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The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) is intensifying efforts to raise cybersecurity awareness for protecting to further deepen the country’s digital economy.
Director General, NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa, at a virtual event to commemorate this year Cyber Security Awareness Week stressed the value of investing in security of cyber space to protect systems, networks, programmes and data from attacks in both public and private organisations.
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The virtual event was aimed at sharing insights on the numerous careers now available in cybersecurity as a profession.
Inuwa described the event to both increasing cybersecurity awareness and building the required skillsets to grow the IT security industry.
“Cyber criminals have been taking advantage of the digital transformation to exploit human credibility and other technical vulnerabilities in hardware and software ranging from seizing control of infrastructure to stealing sensitive data”, stated Inuwa who was represented by the agency’s Assistant Director, Cybersecurity Department, Mr. Michael Arowosegbe.
He said this year’s event which was tagged ‘#BeCyberSmart’ is geared towards analyzing the issues surrounding the detection of cybercrimes and raising awareness on how individuals, private organisations and government agencies can protect themselves in cyber space with focus on career in cybersecurity.
Inuwa said African nations during the pandemic were the target for cyber criminals who use AI technologies in manipulating video and audio recordings in transmitting false information for their attacks.
He further stated that combating cybercrime which is a huge threat to the national security is one of NITDA’s topmost priority.
“Since the digital economy leverage on the cyber space which is characterized with evolving cyber threat, the need to enable a continuous growth and progress of the digital economy, cyber security is key,” he added.
While laying emphasis on the importance of cybersecurity to the development of digital economy, the NITDA boss mentioned that the nation’s digital economy which has raised the bar on security, privacy and trust of stakeholders is the fundamental enabler of a sustainable digital economy through a threat-free cyber space.
“Measures must be put in place by all means necessary to gain the confidence of stakeholders who are the enablers of digital economy and improve the cybersecurity to mitigate all these cyber attacks via measures such as engaging in massive cybersecurity capacity building”, he concluded.
A panelist session was held afterwards with various cybersecurity experts within the ecosystem who exchanged ideas on how parameters such as tools, techniques, talents, trainings and triangulations can be exploited in creating formidable cybersecurity experts in the country.
