Delays in cyber law, wider broadband push expose economy to hacks

With Nigeria pushing for wider national broadband internet coverage amid the presidency’s failure to expedite action on the final passage of the Cybercrime Bill, major sectors of the economy, including oil and gas, telecommunictions, banking, are being exposed to the exploits of cybercriminals prowling the digital landscape, with no form of restriction, industry observers have said. Regulation, cost management and rising customer expectations for better service delivery, are compelling banks, mobile operators, as well as oil and gas companies to migrate services and critical data online.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had recently issued a policy that prevents certain financial information and data from being stored outside the shores of the country.

Plans are underway to connect 50 percent of Nigerians to 3G broadband during the course of 2015, through the ‘Wireless Broadband Infrastructure Upgrade and Expansion Phase 1’, which falls under the National Broadband Plan (NBP).

Market observers say growth in internet traffic will translate into greater incidences of hacks. In view of this, Rogba  Adeoye, president, Information Technology System and Security Professionals (ITSSP), says that the nation needs cybercrime laws urgently, to address the concerns over cyber espionage and hacking in the digital space. Nigeria, a nation with the highest internet population in Africa, is a major attraction for hackers, as billions of dollars are now being siphoned electronically to offshore bank accounts, whilst critical data are stolen and sold on the ‘cyber black market’. Between year 2000 and 2013, Nigerian banks have lost an estimated N159 billion to cyber crimes, says the Nigerian Inter-Bank Settlements Systems (NIBSS). Ernst & Young has estimated that the economy loses $200 million annually to cyber crime. There has been recent spike in incidences of cyber attacks on websites of ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) of government.

In recent months, hackers and cyber thieves attacked prominent government websites including the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) as well as the Ministry of Science and Technology (MST), casting a dark cloud on the country’s e-governance push.

The cybercrime bill, which was passed a few months back by the Senate, is yet to be passed by the House of Representatives. After its passage and harmonisation by the upper and lower legislative houses, the Cybercrime Bill would be sent to the President, who will assent to it before it becomes a law.

David Isiavwe, president of Information Security Society of Africa, Nigeria (ISSAN) is however of the view that the Federal Government has limited time to sign the bill into law. This, he further explained, is because the current dispensation, which has Goodluck Ebele Jonthan, at the helm of affairs, will come to an end by May 2015, after the February 2015 general elections.

Sources close to the presidency told BusinessDay, yesterday that President Goodluck Jonathan, at the moment, has eyes fixed on his re-election at the 2015 general polls, as little attention is currently being paid to other state matters.

“We need this Cybercrime Bill to be signed into law before the present crop of lawmakers complete their tenure. “Now that the Senate has passed the bill, it will be good if the House of Representatives follows suit, to enable President Goodluck Jonathan sign it into law before the next general elections”, Isiavwe added. According to  him, the implications is that if the Cybercrime Bill is not signed into law before the next administration takes the reins of power, the entire legislative process will be repeated from scratch.

This will not bode well for the nations’ socio-economic development.

Countries like Nigeria, with developing economies and lower levels of technological growth and development are  said to have higher cyber security risk.

According to a report titled, ‘The Cybersecurity Risk Paradox’ by Microsoft Security Intelligence Report (SIR), “countries with a developing level of Information Communications Technology (ICT) may be unprepared to secure their ICT infrastructure commensurate with the increase in citizen use of Personal Computer (PC) systems”.

This, the report states, provides greater opportunity for malware to spread unchecked. The report revealed that while increased Internet access and more mature technological development is correlated with improvement in cyber security at the global level, it has the opposite effect among countries with developing economies and lower levels of technological development.

Analysing the bill, a technology lawyer  who was fortunate to see it before it was sent to the National Assembly, said it is divided into six parts. Each part clearly outlines the penalties that would be meted out to anyone found in violation of the law after it has been passed.

He listed the parts to include Computer Integrated Offenses, Computer Related Crime, Content Related Offenses, Protection of Critical National Information Technology Infrastructure, Duties of Service Providers, and Mutual Legal Assistance Provision. He said the bill also proposed the establishment of Cybercrime Advisory Council that will take charge of the implementation and provision of general policy guidelines.

The bill stipulates among other things,  a seven-year jail term for all kinds of computer-related fraud, computer-related forgery, offences relating to pornography, cyber-stalking and cyber-squatting.

“Despite the fact that there was input from government agencies, there was not sufficient input from industry players, civil society and stakeholders that these bills would affect directly”, said James Nkum, programme manager, Paradigm Initiative Nigeria (PIN), in a statement.

Ben Uzor & Dan Ojabo