NiRA, EFCC sign MoU to collaborate on cyber security

The Nigerian Internet Registration Association (NIRA), the registry for .ng Internet Domain Names, responsible for and maintaining the database of names registered in the .ng country code Top Level Domain, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), to provide cyber security training for the personnel of the EFCC and other national security organisations.

Abdulrasheed Bawa, executive chairman of the EFCC during the ceremony between the EFCC and the Nigerian Internet Registration Association, NIRA led by its President, Muhammed Rudman, at the EFCC Head Office, Jabi, Abuja, reiterated the resolve of the commission to build the capacity of the personnel to effectively combat the emerging trends in cyber security.

According to Bawa, the MoU would further boost the understanding of his personnel on the modern trends in cyberspace and assist the Commission’s investigations.

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“We are very proud to collaborate with you because we realize that part of our mandate is collaboration. We need relevant stakeholders whether in the government or private sector to achieve our mandate,” said the EFCC. He added that the EFCC had a well-equipped academy to sustain the training.

“I find this MoU very appealing. I accept your collaboration and we are ready to start as soon as possible. We have a well-equipped Academy to carry out this training and I advise that the training is not only onsite-onset but also online so that many people can join, and even other agencies can benefit from this using our platform, he added.

Earlier, the President, NiRA, Muhammed Rudman while providing some insight into the goals of NiRA, said that the purpose of the MoU was to strengthen collaboration between his association and the EFCC.

According to him, there was a huge gap between NIRA and law enforcement agencies, which needed to be bridged.

“We have law enforcement agencies locking up Registrars when there are cyber security issues in terms of websites, based on the crimes perpetrated by end users. So, to protect our Registrars from having challenges gaps with law enforcement, we identify EFCC as the right partner to provide capacity building to address these gaps in terms of cybersecurity awareness and general knowledge of ICT,” he said.

He added that when the MoU was fully implemented it would benefit not only the EFCC but other agencies as well.

“To be honest with you, we want to kick start this project as soon as possible to give high-level capacity building on the internet and how it works, to address the needs of Law Enforcement Agencies, using EFCC as an umbrella body to bridge the cybersecurity gap,” Rudman said.