FG sets up computer emergency response team to curb national cyber threats

While addressing issues concerning national security and cyber threat, Adebayo Shittu, minister of communication, says the Federal Government has set up computer emergency response teams through the office of the National Security Agency (NSA) and National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) to curb the menace in Nigeria’s online space.

Shittu made this disclosure while speaking at the NGSecure Infosecurity conference put together by DIFENSORE in Lagos, Wednesday.

“To further improve the nation’s preparedness to secure cyberspace, the Cybercrime Advisory Council has also been inaugurated. The council is expected to facilitate the implementation of the Cybercrime Act, 2015, and as well as the National Cybersecurity Policy and Strategy,” he said.

Speaking on the theme Cybersecurity Framework for National Security, the minister said in view of the critical nature of the economy and government activities, it was obvious that protection from different types of cyber and terrorist attacks was required.

According to Shittu, the cyber space is being exploited to aid radicalisation and violent extremism and so the government has realised that those tasked with the responsibility to protect our cyberspace: information security and Cybersecurity can no longer function within a framework of the past.

In a statement sent to BusinessDay by Victor Oluwadamilare, the minister’s special assistant on media, identified software piracy, identity theft, electronic fraud, online spam, intellectual property theft and malware attacks as capable of having devastating and far reaching consequences on the economy.

“The minister said government’s proactive measure is necessary because Nigeria’s growing dependence on digital infrastructure poses grave threats to national security as the country loses about N127 billion which is 0.08 per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Products (GDP), yearly to cybercrime,” the statement read.