E-Business
Stakeholders Urge FG to Review Cybercrime Law
Cybercrime stakeholders have urged federal government to update the existing cybercrime law to take care of new technological developments as well as approaches adopted by the cybercriminals.
They spoke at Cyber Secure Nigeria 2018 conference organized by Cyber Security Experts Association of Nigeria (CSEAN) with the theme: ‘Mitigating Cyber Threats in the Digital Age’.
Remi Afon, president, CSEAN, said that Cybercrime is dynamic and changes from time to time.
“When the cybercrime law was passed a few years ago, there was no mention of cyptocurrency. A lot of cyber criminals were not in the dark web. So, there is a need for cybercrime laws to keep changing to keep pace with the activities in cyberspace,” he said.
He added that Nigeria is vulnerable in the cyberspace. “A lot of our information is online these days. Even the government has started connecting their system online.
“The only way we can tackle this problem is to have a strong legislation, which will make organizations to be compelled to make sure their assets are secured, and whenever there is a breach, there also is a notification.
“Many cybercrime activities are taking place in Nigeria on a daily basis, but because they are not reported, nobody notices them,” he said.
He decried inaction of federal government on data protection law. According to him, ‘It is quite unfortunate that the government is so slow about the data protection law.
“They are not doing anything about it at the moment. There is a need to have a data protection law as a matter of urgency. Otherwise, it is not going to be a crime for anybody to compromise other people’s data.
“We have cybercrime laws, but there is a need to make sure organizations are held accountable if data in their possession are compromised. It is the responsibility of government to have the law in place. Our own responsibility is to sensitize the citizens.
Prof. Umar Danbatta, executive vice chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) enumerated challenges in cybercrime management in the country which include; absence of comprehensive and reliable demographic and biometric database, insufficient expertise in the area of cyber and information security; and lack of effective and functional forensics laboratories among others to match the speed, anonymity and fleeting nature of evidence in cybercrimes investigation.
Danbatta who was represented by Mr. Henry Ojiokpota, zonal controller, NCC in Lagos, noted concerns in tackling electronic fraud/ cybercrimes in technology-driven environments such as appropriate legal frameworks, new technologies and standards, critical national security imperatives among others.
John Bray, consul general, US Embassy in Nigeria, said that as the world embraces the Internet of Things, big data, cloud and mobility, security must be more than an afterthought.
“However, things change quickly in the realm of cybersecurity. With new threats appearing on a daily basis and attackers continuously refining their techniques, it can be extremely difficult to keep up.
“Businesses and government agencies need to evolve in order to cope with the ever changing threat landscape. Organizations can no longer merely react to threats, they need to create IT infrastructure that is agile and adaptive, where breaches are addressed before they happen,” he said.
Transcorp Hotels Plc has delivered a stellar performance in the first half of 2025, recording a 60% year-on-year surge in revenue to ₦47.57 billion, up from ₦29.72 billion in H1 2024. Gross profit climbed 71% to ₦36.21 billion, maintaining a strong 76% margin despite inflation and operational headwinds.
The hospitality giant, a subsidiary of Transnational Corporation Plc, also announced an interim dividend payout of ₦1.024 billion — offering ₦0.10 per 50 kobo ordinary share to shareholders.
In a bold move, the company unveiled Nigeria’s largest corporate venue — the 5,000-seat Transcorp Centre — staking its claim as the new leader in event hospitality. Chairman Emmanuel Nnorom described the results as proof of Transcorp Hotels’ transformative strategies and unwavering investor commitment. MD/CEO Uzo Oshogwe attributed the success to relentless execution and a resilient business model.
Transcorp Hotels, renowned for iconic assets like Transcorp Hilton Abuja and its digital platform Aura, says it isn’t just leading Nigeria’s hospitality sector — it’s redefining excellence across Africa.
Chinese “threat actors” have hacked Microsoft’s SharePoint document software servers and targeted the data of the businesses using it, the firm has said.
China state-backed Linen Typhoon and Violet Typhoon as well as China-based Storm-2603 were said to have “exploited vulnerabilities” in on-premises SharePoint servers, the kind used by firms, but not in its cloud-based service.
The US tech giant has released security updates in response and has advised all on-premises SharePoint server customers to install them.
“Investigations into other actors also using these exploits are still ongoing,” Microsoft said in a statement.
The firm said it had “high confidence” the hackers would continue to target systems which have not installed its security updates.
It added that it would update its website blog with more information as its investigation continues.
Microsoft said it had observed attacks in which hackers had sent a request to a SharePoint server “enabling the theft of the key material by threat actors”.
Charles Carmakal, chief technology officer at Mandiant Consulting firm, a division of Google Cloud, told reporter, it was “aware of several victims in several different sectors across a number of global geographies”.
Carmakal said it appeared that governments and businesses that use SharePoint on their sites were the primary target.
A number of adversaries who stole material encoded by cryptography were then able to regain ongoing access to the victims’ SharePoint data, he said.
“This was exploited in a very broad way, very opportunistically before a patch was made available. That’s why this is significant,” Carmakal said.
Carmakal said the “China-nexus actor” was deploying techniques similar to previous campaigns associated with Beijing.
Microsoft said Linen Typhoon had “focused on stealing intellectual property, primarily targeting organizations related to government, defence, strategic planning, and human rights” for 13 years.
It added that Violet Typhoon had been “dedicated to espionage”, primarily targeting former government and military staff, non-governmental organizations, think tanks, higher education, the media, the financial sector and the health sector in the US, Europe, and East Asia.
Meanwhile, Storm-2603 was “assessed with medium confidence to be a China-based threat actor”.
National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has issued a public warning that it is not associated with NINcard.com.
According to the commission, the website has been circulating online to offer services for Nigerians seeking National Identification Number (NIN) services.
NIMC, in a post on its official X account on Wednesday, said, “NINcard.com is not in anyway affiliated to NIMC. Stay vigilant!”
The warning was accompanied by screenshots of fake payment receipts and OTP request pages from the website, both of which were boldly stamped “FAKE” by NIMC to alert the public.
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