E-Business
Nigeria Needs Cyber security Office for Effective Coordination – Makatiani
William Makatiani, managing director, Serianu, recently visited Nigeria and spoke to chike Onwuegbuchi on cyber security issues
Africa is playing catch-up in cyber security
We are not prepared in Africa. The problem we have in Africa is that, we like to do easy things fast. Easy thing means deploy technology, some vendors will come and tell you this thing works in the US, put it in place and we put it in-place. The problem with that is you never get to look at security.
Security is complicated because there is local aspect around securing systems, most of our fraudsters live here, most of the banks that lose money are in Nigeria, in Ghana, in Kenya among others and those that perpetrate these frauds are within those environments. There is no way somebody will come from the US and secure it, that is the hard work. We need somebody to understand how these people are doing it.
Only locals can do it, those are the difficult things, implementation of the system is easier and those are the things we are focusing on.
When it comes to preparation we are not ready because we don’t have enough skills. Secondly, we are not ready because we are not collaborating. If you are Bank A and I’m Bank B, if you get compromised you keep quiet if it is insured you go get compensated and you will not tell Bank B and Bank B will get hit, it really empowering the hackers now they know they can get away with all these attacks.
Third issue is Malware- malicious software. We are not training our people well enough. You get an employee, an assistant to the chief executive officer, the CEO tells his assist if you get an email click on it, print it for me let me see what it is. Now, they are clicking on malicious links. Immediately they click they get Ransonware and get compromised and Ransonware takes over the network as you are looking at that our curriculum in the universities are old.
There is no single individual that can come from our traditional university that will be able to get into cyber security field without additional preparation.
We have those gaps. When you think of where we are headed and we need to ask ourselves how do we address it?
Our board members does not understand technology, if you tell them about the safe, that somebody is getting into the safe they will understand, but the safe is no longer save. The database is the new safe, if a board member cannot understand that Oracle database is the new safe there is pretty much they can be able to secure, so if I tell them I want to secure Oracle database, they will say last year we bought a router this year we have bought a firewall why are we buying something new? They will say no, but the padlock we bought for the safe last year was good but has gone out of the market we need a new padlock, that padlock will cover our database which is Oracle. This is the language we need to get to our board members.
The language technical people are taking to board members and senior managers is out dated, you cannot talk technology to somebody who spend his time playing golf or somebody who spends his time looking at financial statements you need to come up with something that is comparative.
From a typical corporate perspective the question is how do we change? If you come to global cyber security problem you have three steps.
First is, understanding what is happening; second is attributing it to an individual and third is how do we stop that individual?
In understanding in Africa, we are trying our best but we are 20 per cent, this has to do with deploying of technology to understand what is going on in the network. When it comes to attribution we are poor just 2 per cent , there is no single attack that has be successful being attributed very few, because these individuals came out and say it happened like this or this is what led to this or that.
If it comes to attribution of attacks happening in different countries in Africa it is not easy to attribute it to somebody, attribution is a challenge.
Deterrent requires law enforcement and it is where we are really struggling. Law enforcement agents are not working together you find judiciary, national intelligence or Army, they don’t know how to coordinate this issue of cyber security so that they can be able to attribute most of the bigger attacks to somebody. That is the biggest cyber security problem and that is where we are facing challenge.
Issues of lack of collaboration
The reason why there isn’t much collaboration is because of fear. For instance, with the private sector such as banks there is this fear that customers will run away, we don’t want people to know they have stolen from me, it is an African problem. Africans we don’t want sharing our things in public.
We have to move beyond where we are and only regulation will force people to talk to each other. If you get compromised, it is okay. It is normal let us know so that we allow other people to learn from that experience. That is the key.
Most of these law enforcement officials don’t coordinate because some of them don’t know. We also need to be very clear in terms of who is responsible for what, if you are an investigation agency, we need to know where you start and where you stop. If you are in national intelligence services, you need to help us develop intelligence on why banks are getting attacked, who is attacking and who is benefit from these money that is where you start and ones you get it you empower the police who are going out to investigate some of these crimes so that they can be able to be addressed.
If you are in the army you need to have intelligence to know if it is a state problem, if the hackers are coming from Ghana, Ukrane, Ruwanda or Kenya, you need to look at that and say how do we coordinate this? And then empower the prosecution and the judges so that they can make a clear case of what is going on when and how. That is the type of collaboration we need.
