Banks Urged to Share Intelligence to Tackle Cyber-Crimes

Ugo Aliogo

A group of cyber security experts have advised financial institutions to actively engage in intelligence sharing in order to tackle cyber-crimes in the financial sector.

Speaking at a media briefing in Lagos recently, the convener of the Najia Cyber Security Conference, Rotimi Akinyele, said effective collaborations by banks would help stem the tide of cyber-crimes, adding in developed societies, there are monthly engagements to share security and risk threats since they are working in the same ecosystem.

He said as a group, they are passionate about changing the way things are done in the cyberspace in Nigeria, because of their understanding of the processes and policies involved.

Akinyele further stated that the conference was aimed at identifying cyber talents in Nigeria by organising a competition where they would give out N200, 000 to the winner as a way of supporting cyber security talents, adding that they are also committed to using the conference to create awareness about cyber security.

He added: “Yearly we will be organising this conference and it is going to be bigger. The interesting thing about the programme is that people are willing support. They have the conviction that what we are doing will change the future of cyber security in Nigeria. The mentality about cyber security is that if there is no strong attack, people will not get serious. We have had regulatory bodies which made it compulsory for financial institutions abide by certain cyber security standards and regulatory framework. As long as the motive is right, the support will be heavily required.

“We are hoping that they will be a lot of partnership in the years ahead. We are speaking to other agencies to ensure that this will not just be a Lagos based thing, but nationwide. There is internal cyber security issues which we need to solve, for instance terrorism. We are focusing on the Africa continent also.

“Before talking about the global body, we need to talk about what happens internally. There has to be a lot of synergy on how to address cyber-crimes. Cyber-crime is growing exponentially, the issue has been in the media and this has attracted government attention to pass into a cyber-crime bill. A lot of agencies have been created to tackle cybercrime but nothing serious has been done. There are no forensic tests been carried out, people get away with fraud.”