NiTDA Tightens Noose on Cyber Criminals

Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) implementation is critical to contain the activities of cyber criminals, Professor Cleopas Angaye, director-general, National Information Technology Development Agency (NiTDA) has said.

Angaye who was speaking on Wednesday at stakeholders’ engagement workshop held in Lagos stated that the PKI realization would encompass digital certification and other infrastructural requirements as answers to growing frauds associated with banking, online transaction truncations, and decentralization of government processes.

According to the DG, PKI entails a collection of security technologies, procedures, processes and policies that jointly provide a framework for addressing, using cryptography, the fundamental security issues of privacy, authentication, integrity, non-repudiation and access control in data communication. 

He listed some of the benefits of PKI to include, “The creation of digital signatures which is evidence of ‘who did what to whom’, that is critical to electronic transactions carrying high legal risks or compliance requirements.

“PKI when integrated into the smartcards is recognizable as ‘the only practical solution to eavesdropping and account hijacking today.

“Digital certificates can convey authority information like credentials, licenses, affiliations among others and digital signatures bind that authority information directly to messages, to decentralize and greatly simplify transaction processing”.

Angaye added that Nigeria cannot be left out in the global trend especially in realization of the vision 20:2020, “and with the rate of uncontrolled infiltration and proliferation in the use of cyberspace for communication, transactions among others, it has become imperative to develop a sustainable and secure platform for cyber accessibility, secured and transaction, offering credible identify”.

He urged industry stakeholders to enrich the proposed document with necessary points for a generally acceptable blueprint and for the interest of the nation.

On his part, Pius Okigbo jr., managing director, InfoSoft Nigeria Limited, said a robust PKI can mainly be achieved through the Act of Legislation. This, he said, will encourage stakeholders, adding that NiTDA has blazed the trail.

Okigbo added that PKI will encourage private sector investment in the Nigerian technology industry, especially in software development.  

“The private sector, especially the banks are going to benefit a lot, because the process will help them combat fraud. It is a significant step to ensure the systems are secured.

He called on industry regulator, particularly the CBN to sanction non-compliance players as the implantations begins, “that will serve as deterrent to others and force others in stock exchange, insurance, telecoms, etc to comply”.

Generally, stakeholders lauded the comprehensive document presented by NiTDA in pursuance of the PKI implementation in the country