Nigerian banks lost N40b to cyber crooks

The Regulator of Nigeria’s financial sector, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has lamented the unrelenting attack on the financial sector, saying the banking sector lost a whopping N40 billion to cyber-assisted crimes last year.

The apex bank’s Chief Information Security Officer, Taiwo Longe said the economic cost of cyber crimes has assumed an alarming dimension such that its costs now far surpass that of illicit trade in narcotics.

According to him, the global cost now stands at about $288 billion, which far exceeds that of illicit drugs.

He spoke during the opening session of National Cyber Security Forum (NCSF 2014) organised by the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) in Lagos, with Towards Multi-Stakeholders Partnership for National Cyber Security Engagement as its theme.

Longe said the criminals perpetrate their trade using web phishing, network intrusion, emails and others methods. He advised every organisation to take the issue of having a security blueprint in place very seriously. He added that there is need for proper information security management to reduce ‘vulnerability and risk’ of attack.

He said with the growing threat of cybercriminals, the need for policy framework to address the menace has become more imperative now than ever before. He added that awareness is another key element in driving the process of fighting cybercrimes because people must be aware of the potential risk they face so that they could take precautionary measures.

Longe urged the banks not to relent in innovating on better ways of securing their information as the cyber criminals too were not sleeping, always working ahead to beat them.

Source : BizTech Africa