Financial services companies, government institutions, telecommunication firms and financial technology companies operating in Nigeria, among others lost about $800m to cybercrime in 2018, according to Africa CyberSecurity report says.
The report indicated that the country lost $649m to cyber-attacks in 2017, representing a 23 per cent increase in cost.
The report unveiled by Demadiur Systems Limited at a Nigeria Cybersecurity Summit in Lagos on Monday stated that indirect costs incurred by affected companies on penetration testing, audit, forensic investigations, risk assessment, compliance review and post-implementation, awareness and training of personnel amounted to $450m in 2018.
The study found that direct costs, which amounted to $350m, was lost through ransomware attacks, fines paid to regulators, law suits, claims, cyber-insurance as well as forensic investigations.
Mr Ikechukwu Nnamani, chief executive officer, Demadiur, while presenting the report said one key finding was the shortage of qualified cybersecurity experts to handle the cyberthreats facing the country.
According to him, Nigeria ranks lowest in terms of certified cybersecurity expert per citizen and there are many unreported cases of cyber-attacks in the country.
“In 2016, there was one cybersecurity expert for every 124,587 Nigerians, while this marginally improved to one expert for every 106,048 Nigerians in 2017; in 2018, it abysmally stood at one expert for every 103,093 citizens,” he said.
Nnamani added, “This clearly shows that the country is ill-equipped to deal with the threat from cybercriminals from a human resources stand point.”
Dr Tope Akinbiyi, CEO, Data and Scientific Incorporation, said though the era of data analytics was still at its infancy in the country, it was causing disruption in the country.
In order to understand the security needs of a company, he said experts needed to understand the kind of data that should be collected and kept, and categorise them into structured and unstructured data.
