‘5000 ethical hackers required to beef up Nigeria’s cyberspace’

The former President, Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON), Dr Chris Uwaje gave the hint in a chat on predictions in Nigeria Information Technology in 2015.Uwaje who is also the Chairman of Connect Technologies, a leading indigenous software development company said the nation is in urgent need of ethical hackers and cyber-warriors to tackle […]

The former President, Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON), Dr Chris Uwaje gave the hint in a chat on predictions in Nigeria Information Technology in 2015.
Uwaje who is also the Chairman of Connect Technologies, a leading indigenous software development company said the nation is in urgent need of ethical hackers and cyber-warriors to tackle both cases of cyber threats emanating from within and outside Nigeria.
Ethical hackers are professionally certified individuals with necessary expertise to defend and protect IT infrastructure of an organisation against nefarious activities of cyber criminals or hackers.
He explained that losses being recorded by organisations in Nigeria were colossal; though affected organisations hardly want such cases revealed because of the image problem public knowledge of such cases may have on the victims.
According to him, “Banks have been losing money to cyber criminals for a long time. Truth is, no one really knows how much! But, phishing, spam and malware statistics from cyber space show that organisations are losing to these cases of cyber threats. Nigerian banks have lost about N159 billion to cyber crime, according to information from the Nigeria Inter-bank Settlement Systems (NIBSS) through Automated Teller Machine and e-fraud attacks.”
He said the security of the cyber space could only be done, if IT local content is given a special attention and empowered.
His words, “How will Nigeria respond if the nation’s Internet gateway is hacked and disabled (outage) for 24 hours during a business working day? Twenty four hours in Internet time zone amounts to colossal man-years! Within that time-space, there will be expensive pandemonium at many critical levels be it government, business, financial transactions, crude oil movement, stock exchange, aviation, communication, social media and many more. Indeed, how easy is it to hack and how difficult is it to defend?.”
Uwaje noted that Nigeria currently does not have the required “cyber-warriors to defend the nation as well as restore life activities on the internet.
He disclosed that “As we develop the broadband to reach the under-served, habour and accelerate more content, we must ensure that we can secure and control that superhighway. All the above translates into developing and taking two critical actions in 2015: First is to develop a comprehensive National IT Framework Bill and establish a distinct National Software Strategy and policy direction, incorporating the establishment of the ‘Office of the Information Technology General of the Federation. Secondly, we need to rework the computer science curriculum and retool all our IT lectures at all levels of education.”
Uwaje stressed that all the above factors are crucial to fabricate a solid and sustainable foundation for IT in Nigeria.
He however, stated that 2015 would drive e-payment forward in Nigeria, in spite of all the challenges as online shopping culture continues to promote the outsourcing ecosystem and yield more employment space for the economy.