NAICOM, NITDA mull cyber insurance as e-payments hit trillions

The National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) and the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) have agreed to activate the process of institutionalizing cyber insurance to help strengthen the digital ecosystem in Nigeria.

According to the two agencies, this has become necessary in view of growing e-payment transactions, which according to the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement Systems (NIBSS) has risen to N38.9 trillion in November 2022 and growing by 50 percent year on year.

NAICOM led by Sunday Thomas, the commissioner for Insurance/CEO of NAICOM who received the management of NITDA led by Kashifu Abdullahi, director general/CEO in his office during a courtesy visit said the two agencies discussed the enormous benefits of cyber insurance to the nation and have agreed to partner to ensure it is realised.

Allianz Nigeria had in a bid to create awareness on this and educate business owners to safely mitigate these risks featured industry experts in an interactive webinar titled ‘The Ever Increasing Impact of Cyber Attacks: A case for Cyber Insurance’ .

It was revealed that 71 percent of security professionals had reported an increase in security threats or attacks since the start of the Covid virus, and cyber risk trends likely to affect organizations include Phishing (55 percent), malicious websites (32 percent), malware (28 percent) and ransomware (19 percent).

Among other highlights from the speakers was the need for organisations to focus not only on cyber security but more on cyber resilience. This entails a fusion of information security and business continuity strategies. In other words, cyber resilience is the ability of an organisation to withstand attacks or failures and in such instance re-establish itself quickly back to operational mode.

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To achieve this, a seven fold approach which includes being strategic, building capacity, strengthening the process, automate inform and transform, measure and monitor, cyber insurance and collaboration was recommended.
In an era of unprecedented security risks, companies should determine more pragmatically how they intend to curb these risks and build capacity termed as “human fire wall”. Organisations should create awareness internally, train and educate staff members as a way to minimize the ability of intruders to compromise their information security.

Organisations also need to strengthen their cyber security posture across all levels. Every layer of access down to the seemingly unnecessary layer should be tightened as a way to discourage attackers.

In another related remark, there is a need for conducting regular analysis so as to determine the level of exposure and strengths.

Cyber-attacks as it stands is dynamic and companies stand a risk of being vulnerable either accidentally or deliberately through its people, processes or the type of technology adopted.

Speaking intricately on how to mitigate the risk of cyber-attacks, Santho Mohapeloa, Senior Cyber and Liability Underwriter at Allianz Global & Corporate Specialty, South Africa emphasized the need for insurance and the importance of complying with Cyber Best Practices in preventing and mitigating cyber losses.

Commenting further on this, Aima Higo, unit head Reinsurance at Allianz Nigeria Insurance Plc. Said, ‘’In a connected world, we all have a responsibility to protect ourselves and the people we interact with and it all starts with understanding cyber security. Although, there is no 100 percent security in the cyber domain, dangers can only be reduced to an acceptable level by implementing a set of actions and by getting cyber insurance’’.