Signal Alliance IT Roundtable Focuses Attention On Secured, Online Nigeria

The Signal Alliance in its national IT security roundtable has advocated for a national consciousness on the security implication of moving the nation online to ensure Nigerian businesses, institutions and individuals going online enjoy the great benefits of a truly online nation.

The roundtable which was sponsored by Cisco is part of the Signal Alliance 2016 Customer Week activities.

Adanma Onuegbu, CEO Signal Alliance said, “While Nigeria is racing to bridge the broad band divide and move its citizens online, there are challenges individuals, companies and governments face as they move online. This roundtable was convened to look at how an online Nigeria can be a safe place for individuals, companies and governments can work and transact safely while online. It was a great session as we brought different segments of the society from technology experts, corporates, service provider, government and users into a room and the brainstorming brought in perspectives that as a nation we must be aware of, as we inevitably move online. We will definitely continue pushing this theme to ensure that Nigeria online is safer than the current state of our national security”.

It is a fact that in the last 5 years Nigeria online presence has increased tremendously. People, businesses and government institutions have moved online, with great benefits to individuals, companies and even government. For those that have moved most of their operations online the benefits have been immense.

There is increase in communication, collaboration, financial inclusion and poverty reduction. But there are dangers.

Fraud, Data sovereignty, Critical data loss. Identify theft, and Privacy. The Security Roundtable with the theme, ‘Securing an Online Nigeria’ brought various stakeholders to discuss the security implication of Nigeria increase activities online.

According to Yinka Ntia, Signal Alliance Chief Technology Officer, “The forum also identified some security challenges. These include; lack of re-orientation to the risks and threats of going online, lack of responsibility of personal digital footprint, lack of general awareness on best security practices, businesses still do not see security as a business process, but rather see it as an organizational unit’s responsibility, and the public sector still sees manual processes as more secure and are averse to going online for said reasons.”

The Roundtable had in attendance leading experts from financial institutions, Cloud providers, manufacturing, Technology service provides, regulations, the press and IT security experts.

In the communique released after the event, the following decisions were reached.

There is need to create more awareness among individuals on security issues, and they should be taught to take more personal responsibilities as it relates to cyber security. The CIOs and CSOs in corporate organizations should collaborate more on security issues by sharing information; they should also have a corporate security framework, and at the board level security should be given top priority. There was advocacy for a national Cybersecurity Awareness, the strengthening of data privacy law, and the need to address the dearth of adequate capacity in the IT security profession.

Founded in 1996, Signal Alliance is a top class, outstanding IT service provider, and an end-to-end system integrator. Signal Alliance builds enterprise technology systems that help companies transact safely both online and offline. Signal Alliance customers are found in all sectors of the economy.