E-Business
Olufuye Seeks Enhanced Cooperation on Internet Governance
Dr. Jimson Olufuye, chairman, Africa ICT Alliance, (AfICTA), has said that enhanced cooperation on internet governance would encourage digital inclusion of Nigeria and rest of the African sub-region.
He stated this at the just concluded United Nation Commission on Science and Technology for Development (CSTD) open consultation on enhanced cooperation on public policy pertaining to the Internet held in Geneva, Switzerland
According to the former President of Information Technology Association of Nigeria, (ITAN), enhanced cooperation (EC) was about encouraging, deepening and enriching cooperation and collaboration through dialogue on diverse public policy issues pertaining to the Internet.
He added that with enhanced cooperation, developing economies like Nigeria, will be able to climb up the ladder of development through a stable, predictable, secure and sustainable Internet governance made possible by increased North–South, South-South and North-North cooperation in many areas including removal of bottlenecks to access through increased dialogues with all stakeholders on for example IPv6 adoption.
More so, encouragement of innovation by promoting reward system, plugging gaps in the security of the Internet through increased Research and Development, enthroning the rule of law on the Internet thereby mitigating increasing crime waves on the Internet through collaborative enforcement and administration of justice, creation of Internet based jobs to tackle massive unemployment in the developing world through increased adoption of eApplications, eGovernment, eHealth, eBusiness, among others .
According to him, EC should have ramifications not only at the regional and international level but most importantly at the national level where law and policy issues emanate in tandem with the bottom up, multi-stakeholder approach to Internet Governance.
He told the gathering that his submissions above were premised on the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) Tunis agenda paragraph 34, 35 and 70.
“The WSIS Tunis agenda directs that the enhanced cooperation process should include participation by relevant international organizations, including inter-governmental, multi-stakeholder and private-sector led organizations. It is the position of the World Information Technology and Services Alliance (WITSA) – the voice of the global ICT industry, that dialogue among all stakeholders takes place continuously to sustain the momentous impact of the Internet on the global economy” he added.
He said that, so far at least 10 international organizations handling Internet policy issues have been playing leading roles in demonstrating enhanced cooperation in their operations and policy making as facilitated by the Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs and the Department of Economic and Social Affairs through its Division for Public Administration and Development Management.
The ten organizations he said are not limited to Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), International Telecommunication Union (ITU), World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), Council of Europe, Internet Society (ISOC), Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Number Resource Organization (NRO) and Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).
Of the ten organizations listed above, he informed that five are private sector led, adding that they have all enhanced their collaborative mechanism among their stakeholders with ramifications at the international, regional and national level of decision making.
“Enhanced cooperation therefore infers that existing organisations in their unique roles in the Internet ecosystem enhance their cooperation within their respective organisation and among other stakeholders with a view of building trust, stability and confidence on the Internet” he explained.
On the way forward, he quoted paragraph 71 of the Tunis agenda which clearly states that “all stakeholders” and “all relevant organizations” should be involved in the enhanced cooperation process, and provides that enhanced cooperation should be a multistakeholder process, not a governments-only process, he noted that this principle of inclusiveness is critically important to success in achieving enhanced cooperation.
As a way forward, he said that greater cooperation among existing organizations does not require the creation of new entities or processes, and that such actions could impede progress and our businesses.
According to him, the objectives of information sharing, creating more awareness, and, where appropriate, coherence in work programmes, and collaboration must guide the relevant organizations that address Internet related issues in order to facilitate enhanced cooperation.
He said that all relevant organizations, including those that are private sector-led, those that are intergovernmental (IGOs), those that represent civil society, the Internet technical and academic communities through several organizational structures and those that are multi-stakeholder are engaged in facilitating enhanced cooperation.
He said that a measuring system/ indicators be developed to measure the degree of compliance of stakeholders to Enhanced Cooperation on Public Policy issues pertaining to the Internet.
Such a measuring system, according to him, may have a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being the highest maturity level for Enhanced Cooperation on Public Policies (ECPP), adding that a multi-stakeholder group of experts can determine the parameters for the rating.
As a follow up to the above, he recommended that a yearly meeting can take place to among other things review the ratings which can be assessed by a group similar to the current IGF MAG.
Dr. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, minister of Interior, has announced the launch of an Online Visa Approval Center to eliminate bureaucratic bottlenecks and reduce corruption in the visa application process.
Commissioned by the President in December, the new system ensures that applicants no longer need to visit a visa office, know anyone in the system, or lobby for approvals.
At a stakeholders’ sensitisation workshop on the implementation of the Nigeria Visa Policy (NVP) 2025, yesterday in Abuja, Dr. Tunji-Ojo said the visa is considered a very important document by the government because it is an instrument of migration management and an instrument of economic development.
The minister explained that Nigeria has to strike a delicate balance between national security and, of course, the ease of migration.
“And we think that it’s something that we can do and something we will do.
“We don’t have a physical Visa Approval Center. If you apply for a Nigerian visa anywhere in the world, you do so online. We process it here in Nigeria, and if approved, you receive your e-visa in your email,” he explained.
To enhance efficiency, the government has set a 48-hour deadline for processing e-visas.
“It is unprofessional and unacceptable for the Nigeria Immigration Service not to approve or provide feedback within 48 hours,” the minister stated.
“It breaks my heart that people need to lobby to even get visas to Nigeria. It shouldn’t be so. It shouldn’t be.
