Help! Cyber Terrorists Everywhere

Cyber criminals pose direct threat to security and play increasingly important role in facilitating most forms of other organised crimes and terrorism.

And God forbids! Any cyber attack on Nigeria’s critical infrastructure will shut down the country because she lacks any form of protection.

Recall the cyber-attack that paralysed computers of South Korean television channels and crippled the network of the country’s largest banks.

That is the pointer to the clear and present danger of cyber terrorism. They are on the prowl in Nigeria and unchecked activities of these thieves are near plague.

Nigeria CommunicationsWeek investigations show that the rise and rise of cyber attacks on organizations suggest that Nigeria now face even more perilous times than the activities of the Boko Haram, the dreaded Islamist sect.

The potential threat posed by cyber-terrorism has provoked considerable alarm but little responses from the government.

Only recently, many sensitive public and private websites were hacked, suggesting that the fight is moving from conventional battlefields into the digital world.

By simply crippling a country’s economy, a cyber terrorist can also potentially weaken the country for a military attack.

The worrisome part is that the country’s economy is more prone to having more attacks as Nigeria drive further her cashless policy initiative.

By targeting financial data by hackers, an organization can lose several billions of naira.

Unites States military claimed that cyber and nuclear attacks are now greater threat than terrorism.

In Nigeria either by ignorance or lack of knowledge or both; the federal government has been unable to secure its official websites thus raising questions over claims by the government of efforts to reduce the growing threat of violation of its digital presence.

Nigeria must wake up because cyber criminals though unarmed, are very lethal.

The bad after taste of cybercrime and the unseriousness of Nigeria to address the monster has continued to haunt the country both economically and social-politically.

Cybercrime has led to confidence problems with Nigeria losing outsourcing, foreign investment among others.

The first major step to tackling the menace is by setting up what experts called “ethical hackers”.

Ethical hackers are designed to protect networks by hacking and stealing vital information and later returning them to show their vulnerability.

There is also need to for agency in the Presidency to handle cyber security issues as well as train and co-ordinate activities of Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT).

Also, there should be paradigm shift in the recruitment of security operatives especially in EFCC with attention on young people with knowledge in cyber security.

Importantly, Nigeria must guard against the use of foreign experts in protecting Nigeria’s cyber space

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