Worried about the various online risks faced by over 40 million Nigerians that have access to the internet, the Committee of Chief Information Security Officers of Nigerian Financial Institutions (CCISONFI) and Cybersafe Foundation, have partnered Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), to sensitise Nigerians about online risks, the dangers and how to mitigate them.
The groups who spoke recently at a media parley in Lagos, organised by CCISONFI and Cybersafe Foundation, to create awareness on cyber fraud across the country, said so many Nigerians have inadvertently fell victims to fraudsters, who tricked them to defraud them of their money and valuable data.
The Director, Banking Supervision Department at CBN, Mr. Haruna Mustafa, said the collaboration would help in creating cybersecurity awareness among Nigerians, and make them resilient to cyberattacks whenever they are online or offline.
Mustafa who was represented at the media parley by his deputy, Dr. Adedeji Adetona, said Cyberattacks remained the major threat to financial system stability, not only through their impact on the institution, but also through their impact on multiple components of the financial system. Mustafa added that the collaboration between CBN, CCISONFI and Cybersafe Foundation, would go a long way to help Nigerians avoid falling victims of cyber fraud.
He said CBN took some steps in 2018 to further improve the cyber-resilience of supervised institutions through the issuance of the CBN Risk-based Cybersecurity Framework and Guidelines for Deposit Money Banks (DMBs).
“The framework outlined the minimum cybersecurity baseline to be put in place by DMBs and Payment Service Providers (PSP). The framework also mandated the procedures into bank’s broader risk management policies and an annual Cybersecurity self-assessment,” Mustafa said.
Chairman, CCISONFI, Mr. Abumere Igboa, said the cyber awareness initiative campaign, tagged #NoGoFallMaga, would assist in promoting general public awareness on cybersecurity, with a target to reduce cybercrime and financial fraud.
He said CCISONFI, a committee formed under the guidance of CBN, and made up of the Chief Information Security Officers of Nigerian Deposit Money Banks and Payment Service Providers, became necessary due to the need to have an industry body supporting the CBN in providing guidance and advisory services related to Cyber, Data and Information Security across the Nigerian payment ecosystem, as the cyber threat landscape continued to evolve.
Executive Director, Cybersafe Foundation, Confidence Staveley, said the partnership would enable the groups join forces to reach the 40 million Nigerians who currently access financial services across the country, raising mass cybersecurity awareness and consequently reducing the success of rate of cyber fraud attacks among customers.
“There is clearly a need to include an aggressive cybersecurity awareness campaign to compliment other proactive and reactive measures being taken to curb cyber fraud. However, we must collaborate across the financial eco-system, consolidate resources and strengths, and reach across the aisle to sectors like the media for support to drive cybersecurity awareness for significant impact,” Staveley said.
According to her, “In the #NoGoFallMaga campaign, we will be working to significantly reduce the success rate of cyberattacks by raising mass awareness of the top five prevalent cyber fraud attack methods and safe cyber hygiene best practices, to all customers of Nigerian financial institutions.
CyberSafe Foundation is a non-governmental organisation in the information security domain, on a mission to facilitate human capacity and behavioural changes that ensure inclusive and safe digital access in Nigeria.
Thisday