Lt.-Gen Tukur Buratai, chief of Army Staff, has inaugurated the Nigerian Army Cyber Warfare Command, a new corps to protect its data/network against cyber-attack and curb terrorism.

 

He also launched an app that Nigerian citizens can download to pass information to the military authorities.

 

Buratai said the Cyber Operations Centre, at the army headquarters in Abuja, would also boost the army’s online presence in the fight against fake news targeted at it with counter narratives and cyber operations.

 

He added that “cyber warfare is the fifth domain of warfare after Land, Sea, Air and Space. Therefore, this project would not have come at a better time than now.”

 

Buratai, therefore, stressed the need for the army to embark on data protection and Information Warfare to curb online radicalisation, as well as other terrorist activities perpetrated on the internet.

 

 

According to him, the intrinsic features of cyberspace can be easily exploited for information warfare by actors with malicious intent to plant and disseminate fake news and instruct paid users to spread online manipulated content.

 

“This is done to degrade debates with diverging truths, deceive, distract and misinform public opinion.

 

“This can eventually disorient and corroborate a sense of doubt among the public, or shape the opinion of a specific target audience on a certain issue.

 

“Hostile actors in cyberspace are also willing and capable of leveraging the variety of tools allowed by computer network operations and computational propaganda to influence public opinion to a degree that old-fashioned Psychology Operations could only dream of.

 

“The above statement accurately demonstrates the real threat of information warfare and the need to combat it with information knowledge.”

 

The army chief charged personnel of the new corps which he said was first in Africa, to equip themselves with digital forensics capabilities to be able to handle cases of identity theft and generate immediate incidence response.

He added that “furthermore, I encourage you to routinely survey the dark web/darknet and carry out analysis that may help the Nigerian army to be proactive in the cyber realm.”

 

Buratai noted that in recent times, the military had been inundated with several complaints regarding claims bothering on the unprofessional conducts of some of its personnel in the field.

 

Consequently, he said, the army took it upon itself to create an avenue for the public to submit complaints and information directly to the appropriate authority without third party interference.

 

He said “the avenue is an application that will allow users to relay information anonymously to the Nigerian Army.

 

“It enables citizens to give timely information to the army, thereby facilitating quick response.

 

“Additionally, crimes against the constitution perpetrated by serving personnel can be directly reported to the army, while keeping the person involved abreast with actions taken as regards a submitted complain.

 

“The link to the application will be publicly available on the Nigerian Army Facebook page, while the application can be assessed through our website and on apps freely available on various app stores.”

 

The chief of army staff added that users could submit a report, as well as attach uploads that would aid the authority in carrying out necessary actions.

Digital security provider Gemalto has released the latest findings of the Breach Level Index, a global database of public data breaches.

According to a press release, 945 data breaches resulted in 4.5 billion data records compromised worldwide in the first half of 2018. This represents an increase of 133 percent in the number of records stolen compared with the same period in 2017.

During the first six months of 2018, more than 25 million records were compromised or exposed every day. Only 1 percent of stolen, lost or compromised records were encrypted, a 1.5 percent decline in encrypted records year over year.

Six social media breaches — including the Cambridge Analytica-Facebook incident — accounted for more than 56 percent of records compromised.

Almost 15 billion data records have been exposed since 2013, when the Breach Level Index began benchmarking publicly disclosed data breaches, according to the release.

North America still makes up the largest percentage of breaches and compromised records, at 59 and 72 percent, respectively. The United States is the most popular target for attacks, accounting for more than 57 percent of global breaches and 72 percent of all records stolen.

Europe saw 36 percent fewer incidents but a 28 percent increase in the number of records breached, indicating growing severity of attacks. The United Kingdom remains the most breached country in the region.

Nigerian Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector has continued to grow beyond bookmakers’ predictions.

 

However, despite the high number of ICT professionals in Nigeria, adequate attention has not been given to the issue of developing and building local contents.

 

Recently, it was reported that some ministries will be spending a significant part of their budget on the importation of foreign software.

 

This is amidst concerns over wastage and penchant for technology importation of locally available technologies.

 

Worried stakeholders in the sector have urged the federal government to do everything in its powers to support local content in ICT.

 

Chris Uwaje, Director General, Delta State Innovation Hub, called on federal government to create national strategy on software development as well create a park where people can work and come out with productive output.

 

He noted that Nigerian technology space is underfunded and unprotected and thereby urged the government to ensure that 10% of its national budget is earmarked for the development of ICT sector in the country.

 

He explained that local content development is a topical issue in the country, stressing that local content is when a product is developed in Nigeria by Nigerians or anywhere else in the world but the product does not require foreign remittance.

 

Uwaje, commended Systemspecs for developing Treasury Single Account for the federal government, noting that they deserve national merit award for harmonizing government accounts into one.

 

He also called on government to build knowledge labs in our schools to ensure bottom up growth for our children in ICT development.

 

Nodding in agreement, Dr Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, director general, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), assured stakeholders at a recent event that his agency will encourage local software.

 

“I assure you that NITDA will do all it can within its powers to ensure no single kobo of the Federal Government will be spent on acquiring technology that local and capable alternatives exist.

 

“We have charged our local content office (ONC) to continue to be vigilant in surveillance and to be agile in driving enforcement of the Guidelines for Nigerian Content Development in ICT.