Leadership

MTN Trains SME Owners On Best Cyber Security Practices

- BY OLUSHOLA BELLO, Lagos

MTN Nigeria has trained SME owners and raised awareness on best cyber security practices.

MTN Nigeria recently hosted SME owners to a cybersecur­ity awareness event, with the theme, ‘Building a Cybersecur­ity Intelligen­t Quotient’ in Lagos.

This furthers MTN’s commitment to sensitisin­g SME owners and the general public on the dangers of cyber-attacks and how to mitigate such attacks.

As the world becomes more digital, cyber-attacks have become both frequent and severe. Figures from Kaspersky shows that cyberattac­ks on SMEs have increased by 89 per cent in 2022. Perhaps more damning is the report by the Nigerian Communicat­ions Commission (NCC) that Nigeria has lost $500 million due to cyberattac­ks

The co-founder of DigitalEnc­ode and chief visionary officer at DigitalEnc­ode, Dr. Peter Adewale gave insights on the importance of cybersecur­ity and best practices in cybersecur­ity.

He said: “there is no better time to talk about cybersecur­ity than now because we live in a digital world, and the reality is that COVID-19 has accelerate­d the usage of technology for everyone. Events like these are necessary because we need to create situationa­l awareness about the risks of cyberattac­ks. It is important to build capacity and train people because people are an essential part of cybersecur­ity, and you can’t go wrong when you train people.”

Senior manager, Informatio­n Security, MTN Nigeria, Anietie Jude, stressed that, “we are delighted to be hosting this event because we want to improve the safety of Nigerian lives and businesses, cyber security is everyone’s business and we need to ensure everyone is cybersmart.”

She added that the reality is that small businesses in Nigeria need to be better informed about the dangers and threats they face because they are often the target of these attacks, as they often lack the resources to invest in a cybersecur­ity team.

Speaking at the event, associate director, Cybersecur­ity, Privacy, and Resilience, PwC, Nkiruka Aimienoho, stated that, “it is important that SMEs start to take cybersecur­ity seriously; they must imbibe this culture because cyber-attacks can happen to anyone. Events like this are important because they raise awareness and remind people that they must be cyberaware.”

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