“For anybody that is qualified, for anybody that wants to do legitimate activities in Nigeria, such people should be able to come to Nigeria easily. And this is why we are opening our space. Mr. President is interested in foreign direct investments.”
Further, he said Nigeria is interested in partnering with the rest of the world to develop its economy but, “We can’t do that when we allow bottlenecks to hold us down. So these reforms, basically, are aimed at opening our space, enhancing national security, and we hope that the primary responsibilities of the visa scheme will be achieved.”
Kemi Nandap, controller general, Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), said the NIS would fully digitize its e-visa platform and reduce visa classifications from 79 to 44 to enhance accessibility, transparency, and efficiency in the new visa policy.
She said, “At the core of this policy is the new e-visa platform—a fully digitized, centralized system that revolutionizes how foreign nationals interact with our country’s entry procedures. As part of this transformation, the Nigerian Visa Policy 2024 underwent a comprehensive review, resulting in a significant reduction in visa classifications from 79 to 44.
“These categories have been logically grouped to simplify procedures, reduce complexities, and greatly improve the user experience. Importantly, we have maintained the original purpose and intent of each visa class throughout this reform.”
Mr. Takao Shimokawa, director general, Economic Development Department at the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has visited the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) to discuss the forthcoming launch of the Nigeria-Japan Startup Hub Project.
Mr. Dejo Olawunmi, director of IT Infrastructure Solutions at NITDA and Mr. Takao Shimokawa, director general, Economic Development Department at the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)
This is in a strategic move to strengthen Nigeria’s startup ecosystem.
During his visit, Mr. Shimokawa was received by Mr. Dejo Olawunmi, director of IT Infrastructure Solutions at NITDA.
Their discussions focused on advancing technological innovation, fostering entrepreneurship, and enhancing venture capital development to support early-stage startups in Nigeria.
The Nigeria-Japan Startup Hub Project is designed to provide Nigerian startups with access to Japanese expertise, mentorship, and investment opportunities.
The initiative aims to create a collaborative environment where local entrepreneurs can scale their businesses by leveraging Japan’s advanced technology and business models.
By bridging Nigerian startups with Japanese investors and industry leaders, the project seeks to drive sustainable growth and innovation in Nigeria’s tech industry.
This partnership underscores the increasing economic and technological cooperation between the two nations, positioning Nigeria as a key player in the global startup landscape.
With the hub set to launch soon, stakeholders anticipate that it will provide critical resources for startups, enabling them to compete in the global market and contribute to Nigeria’s digital economy.
Kaspersky has identified and helped patch a sophisticated zero-day vulnerability in Google Chrome (CVE-2025-2783) that allowed attackers to bypass the browser’s sandbox protection system.
The exploit, discovered by Kaspersky’s Global Research and Analysis Team (GReAT), required no user interaction beyond clicking a malicious link and demonstrated exceptional technical complexity. Kaspersky researchers have been acknowledged by Google for discovering and reporting this vulnerability.
In mid-March 2025, Kaspersky detected a wave of infections triggered when users clicked personalised phishing links delivered via email. After clicking, no additional action was needed to compromise their systems.
Once Kaspersky’s analysis confirmed that the exploit leveraged a previously unknown vulnerability in the latest version of Google Chrome, Kaspersky swiftly alerted Google’s security team. A security patch for the vulnerability was released on March 25, 2025.
Kaspersky researchers dubbed the campaign “Operation ForumTroll”, as attackers sent personalised phishing emails inviting recipients to the “Primakov Readings” forum. These lures targeted media outlets, educational institutions, and government organisations in Russia.
The malicious links were extremely short-lived to evade detection, and in most cases ultimately redirected to the legitimate website for “Primakov Readings” once the exploit was taken down.
The zero-day vulnerability in Chrome was only part of a chain that included at least two exploits: a still-unobtained remote code execution (RCE) exploit that apparently launched the attack, while the sandbox escape discovered by Kaspersky constituted the second stage. Analysis of the malware’s functionality suggests the operation was designed primarily for espionage. All evidence points to an Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) group.
“This vulnerability stands out among the dozens of zero-days we’ve discovered over the years,” said Boris Larin, principal security researcher at Kaspersky GReAT. “The exploit bypassed Chrome’s sandbox protection without performing any obviously malicious operations – it’s as if the security boundary simply didn’t exist.
The technical sophistication displayed here indicates development by highly skilled actors with substantial resources. We strongly advise all users to update their Google Chrome and any Chromium-based browser to the latest version to protect against this vulnerability.”
Google has credited Kaspersky for uncovering and reporting the issue, reflecting the company’s ongoing commitment to collaboration with the global cybersecurity community and ensuring user safety.
Kaspersky continues to investigate Operation ForumTroll. Further details, including a technical analysis of the exploits and malicious payload, will be released in a forthcoming report once Google Chrome user security is assured.
Meanwhile, all Kaspersky products detect and protect against this exploit chain and associated malware, ensuring users are shielded from the threat.
This discovery follows Kaspersky GReAT’s previous identification of another Chrome zero-day (CVE-2024-4947), which was exploited last year by the Lazarus APT group in a cryptocurrency theft campaign.
In that case, Kaspersky researchers found a type confusion bug in Google’s V8 JavaScript engine that enabled attackers to bypass security features through a fake cryptogame website.
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