Impact of different regulatory agencies in the fight against cyber crime
If you have a cyber-security office which in Nigeria is lacking, this will have an incumbent who is responsible for cyber security policy in the country like we are seeing in the UK, South Africa among others, where you have office of the cyber security incumbent who could coordinate all these issues.
It can become a problem if it is political, he can’t do much. That is why it is allowed to run just like Attorney general.
The biggest problem with cyber security office depends on where it sits. For countries where it is located in the judiciary it works very well, because the whole idea is to be able to oppressionalize the security laws and if it is located under the attorney general it works very well. If you move it into ICT ministry it fails, if you move it into NIS or national security Agency it fails.
Cyber security law
Cyber security changes very fast, four years ago we didn’t know about Ransomeware, we didn’t know about cryptomining, cryptomining is a biggest thing now. What we see across the world is instead of us to focus on technology, we focus on particulars of crimes which means at the end of the day it is fraud, unauthorised access, there is sabotage and those were the results of somebody coming in and compromising in an environment.
Most of our laws are copy and paste especially from Malaysia, Singerpole. We copy our laws from those countries across Africa and if you look at the laws we have in place, they focus a lot on tools and techniques and that is what is out-dated.
The tools, techniques and processes of attacking have changed. We have to change from focusing so much on tools, techniques and processes and focus on fraud say somebody did A,B,C,D whichever way they did it, it is still a fraud.
Criminals 100 years ago were interested in stealing money, information about you, interested in making sure you don’t move, it is the same thing today. Criminal are interested in stealing money from banks, making sure you don’t provide service, interested in stealing Intellectual Property (IP) or private data. In terms of motive they have not changed, intentions have not changed and therefore we have to build flexible laws that address motives, intensions and the principles of what the laws are trying to achieve to deter.
Building Cyber security Skills in Organisations to Fight Cyber-attacks
If I were an ambitious leader, I will cancel quite a number of technology programmes in our curriculum, they are wasting time. Get in touch with the industry, get some professional from other countries, look at the areas of artificial intelligent, analytics, look at the areas of cyber security build practical programmes.
Start with forcing graduates to do one to two year programme where they learn practical, set up research foundations behind these new technologies, because if you don’t do it now, even smaller countries like Rwanda, Botswana Mauritius will be more powerful than bigger countries like even South Africa, Nigeria. In some of these areas, the problem is to start early.
Number one thing is to change the curriculum, the curriculum we have now is useless. Yes, it builds the people to the level where you can convert them, but it doesn’t build the curiosity to continue building your capability into analytics crypto. If you look at the curriculums of those in the United States, UK and Europe even Rwanda and Mauritius you now see the embedding of these new technologies and new media. First of all you have to start with that.
Number two, it is unfortunate the tools most of the professional we have in the market place are bringing are out-dated. The days of sitting somewhere looking at risk on huge template are gone, if you are going to lose money you lose money through the payment system, through a card or fund and risks starts there. And you fall back who is likely to do it? That has changed, now employees need to change, they don’t need to sit down in class, but they need to look at what they are doing, what is changing in the industry and then retrain in terms of approach.
An Interpol-coordinated operation has led to the arrest of 1 209 suspected cyber criminals that targeted nearly 88 000 victims. Dubbed Operation Serengeti 2.0, the crackdown recovered $97.4 million and dismantled 11 432 malicious networks used for cyber crime, says the law enforcement organisation.
The operation was set up to combat cyber-crime across the African continent, focusing on several criminal activities targeting organisations and individuals in the region.
The participating countries were Angola, Benin, Cameroon, Chad, Côte D’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Seychelles, Tanzania, the UK, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Run between June and August, the operation brought together investigators from the 18 African countries and the UK to tackle high-harm and high-impact cyber crimes, including ransomware, online scams and business e-mail compromise.
According to Interpol, private sector collaboration partners assisted with intelligence, guidance and training to help investigators act on intelligence and identify offenders effectively.
The intelligence was shared with participating countries ahead of the operation, providing critical information on specific threats, as well as suspicious IP addresses, domains and C2 servers.
Valdecy Urquiza, secretary-general of Interpol, comments: “Each Interpol-coordinated operation builds on the last, deepening cooperation, increasing information sharing and developing investigative skills across member countries.
