NCC to takkle cyber crime

The paucity of requisite legal framework needed to prosecute offenders is turning Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy by GDP, into a preferred destination for cybercriminals who now use the country as a base from which to target developed economies, industry insiders have said.

“Many cybercriminalsuse emerging markets like Nigeria as a base from which to target developed economies.
This is often because while the tools – bandwidth and internet connections – are in place, enforcement agencies don’t have the ability to regulate these illegal activities,” said Pfungwa Serima, chief executive officer for Africa, SAP, a German software maker.

The Nigerian Constitution does not define cybercrime. The only activity that has been captured on the country’s legislative radar, according to experts, is the crime conveniently referred to as ‘Internet 419’ or Obtaining by False Pretences, using the internet.

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has in recent times received a barrage of complaints from the International Criminal Investigation Organisation (ICIO) on cybercrimes committed by Nigerians through the internet, locally and abroad, according to informed sources close to the industry regulator.

This is as experts say cybercrime remains one of the biggest sources of threats organisations and governments are likely to face in the country, especially as the nation’s dependence on computer systems increases and as the cashless policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) becomes operational in many more states. Nigerian banks lost a whooping N40 billion to an assortment of online fraud cases in 2013 alone – an indication of the spate of cybercrime in the country.  more here...