Stakeholders, Experts Back Cybercrime Law
Contrary to calls from some quarters for the amendment of the recently passed cybercrime law, the new law has been described as a good piece of legislation that could help reduce, to a large extent, the growing trend of cybercrime for which the country has been ranked third in global internet crime after the United States of America and United Kingdom respectively.
Speaking at a stakeholders forum organised by the Information Security Society of Africa-Nigeria (ISSAN) on the new law, last week, its President, who is also the General Manager at Union Bank of Nigeria Plc, Dr. David Isiavwe, described the promulgation of the cybercrime law as a great milestone by the country in view of the colossal damage that cybercrime is causing the nation and the world at large.
He drew attention to a Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) report which showed that 70 per cent of attempted or successful fraud/forgery cases in the Nigerian banking system were perpetrated via the electronic channels. Another report, according to him, also showed that 7.5 per cent of the world’s hackers are Nigerians while 25 per cent of cybercrime in the country remain unresolved.
“Banks in Nigeria have lost approximately N159 billion to electronic frauds and cybercrime between 2000 and 2013 and the impact on the nation’s cashless policy is significant. In Nigeria, customers lost about N6 billion in the year 2014 whilst South Africa lost about R453 million (N8 billion) in the same year to cyber criminals,” Isiavwe said. According to him, “More worrisome perhaps was the recent report by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) that the global economy suffers a loss of about $445 billion annually due to all sorts of cybercrimes on the internet. The damage to business from the theft of intellectual property alone exceeds the $160 billion loss to individuals from hacking yearly.”
In his presentation, a senior Research Fellow and Head of International Law Department, Nigerian Institute of Advance Legal Studies (NIALS), Lagos, Dr. Emmanuel Okon, described the cybercrime Act as an excellent and appropriate law to deal with the current challenges of cybercrime in Nigeria.
“This is however not the first time we will have an excellent law in Nigeria. We have laws for cyber security in the country but the question is: are we aware that those laws are in existence? To what extent can they be enforced?”
According to him, “The cybercrime law is a verbatim copy of the Economic Crimes Commission (EFCC) law and it has been crafted to address the very serious problem of cybercrime in the country. The Act, he disclosed, covers every area of cybercrime.”
“It covers every area of what the ‘Yahoo boys’ are doing. Every aspect of the law also has serious sanctions attached. The whole essence of the Cybercrime Act is just about crime and punishment. Every section is a crime and every section is punishment and sanctions. The judge has the discretion to sentence to both fine and imprisonment,” Okon said.