NAN-H-81
Cybercrime
By Constance Athekame
Abuja, Jan. 25, 2018 (NAN) Some Information Communication Technology (ICT) stakeholders on Thursday said educating the public on cybercrime through various channels would reduce the effect of the crime on the society.
The stakeholders, who expressed their views in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja, advised the Federal Government to work with ICT professionals to curb the crime.
Mr Adede Williams, the National President, Association of Telecommunications Professionals of Nigeria (APTN) said ICT stakeholders and professionals were educating the public on the effect of cybercrime.
“The ICT professionals are doing wonderfully well by educating the public about cybercrime.
“ So, that brings us back to the area of government working in partnership with stakeholders in ICT sector, as there will be a need for a round table on the issue of cybercrime.
“ Cybercrime is one of the biggest crimes that can ever be imagined; and if we don’t bring it to cognisance, it may affect the economy.
“It is not a physical theft; it is a digital theft. So, government has to partner with stakeholders in the ICT sector,’’ he said.
According to Williams, stakeholders are doing a lot of things; they are partnering with international community to see how the country can curb cybercrime.
He said government had already signed Cyber Crime Act into law.
He urged professionals and stakeholders in the sector to work hard to ensure that Nigerians were educated on the implications of cybercrime.
Mr Gbolahan Awonuga, the Secretary of the Association of Licensed Telecommunication Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), said the banking sector was already doing something about bank fraud.
Awonuga said that bank fraud was the operators’ issue, as it depended on how the banks operated their security on mobile money.
“The banks need to do more in making sure that decoding security code is not an easy task for any fraudster.
“There is a Cyber Crime Act that was approved in 2015, and ALTON will follow the act to the letter, and anybody caught will be dealt with.
“As we have cybercrime, we also have the physical crime. The way the physical criminals are dealt with, so also the cyber criminals will be dealt with,” he said.
Mr Tony Asoro, a computer scientist, said that the issue of cybercrime was a very serious one that must not be neglected.
Asoro said that the Cyber Crime Act passed into law in 2015 should be able to address a lot of problems in the sector if well implemented.
He said government should liaise with relevant stakeholders in the ICT sector to curb the crime.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) said that the Cyber Crime Act provides an effective, unified and comprehensive legal, regulatory and institutional framework for the prohibition, prevention, detection, prosecution and punishment of cybercrimes in Nigeria.
This act also ensures the protection of critical national information infrastructure, and promotes cyber security and the protection of computer systems and networks, electronic communications, data and computer programmes, intellectual property and privacy rights. (NAN)
COA/FLP/GY
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Edited by Folorunso Poroye/Grace Yussuf