FG Urged to Sign Existing Bills on Cybersecurity into Law

The Nigeria Computer Society (NCS) has called on the federal government to sign into law existing bills such as the Electronic Transaction Bill and the National Critical Infrastructure Bill.

This was part of the communique issued at a recently concluded stakeholders’ conference on the nation’s cybersecurity challenges, organised by the NCS in Lagos, in collaboration with the Edinburgh Napier University, UK.

The stakeholders resolved that the NCS should create further collaboration with other stakeholders on the need to generate grassroots awareness on cybersecurity, while calling on government to consider a functional framework to engage the international communities such as the United Nations on the challenges of cybersecurity solutions.

According to the communique which was jointly signed by NCS President, Pro. Adesina Sodiya and the Executive Secretary of NCS, Mr. Iyola Ayola, the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation (NDPR) Policy should be considered for implementation by a newlycreated cyber security agency.

Other resolution reached at the stakeholders conference as captured by the communique, included the enforcement of the Cybercrime Act 2015 in all sectors of the economy, including health and education sectors; Inauguration of Cybercrime Advisory Council; Government to invest on incidence response capabilities at Local, National and International levels; Establishment of National Cyber Security Agency by government; NCS to collaborate with other stakeholders in the establishment of Private Public Partnership (PPP) arrangement to finance awareness programmes for the citizenry.

The communique also stressed that government should commence the process of flexible identification of citizens through data harmonisation, and that NCS must act further on its advocacy business through training and various seminars arrangement as a means of educating the public on the identified threats in the cyber space.

The NCS was also urged to advise government to introduce a general course tagged “cyber security,” “at the entry level of our schools not only in the tertiary institutions but also at all levels of education, and at the same time, NCS must advise government on the need to outsource the activities of Nigeria Identity Management Commission (NIMC) to facilitate early completion of the project.”