Stakeholders in the fight against cybercrime have lamented over the continued delay in passing the cybersecurity bill into law by the national assembly as the tenure of the current legislators is coming to an end.
Obadare Adewale, chief operating officer, Digital Encode, an information security management and assurance services provider, lamented that the delay in the passage of the bill by both houses of the national assembly has created a vacuum in the prosecution of cyber criminals in the country.
He noted that the frequency of cyber-attack in the country has risen and requires a coordinated effort by both professional and pressure groups to pressurize the national assembly to expedite action to ensure that the bill is passed and the president signing it into law.
It would be recalled that the upper house of the national assembly (The Senate) has passed the bill and it waiting the lower house (House of Representative) to pass it before it is forwarded to the president for signing.
Tobechi Ndubuaku, chief operating officer, Tobeit Consulting, organizers of annual Hackcess conference – a cybersecurity conference, said that the country needs to act fast in making sure that the bill becomes law to save Nigerians from the menace hackers.
Chris Uwaje, former president, Institute Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON) and advocate of cyber security had warned that cyber terrorism is real and must be taken serious.
Uwaje called for the setting up of “ethical hackers” to protect networks by hacking and stealing vital information and later returning them to show their vulnerability.