National Security Adviser Sets Up Cybercrime Advisory Committee

National Security Adviser, Babagana Mungunu

The National Security Adviser, Babagana Mungunu, has set up a Cybercrime Advisory Committee to ensure the total and effective implementation of the Cybercrime Act of 2015 and save Nigeria huge economic loses.

At the inauguration of the committee on Monday, Mr Mungunu said: “Nigeria loses 127 billion Naira to cybercrime annually and remains among countries with the highest rate of software piracy, intellectual property theft and malware attacks. These trends must discontinue”.

According to him, a report published in 2014 by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in the United Kingdom, estimated the annual cost of cybercrime to Nigeria at about 0.08 per cent of the nation’s GDP.

“Activities of hackers and cyber criminals in recent times have threatened  government presence, economic activities, securities of Nigerians and vital infrastructure connected to the internet.

“Examples of such activities include hacking of websites of government entities and diplomatic missions. This situation is made possible partly due to lack of awareness of cyber security and poor enforcement of guidelines and minimum standards for security of government websites, particularly those hosting sensitive data bases of Nigerians.

“Thus the need to take serious action to protect our national cyber space has become a national security requirement,” he stressed.

The 31 member Advisory Committee, chaired by the National Security Adviser himself, is saddled with the responsibility of ratifying issues on standards and legislation on terrorism penetrated through cyberspace, web hacking and defacement and distributed denial of service attacks among others.

Mr Abubakar Malami is hopeful that the committee will find a solution to the cybercrime issues

The Attorney General of the Federation and the Minister of Justice, Mr Abubakar Malami, who is also a member of the committee, said that a multi-stakeholder collaboration, rapid growth in internet usage and increased infiltration into government protected cyberspace were some of the solutions.

“The only viable way forward in fighting cybercrime is through multi-stakeholder, inter-agency bilateral and multilateral collaboration and co-operation,” the Attorney General stressed.

He stated that it was for that reason that the executive arm of government look forward to the work of the council with all stakeholders to make Nigeria’s online environment a safe environment.

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