More Knocks for CyberSecurity Law, Traitors Cause Havoc

The Cyber Security Law (2015) has been described as not sophisticated to combat the growing trend of cyber related crimes in the country.

Mr. Peter Asolo, an IT security expert in an email interview with Nigeria CommunicationsWeek, said that the reason many think the law is not so much in alignment with the actual threats been experienced in the field of Internet and network is based on but not limited to its assumed cyber space is only confined to the computers designated by the President as those carrying important National data.

Asolo’s remarks came on the heels of third quarter IT Threat Evolution report released by Kaspersky Security Network (KSN) and obtained by Nigeria CommunicationsWeek, detailing the key security incidents of the quarter, especially in Nigeria.

According to Kaspersky Security Network (KSN), in the third quarter of 2015 overall 45.3% of KSN participants in Nigeria encountered malware that spread in local networks, via USBs and storage disks, while 13.8% faced cyberthreats emanating from the Internet. This puts the country on the 64th and 128th place worldwide by the percentage of users who encountered the two types of malware.

Globally according to KSN data, Kaspersky Lab solutions detected and repelled a total of 235.4 million malicious attacks from online resources located all over the world.

Kaspersky Lab’s web antivirus detected 38.2 million unique malicious objects: scripts, exploits, executable files, etc. - this is 46.9% higher than in Q2.

There were 5.68 million registered notifications about attempted malware infections that aim to steal money via online access to bank accounts.

The overall trend so far for 2015 has continued in Q3: exploits for Adobe Flash Player and Internet Explorer are most popular with cybercriminals.

Speaking on the report, David Emm, principal senior security researcher at Kaspersky Lab’s Global Research and Analysis team, said, “The developments in Q3 demonstrate that the global threat landscape is continuing to evolve at a fast pace. Malicious mobile programs are on the rise, and with 5.6 million cases of attempted theft from online bank accounts, and cybercriminals continually developing sophisticated attacks, the use of high quality cybersecurity products has never been more important. It’s vital that all those using the Internet – both individuals and organisations - protect themselves from these growing threats.

Reacting to the report viz-a-viz the role Cyber Security Law (2015) ought to play in the fight against the trend, Asolo told Nigeria CommunicationsWeek that knocks against the Law are valid following its gives the idea of having to focus on tangible financial crimes via the ATM and payment devices only.

He said, “The Law in itself seem lost on the vast information age and the real definition of cyber space. For real professional hardware and software practitioners, there is nothing within the law that shows any type of protection for them during and after the cause of their profession. There was no clear information to how it can be proven that a cybercrime has been committed not until it causes one ambiguous damage or the other.

“As laudable as the Act may sound it is very ambiguous and not clear for anybody who had worked the cyber space from the onset in Nigeria. What this bring to fore is that the law may have been hurriedly put together to meet some specifics as it concerns the menace of cyber café e-rats or some other financial crimes been committed at that time”.

He recommended for an encompassing approach to engaging professionals from the field in enacting a well-rounded law for this sensitive component of the society, as the fact that innovative legal framework need to be complemented with reality is key.

“One starts to wonder who will implement cyber law when the legal system itself knows little or nothing about computing and systems. Despite the fact that an average person life now revolves computer, how prepared are the law departments in our schools?

“As the first indigenous innovator of a complete ERP for the judiciary I can tell you the huge gap between the courts and computers. I believe as a people we should always put into consideration the logical and applicable of laws when they are been drafted. It is also important to state that I did not see any comprehensive regulation as it affects software use and its resultant risks by individual users.

“Does it mean it is only registered businesses the law is targeting? As it stands today, the majority of the Internet users are individuals who are not well catered for by the law. How about innovative technology entrepreneurs like myself whose jobs are been duplicated with reckless abandon? Talking of intellectual property theft, most guilty are many government establishments themselves. How does this law answer all this questions and more that are the real issues and threats facing most participant within the cyber space?”

On mobile threats, the report found that 323,374 new malicious mobile programs were detected by Kaspersky Lab mobile security products in Q3.

This is a 10.8% increase on Q2 2015 and a 3.1-fold increase since Q1 2015.

There were more than 1.5 million malicious packages installed on mobiles during the quarter, 1.5 times more than in the previous quarter, among other findings.