“With more contributions and shared expertise, the results keep growing in scale and impact. This global network is stronger than ever, delivering real outcomes and safeguarding victims.”
The first edition of operation Serengeti was held from September to October 2024 and cracked down on cyber crimes such as ransomware operations, digital extortion and online scams.
The criminal activities caused nearly $193 million in damages and, as a result of an effort uniting nearly 20 participating countries, more than 1 000 suspected cyber criminals were arrested, at the time.
The outcomes of Serengeti 2.0 saw authorities dismantle 25 crypto-currency mining centres in Angola, where the suspects were illegally validating blockchain transactions to generate crypto-currency.
The crackdown also identified 45 illicit power stations that were confiscated, along with mining and IT equipment worth more than $37 million, which has now been earmarked by the government to support power distribution in vulnerable areas.
In Zambia, authorities dismantled a large-scale online investment fraud scheme, identifying 65 000 victims who lost an estimated total of $300 million.
“The scammers lured victims into investing in crypto-currency through extensive advertising campaigns promising high-yield returns. Victims were then instructed to download multiple apps to participate,” reads the statement.
According to Interpol, authorities arrested 15 individuals and seized key evidence, including domains, mobile numbers and bank accounts. Investigations are ongoing with efforts focused on tracking down overseas collaborators.
Also in Zambia, authorities identified a scam centre and, in joint operations with the Immigration Department in Lusaka, disrupted a suspected human trafficking network. They confiscated 372 forged passports from seven countries.
“Despite being one of the oldest-running internet frauds, inheritance scams continue to generate significant funds for criminal organisations.
“Officers in Côte d’Ivoire dismantled a transnational inheritance scam originating in Germany, arresting the primary suspect and seizing assets, including electronics, jewellery, cash, vehicles and documents. With victims tricked into paying fees to claim fake inheritances, the scam caused an estimated $1.6 million in losses.”
Operation Serengeti 2.0 was held under the umbrella of the African Joint Operation against Cyber Crime, funded by the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
The collaborating partners were Cyber Crime Atlas, Fortinet, Group-IB, Kaspersky, The Shadowserver Foundation, Team Cymru, Trend Micro, TRM Labs and Uppsala Security.
Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) has began a comprehensive investigation of companies in the various sectors of the economy in order to expose data breaches and mete out appropriate sanctions.
The NDPC said companies in the insurance, banking, hospitality, pension, gaming and insurance brokers amongst others would be probed to determine their compliance with the NDP Act 2023..
The compliance notice, the commission said, forms part of a sector-by-sector investigation to enforce adherence to the law, which came into effect last year to safeguard citizens’ rights and strengthen Nigeria’s participation in the global digital economy.
“The Nigeria Data Protection Commission, in furtherance of its mandate under the Nigeria Data Protection Act, 2023, has commenced a sector-by-sector investigation of organisations suspected of non-compliance with the provisions of the Act,” the commission said in a statement on Sunday.
The statement, signed by Babatunde Bamigboye, head of Legal, Enforcement and Regulations at the NDPC, explained that the notice was issued pursuant to sections 5(i), 6(a), 6(c), 46(3), and 47(1)-(2) of the Act.
According to the statement, the list of affected organisations would be published in national newspapers on Monday, August 25, 2025.
“These organisations are required to, within 21 days of issuance, provide the following: evidence of filing NDP Act Compliance Audit Returns for 2024, evidence of designation or appointment of a Data Protection Officer, summary of technical and organisational measures for data protection within the organisation, and evidence of registration as a Data Controller or Processor of Major Importance,” the statement continued.
The commission warned that any organisation that failed to comply with the notice risked facing serious regulatory sanctions.
“Failure to comply with this Compliance Notice may result in enforcement actions, including the issuance of an Enforcement Order, administrative fines, and/or criminal prosecution in accordance with the NDP Act, 2023,” the statement added.
The NDPC stressed that its actions were designed not only to enforce compliance but also to protect Nigerians’ data rights.
It said the NDP Act was enacted to “safeguard the fundamental rights, freedoms, and interests of data subjects as guaranteed under the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999,” while also providing a legal framework to ensure Nigeria’s “trusted and beneficial participation in regional and global economies through responsible use of personal data.”
The Commission further reaffirmed its resolve to entrench accountability in the country’s data protection ecosystem.
