The preponderance of online attacks on the websites of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of government in Nigeria is stalling efforts by the Goodluck Jonathan administration to promote the adoption of the internet for delivering government information and services to its citizenry, industry analysts have said.
A total of 48 government (.gov.ng) websites were defaced by cybercriminals in 2013, an alarming 109 percent increase when compared to the preceding year. Between 2010 and 2012, a total of 23 official government websites were defaced, out of a total of 60 website defacements recorded during the period, according to a new study conducted by Centrex. The term “website defacement” refers to any unauthorised changes made to the appearance of either a single webpage, or an entire site.
BusinessDay gathered that MDAs are beginning to conduct their businesses online, after initial lethargy. This move by MDAs in Nigeria, has brought with it enormous cost reduction and productivity benefits. As at the end of 2013, about 382 MDAs have connected to the WorldWide Web using the .gov.ng domain platform while all MDAs are expected to migrate to local domain by the end of 2014.
There exists certain contingents of cyber criminals, targeting Nigeria, and perpetuating computer system break-in for political motives, it was learnt.
The country’s official Website (www.nigeria.gov.ng.) was defaced on 7th of July 2013 by Paddyhack, an Irish hacker, for reasons associated with his bitterness over the killing of at least 42 pupils of Government Secondary School Mamudo, Yobe state by the Boko Haram Group.
He said the ill-treatment of homosexuals in Nigeria was another reason for the cyber attack. Such cases have been recorded in other jurisdictions.
A year ago, a computer virus was believed to have hit the internal computer systems at Iran’s oil ministry and its national oil company. The attack was believed to have been responsible for knocking offline the websites of the Iranian oil ministry and national oil company. Critical data of website users were stolen as a result of the attack.
“E-government is endangered without a National Cybercrime Act,” Chris Uwaje, president, Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON) told BusinessDay in an interview. In December 2013, the House of Representatives passed the long awaited cyber security bill. The Senate is however expected to give its concurrence in no distant time.
“The bill provided for other frameworks for the institutionalisation of cyber security. There will be a lot of improvement in our cyberspace. There will be more security. Today, some crimes in the cyberspace that are not committed by Nigerians are attributed to them.
These things will be exposed with the new law,” said Ashiru Daura, acting director general of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), in an interview.
Considering the critical sectors of the Nigerian economy (banking, telecommunications and oil and gas) are migrating mission-critical data online, industry experts are demanding the development of requisite laws and policies that not only protect data, Information Technology (IT) infrastructure and prosecute perpetrators of cyber crimes but also strengthens Internet surveillance and cyber control.
By: Ben Uzor Jr
