abreast and ahead of the public sector in terms of data security; because they are safeguarding their investments.

“It ought not to be. Our discussion is basically on the policy thrust that concerns data or information security in the country. In the government of Obasanjo there was a little hype about the national identity card. It failed woefully. Today, the similar experience is been witnessed with INEC’s PVC; NCC’s SIM registration.

“So, do we continue to just take the calamity as they come and go? However, we have many pluses which can be attributed to the professionals. The economic coordinating minister told the country that we have saved N160bn following the singular act of moving the payroll of government to e-platform. Today, there is something called EMV coiled from Euro, MasterCard and Visa collaboration. In other words, our chip and pin cards are even more secured that the slide cards used in places like USA.

“We want to hear from our people like NITDA; what are they doing as a framework to drive the security aspects of government’s IT projects. While the private sector has the Chief Information Security Officers, I don’t know the one responsible in Nigeria”, he said.

Adeoye regretted that the professionals represented by the Computer Professionals (Registration Council) of Nigeria (CPN), were being neglected by the government during the articulation ad execution of IT related projects by the government.

“Government is guilty of not seeking CPN’s input in the recruitment of IT managers in its various agencies. Tribalism and ethnicity are still the orders of the day in the recruitment processes and not really professional competencies and efficiencies. These have to stop for us to move forward as a nation. All agencies of the government like INEC, I can’t say if the chief director of IT is an IT expert; even the director at the Presidency or NITDA. The only time I can be sure is when the person’s name appears in the CPN’s list. That is what the CPN Act says.

On his part, Mr Chris Uwaje, the past president of the Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON), said that information technology security lapses in the country should be a concern to all

He said, “Of course, as the past president of ITAN and ISPON, we are deeply concerned with respect to how we can position Nigeria into a very competitive and secured environment, especially within the content of information technology development in Nigeria.

“Riding on this premise of concern, indeed, the professionals are not just concerned, we are involved in engaging in the domain; we are really going to ask, ‘what are we securing?’”.

Going by the constitutional norms of Nigeria, within the Article 33 of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (FRN), the Government is expected to secure the lives and property within the sovereignty.

Nodding in agreement, Uwaje said, “Within that mandate, automatically, IT systems and professionals have a lot of works to do. Now, we are talking about, ‘what tools do you need to secure them?’ When we look at the trends, we will start to appreciate the enormity of the challenges before us. We are also looking at domain security, because if you want to appreciate the network ties in the world: be it in aural, image, symbol, aesthetics, compacted in digital form or analogue or indeed, in future, in quantum form; because the world is moving from digital competition to quantum computing. All this things should be looked at wholistically, so that we can move forward.

Significantly, if you look at the power of security in a nation, government takes a chunk of that responsibility. If you can secure the information circle within your government; because that is the root that gives life to the society, then, you will be able to secure the economy for the people; secure importation, exportation, etc.

“This is because government gives life to banks, education, indeed, every institution through licencing. I want to believe that government has done well by ensuring that we have a policy on National Information Communication Technology. It has done well in recognizing the enormity of the challenges by ensuring that professionals in the field should have significant role to play by the passage of the CPN Act. This Act must be followed thoroughly to ensure that we have a role to play.

“My concern is that we need to start building, not just professionals, rather information security champions. These champions might, probably, not just be professionals themselves, rather friends of the professionals. They could be investors, philanthropists, who would say ‘we want to secure the government environment’, we want to make sure that the professionals are funded’, ‘we want to sure there are commensurate tools to enable them become more productive and performs. Thus, we should be able to have patrons of information technology security system professionals. We need to articulate how to reach out to them to ensure the voice of our country is heard at the global level”.

The professionals also want Government to address issues such as capacity building; infrastructural development and management; institutional framework; financial content and risk management analysis, as the judiciary must be abreast of the contemporary issues on IT domain.

At this juncture, Jide Awe, chairman, Publicity, Events and Trade Services Committee, said that the roundtable is long over-due, because the trends at the international front should tell everyone that information security is becoming quiet sever.

“The Sony issue is one among them. The hackers are even threatening that they are still going to do some other things. That is a very sophisticated environment, still, it tells us that we should be prepared. We are talking about the achievements we have had at the online platforms like the cashless programme. However, there are issues that if they come up now our people will desert such platforms. These are new opportunities, developments with new challenges. It is very important that proffer solutions and think ahead.

“Just like Mr Uwaje has alluded to it; we should understand that information or data security is about national security. We are depending on our ATMs, PoS, and other e-payment channels. He mentioned government too as taking the large part of the pie; for most of us that are not directly interfacing with the government rather with the financial sector and we know that it is going to be a severe damage should we do not have water-tight security measures.

“One of the areas I think we should look at, even though the first lady has tried to do something about it: the Child Online Protection (COP). I believe ITSSP can come up with policies frameworks; when you talk about information security, NITDA needs to be on alert too.

“Also, what is our culture, in terms of information security? How can we get our IT priorities right: enterprise development, local contents, software and other areas begging for attention.

To Dr. Niran Oyekale, chairman/ CEO, Commit Technology & Consult, foundation matters a lot. 

He said, “We have to look at IT as a global issue, but the manner we have been going about it in Nigeria has been sort of localization. Every problem in the IT domain should not be viewed as just a local concern. I want to re-emphasis that the problems of IT require global solutions.

In his contribution, Dr. Akinseye Damilola, chairman, NCS Lagos Chapter, said, “If we look at IT for development three components are basically involved: technology, services and policies. As long as we put these items into use, there is need for us to have solid regulatory framework, which brings us to politics and policies of government. If we look at the recent happenings like in Australia, IT was deeply involved.

“The whole thing is that they even used the media to communicate. The IT security in that environment surpasses what we have in Nigeria; look at the happenings in Pakistan, six terrorists were communicating with their mastermind somewhere. And then, IT was seriously involved. The issue is that back home, we do not have solid regulatory framework and that has been a serious concern.

“The judiciary cannot be exonerated too. As we speak, if you take a case on IT to court, you will be having some difficulties, because somebody will tell you that the laws are not there to checkmate the issues. Internationally, some Nigerians go to do some e-business; they feel comfortable running back because when they get here they have safe haven. The laws are there and you can be easily be dealt with, but here it is still not enough. We must ensure the laws are right, if we are serious about having security in place. We implore the government to look at that critically”, he said.