“The NDPC remains committed to ensuring a culture of accountability and trust in Nigeria’s data protection and privacy ecosystem, while safeguarding the rights of data subjects and strengthening the nation’s digital economy,” the statement added.
The commission has so far demonstrated its readiness to enforce the law by slamming heavy penalties on erring organisations.
Multichoice Nigeria was fined N766.2m for what the commission described as patently intrusive, unfair, unnecessary and disproportionate data practices, including illegal cross-border transfers of subscriber information.
Cybersecurity teams today face increasingly sophisticated attacks powered by artificial intelligence (AI), automation, and advanced persistent threats (APTs), making traditional reactive security measures insufficient.
To effectively counter these evolving dangers, organisations must adopt a proactive approach that leverages threat intelligence (TI). By anticipating potential threats, detecting malicious activities early, and mitigating risks before they escalate, businesses can strengthen their defenses and maintain resilience in a rapidly changing environment. This shift from reactive to proactive security strategies is essential for staying ahead of cybercriminals and safeguarding critical assets.
In its recent study, Kaspersky surveyed IT professionals across industries and regions to understand how businesses use threat intelligence to bolster their defenses. The findings reveal that while an overwhelming majority (81%) of organisations in the Middle East, Turkiye, and Africa (META) region and 80% in South Africa, are satisfied with their available threat intelligence, there is still significant room for improvement – particularly in integration, speed, and relevance.
The critical role of threat intelligence
Threat intelligence goes beyond data collection, it provides actionable insights into adversary tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs). By studying attacker behaviour, security teams can detect threats earlier, refine defensive strategies and respond more effectively both during and after incidents.
The study highlights that 37% of companies in the META region and 35% in South Africa rely on specialised TI vendors for curated intelligence, while close to a third (31% and 28% respectively) engage in threat data exchanges with other organisations. Another 30% in the META region and 35% in South Africa gather intelligence from open sources, demonstrating the widespread recognition of TI’s value.
The importance of TI in cybersecurity cannot be overstated, as it helps organisations stay ahead of evolving threats and adapt their defenses accordingly. It enables proactive risk management and enhances the ability to anticipate potential attacks before they occur.
The most effective threat intelligence must be timely, reflecting the latest threats, a priority for 40% of respondents in the META region. It must also be actionable, seamlessly integrating into security workflows, which is a key concern for 40% of professionals in the META region.
Additionally, 36% of respondents emphasised the need for better analysis, including prioritisation and de-duplication, to make intelligence truly usable in real-world scenarios.
Key areas for improvement
While most organisations already benefit from TI, experts have identified several areas where enhancements could make a substantial difference. The single most pressing need, cited by 24% of respondents in the META region, is easier integration into existing processes, which would allow threat intelligence to be more seamlessly incorporated into daily security operations. 12% highlighted the importance of better analysis to improve accessibility, meaning that intelligence should be easier to interpret and act upon for security teams.
Meanwhile, 8% called for more robust comparative threat analysis across different systems, enabling organisations to better understand the context and relationships between various threats. Speed is another critical factor, with 12% emphasising the need for faster intelligence delivery to ensure timely responses to emerging threats.
Beyond these integration and usability concerns, professionals also prioritise quality and accuracy. 32% surveyed in the META region stress the importance of high-quality intelligence, which is precise, relevant, and reliable, to avoid false positives and missed threats.
Additionally, 32% seek more comprehensive coverage to ensure no critical threats slip through the cracks, emphasising the need for a broader scope of intelligence sources and insights to maintain a strong security posture.
Navigating today’s threat landscape demands reliable, expert-curated intelligence. While many organisations recognise its value and are satisfied with their current capabilities, they are searching for significant opportunities for improvement – particularly in areas such as integration, speed, and relevance.
By investing in these key areas, organisations can enhance their ability to respond swiftly and accurately to emerging threats, ultimately reducing risk and strengthening their security posture. Partnering with trusted providers like Kaspersky, which offers expert-curated insights and real-time intelligence, empowers businesses to navigate today’s challenging threat landscape with confidence.
To enable your InfoSec professionals to gain in-depth visibility into cyber threats targeting your organisation, use Kaspersky Threat Intelligence, which provides rich and meaningful context across the entire incident management cycle and helps identify cyber risks in a timely manner.
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