How security certification can significantly reduce cybercrime in Nigeria

Cybercrime has for a very long time been a disturbing phenomenon that has caused a lot of disruption and damage in the cyberspace.

The reality is that the internet is taking over the world and almost everything is now done online, hence organisations and people have become more prone to damaging virtual attacks.

To reduce attacks and protect your organisation from being compromised, cyber security security experts have proposed various means of protection including certification of websites which serves as a verification signature that assures people of the authenticity of the website.

Chief Technology Officers (CTOs) of Financial institutions and corporate organisations in Nigeria often spend large amounts of money in foreign currency to ensure the highest level of security, especially because cybercrime has progressed from websites being hacked and users’ data being stolen to sophisticated criminality targeting companies (particularly financial institutions), ecommerce sites, Government agencies and others.

Fortunately, Certum, the only certification authority (CA) in Poland which is on the list of world trustworthy certification authorities and has WebTrust seals for all its services connected with electronic signature has become the first security certification authority with a direct presence in Nigeria.

With the current economic recession, IT experts say that the local launch of Certum Certificate Authority is a welcome development in Nigeria as it offers top notch security at a cheaper rate in local currency and also provides after sales support through Asseco Nigeria.

According to Peter Uka, Certum Business Development Manager, “Certum is a globally recognised Certificate Authority owned by the Asseco Group, which has a direct presence in Nigeria through Asseco Nigeria with offices in Lagos and Abuja. Certum provides Cryptographic Trust and Security products such as secure socket layer (SSL / TLS ) certificates, email encryption certificates (S-MIME technology), code signing certificates and electronic signature products. These technologies are needed to secure websites and encrypt email and document communication – making it more difficult for information to get through to the wrong hands.”

The important benefits of a local certificate authority are onsite support, extremely fast verifications on higher end SSL certificates used by financial institutions.

Adefolu Majekodunmi, Managing Director, Asseco Nigeria, told BusinessDay that the aim was to not import technology to Nigeria, but to build it locally to suit the needs of the customers.

“We have our local team that develop, support and customise solutions for our clients in Nigeria. This also means that we can focus on Naira payments and not foreign payments. We currently have clients in banking, insurance and the capital markets and in the enterprise space, because these clients understand the necessity and value of cyber security,” Majekodunmi said.

In addition to this, Uka said; “being present locally gives the advantage of being able to carry out company/documents validation faster such that the certificates are issued significantly quicker than with Certification Authorities based abroad. The highest end certifications are processed within three days as against months with foreign based Certification Authorities. This means companies and individual users can more quickly get the Organisation Validation (OV) & Extended Validation (green bar) SSL certificates for use on their websites and portals within a few days.”

According to Simon Melchior, CEO Asseco Nigeria, Certum CA meets the strictest European and international quality requirements for trust and encryption products. It has been audited and certified by WebTrustTM for Certification Authorities. The SSL certificates are the latest TLS 1.2 certificates. This means users get the very latest encryption/security technology and protection against even more vulnerabilities. They feature up to 256-bit encryption and SHA-2 algorithm and are 100 percent compatible with and recognised by all browsers and email clients, including much older versions.

Security on for e-commerce websites or financial institutions is no longer a luxury. It has become imperative that all businesses and organisations of all sizes have at least basic protection for their web assets and communication channels to forestall the now probably inevitable menace of cybercrime.

JUMOKE AKIYODE