NaijaSecCon, the annual technical cyber-security conference scheduled to hold in Lagos on the 3rd of May 2019, will play host to a gathering of top industry professionals, experts and government to discuss and proffer solutions to tackle the menace of cybercriminals and sensitive information breaches which is costing Nigeria and Africa millions of dollars in loss annually.
Currently in its third year, the conference attracts technology enthusiast, analysts and experts including chief information officers (CIOs), chief technology officers (CTOs), chief security officers (CSOs), and senior management from key industries including finance, energy, telecoms, government, education and information technology (IT).
“A global survey carried out by IBM puts an average cost of a data breach at $3.86 million, up 6.4 percent from 2017. The average cost, globally, for each loss of stolen record containing sensitive and confidential information is also up from last year, landing at $148 per record.
“A 4.8 percent increase from 2017. With about 5.6 billion Naira reported electronic banking fraud cases in 2017 by NeFF, the Nigerian scene is observed to be one of the most hit within the African space,” said Rotimi Akinyele, the lead convener of NaijaSecCon’18.
According to him, these increasing figures show the need for increased cyber security awareness and collaboration between private and public sector professionals to reduce the negative impact of data breaches and tighten digital security.
“This year’s event is a gathering of seasoned information security practitioners, evangelists, penetration testers, crypto-crackers, reverse-engineers, digital forensics analysts, and 3lit3 h4ck3r5 who will come together to deliberate and advice on solutions to peculiar situations in Nigeria’s information space”, Akinyele said.
Akinyele added that with the introduction of regulations such as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Cyber Security Framework and the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) coming to raise the importance of security among Nigerian companies, the event is expected to attract over 500 guests.
“This year’s event will showcase a mixture of both technical and governance aspect of information security whilst providing access to enthusiasts on how and where to get started within the cyber security space”, he said.
Speakers for this event include industry experts like Bharat Soni – GTBank’s CISO, Osioke Ojior – NIBSS CRO, Harrison Nnaji – First Bank’s CISO, Ikenna Onyebuchi – lead, cyber intelligence center, Deloitte and others.
The event is programed into four sections which include; A Lockpick Village – where enthusiasts and thinkers alike are served to the chills of how lockpicking works, a Cyber Security Career Village – for cyber enthusiasts, IT security pros, and those who would love to create a career within the space, the Technical Conference – with industry experts unravelling and advising on applicable threats within the space and a Live Hacking Contest – for students of tertiary institutions, a special kind of cyber security competition where security enthusiasts take part in various challenges including reverse engineering, network security, cryptography, web security, network security, digital forensics and others.
Jumoke Akiyode-Lawasnson
