Nigeria Lost $800m to Cybercrimes In 2018 – Report

The cost of cybercrimes in the country peaked at $800 million, this is according to latest Nigeria Cybersecurity Report (2018).

The report shows that even with 17% increase in organisational spend in cybersecurity from 2017 to 2018, the trend continues on the upward movement.

During the period in view, it was recorded that locally engineered malwares are on the rise as increased frauds are recorded through the mobile.

The report was unveiled in Lagos this week at Nigeria Cybersecurity Summit 2019 organised by Data & Scientific Inc with supports from Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA) and Gemalto.

It was also reported that while 50% of board members are getting involved in cybersecurity matters, however there is need to pay close attention to increase in targeted phishing attacks.

The third edition of Nigeria Cybersecurity Report (2018) shows that reported crime incidents to the police has reached 21%, although successfully prosecuted cybercrimes cases stand at 2.6%.

The report indicates a serious skills shortage with just 3,500 cybersecurity (skilled) professionals in Nigeria.

Besides, the report identified constraints faced by organisations while recruiting cybersecurity professionals, such as; lack of technical experience and lack of professional certifications.

The report was a product of study carried out by Demadiur,  Serianu Limited, ISACA (Lagos and Abuja chapters), United States International University-Africa and Africa Cyber Immersion Centre (acic) with contributions from NCC, NIBSS, E-PPAN, ATCON, NiRA, CeBIH, CSEAN, IXPN and Interglobal Limited.

Speaking to journalists, Engineer Ikechukwu Nnamani, chairman, Demadiur, said the key focus of the 2018 report was on cybersecurity skills set and they realised that the country is ill-equipped in terms of number of experts to address the challenges.

“So, there is a need to have people well-trained in that space and also have a certification process to ensure the right skills set are acquired even without going through a long process.

“Given where the country is today we realised that the traditional four-year educational system to train people in that space, we do not have it. We probably need specialized programs to address different skills and areas that need to be covered.

“As the country is transitioning to a Digital Economy cybersecurity will become a bigger risk compared to what is obtainable before now”, he said.