The Information Security Society of Africa – Nigeria (ISSAN) has urged banks and other financial services providers in Nigeria to see cybersecurity as of utmost importance and put up their guards to ensure that loses as a result of cybercrime are cut to the barest minimum.
The wide range, multiple stages and scale of today’s attacks are proving effective and Business email compromise, Escrow fraud and romance scams have been identified as the main methods used to perpetuate cybercrime today.
Speaking at a cybercrime conference organized by the society to sensitize bank IT managers and staff, recently in Lagos, David Isiavwe, president of ISSAN and group head, operations and technology, Ecobank, Nigeria, said;
“Cyber security is a big global problem that exists everywhere including right here in Nigeria. The fraudsters perpetuate these criminal acts from the confines of their homes or wherever they are s long as they have a device with access to the internet and the losses are huge.
The Central Bank of Nigeria recognises this, and so CBN is actually at the fore front of fighting cybercrime in Nigeria.”
Isiavwe said that organistaions would need to weigh the risks and chose between convenience and security, especially as the Central Bank of Nigeria is taking major steps to improve digital financial service security in the country.
“From what we have seen, a lot of our systems here are even safer than what obtains outside in the developed world. One of the key mechanisms that the CBN has introduced is the Bank Verification Number (BVN) which is a very good tool to fight against cybercrime. Another one is what we call two factor authentication (2FA) which the CBN has come up with framework and policies around this to ensure that the systems are safe and secure. That is why if you want to do certain types of online transfers, CBN mandates that the customer must have a token, so if somebody steals your password but doesn’t have your token, the person cannot access your money.”
On further steps being taken, Isiavwe told BusinessDay that the latest mandate for Bank ATMs is facial recognition technology.
“Automated Teller Machines would soon be able to recognise your face as the owner of the card used. If your face is not recognised, then tour transaction will be declined. So, the fight against cybercrime from a regulatory standpoint is very good.
Representatives of Nigerian banks present at the conference expressed worry that a lot of Nigerians do not take time to read warning emails and awareness messages sent by banks.
However, stakeholders have recommended that banks should get their ATMs to verbally relay messages rather than put it in written form.
Information Security Society of Africa in Nigeria (ISSAN) is collaborating with all key stakeholders to ensure that there is adequate level of awareness to customers and ensure that people exercise basic hygiene methods to carry out safe and secure transactions.
Non-bank organisations that perform financial services have been advised to spend enough time doing appropriate testing of products that they want to deploy.
“The CBN recognises Fintechs and so they are working with the Nigeria inter-bank settlement system (NIBSS) and other stakeholders to create sandboxes; a safe environment for experimentation and testing,” Isiavwe said.
Jumoke Akiyode-Lawanson
