Digital Encode founders win cyber security personalities of the decade at BoICT 2020

Digital Encode, a popular consulting and integration firm, has received industry-wide accolades, for the specialties in the design, management and security of business-critical networks, telecommunications environment and other IT infrastructures, in Nigeria and indeed Africa.

After receiving massive votes, the team from Digital Encode received standing ovation at the year 2020 Beacon of Information Technology (BoICT) Lecture/Awards held in Lagos on Saturday, November 28, 2020.

On a corporate level, Digital Encode was named the cybersecurity company of the decade. Communications Week Media Limited, organisers of the award also disclosed that Digital Encode was voted the compliance advisory company of the decade.

The company has been recognised in the industry for its vendor independent perspective and expertise that lies in solving multifaceted, complex enterprise network security and audit problems.

Digital Encode is notable for its effective and successful methodology for achieving compliance to ISO 27001 (IMS); ISO 20000 (ITIL), ISO 22301 (BCM), ISO 9001 (QMS) and several other international compliance standards such as COBIT and PCI DSS compliance.

The two co-founders, Peter Adewale Obadare and Oluseyi Akindeinde received (joint) Nigeria CommunicationsWeek Man of the Year award.

Peter Adewale Obadare is a seasoned cybersecurity expert and GRC technopreneur with over 50 international professional certifications to his credit and was awarded honorary doctorate degree in cybersecurity from Trinity International University of Ambassadors Atlanta Georgia, United State of America.

Oluseyi Akindeinde has 18 years working experience in the IT and information security arena, but has spent the better part of the last few years exploring the security issues faced by Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT) and the Financial Transaction Systems (FTS).

Presenting the awards to the recipients, Chris Uwaje, former president, Institute of Software Practitioner of Nigeria (ISPON) and the current MD of Mobile Software Solutions, Oracle, described Digital Encode as a ‘fruitful seed’ that has distinguished itself in the African cybersecurity space.

“I recall that Obadare and Akindeinde are members of the team Nigeria in 2012 CyberLympics. That team conquered Africa and won gold at the global level. They repeated the feat in 2015.

“Today, see how far Digital Encode has gone; they have demonstrated resilience, skills and understanding of that space. I am super-proud of the team. The future is even brighter”, he said.

Ken Nwogbo, the publisher/editor in-chief, Nigeria CommunicationsWeek, said that the awards are testaments to Digital Encode’s critical role in the continent’s cybersecurity space.

He said that the co-founders are well-recognised subject matter experts with numerous successful engagements to their credit in Africa.

Earlier in his keynote presentation titled: “Cybersecurity and its critical role in Nigeria Economy”, Obadare, said that cybersecurity can take Nigeria out of recession.

According to him, Nigeria needs to engage the digital natives more as IT is, presently, the elephant in the house that cannot be ignored.

“Check Point has predicted that next global crisis will be the cyber pandemic. Much is at stake.

“Thus, cyber crime is currently the 3rd biggest economy after U.S. and China as can be deduced from the rising losses which are put at $10.5trillion by 2025; according to Cybersecurity Ventures”, he said.

Obadare, who said that the keyboard is the new knife, stressed that Nigeria’s software industry should be bigger than it is today.

“Therefore, there is a need to build capacity to compete internationally”, he said while thanking Nigeria CommunicationsWeek at this year’s BoICT Lecture/Awards.

On his part, Akindeinde, said that while every well-meaning Nigerian must condemn cybercrime in the strongest of terms, the company is concerned with the need to harvest the talents of youngsters and transform them to become more productive to the economy and themselves.

“We have just been told that the global market needs 4 million skilled cybersecurity experts. Nigeria can benefit from this big time. So, we feel really honoured by the awards and testimonies shared here today. Our promise is to keep raising the bar”, he said.