A security roundtable promoted by Nigerian technology company, Signal Alliance, has advocated collaboration among stakeholders to ensure online safety in Nigeria.
Signal Alliance, which is leading a charge for national awareness on the security implication of moving Nigeria online says that online safety ensure that businesses, institutions and individuals “going online enjoy the great benefits of a truly online nation.”
This is one of the key outcomes of the Security Roundtable by Signal Alliance and sponsored by Cisco as part of the Nigerian company’s 2016 Customer Week activities. The Security Roundtable with the theme, ‘Securing an Online Nigeria’ attracted various stakeholders to deliberate on the security implications of Nigeria’s increased activities online.
Adanma Onuegbu, CEO Signal Alliance says that as Nigeria tries to bridge the broadband divide and move its citizens online, there are challenges individuals, companies and governments face as they move online.
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“This roundtable was convened to look at how an online Nigeria can be a safe place for individuals, companies and governments can work and transact safely while online. It was a great session as we brought different segments of the society from technology experts, corporate, service provider, government and users into a room and the brainstorming brought in perspectives that as a nation we must be aware of, as we inevitably move online. We will definitely continue pushing this theme to ensure that Nigeria online is safer than the current state of our national security”, the Signal Alliance CEO says in a post-event press release sent to Technology Times.
According to her, in the last five years, Nigeria online presence has increased tremendously. People, businesses and government institutions have moved online with great benefits to individuals, companies and even government. For those that have moved most of their operations online the benefits have been immense.
[quote font_size=”22″ font_style=”italic” align=”left” bgcolor=”#” color=”#” bcolor=”#” arrow=”yes”]According to Adanma Onuegbu, CEO of Signal Alliance, in the last five years, Nigeria online presence has increased tremendously. People, businesses and government institutions have moved online with great benefits to individuals, companies and even government. For those that have moved most of their operations online the benefits have been immense.[/quote]However, as the trend has driven is increase in communication, collaboration, financial inclusion and poverty reduction, so also are there the dangers of fraud, data sovereignty, critical data loss, identify theft and privacy.
According to Signal Alliance, some of the identified challenges include lack of re-orientation to the risks and threats of going online; lack of responsibility of personal digital footprint and lack of general awareness on best security practices.
Signal Alliance is concerned that “businesses still do not see security as a business process, but rather see it as an organizational unit’s responsibility, and the public sector still sees manual processes as more secure and are averse to going online for said reasons.”
Participants at the Security Roundtable by Signal Alliance reached a communique that underscored the need to address cyber insecurity in Nigeria. The decisions included the need to create more awareness on security issues among individuals, and teach them to take more personal responsibilities as it relates to cyber security.
There is also the need for CIOs and CSOs in corporate organisations to collaborate more on security issues by sharing information. They should also have a corporate security framework, and at the board level security should be given top priority.
Finally, there is the need for advocacy at a national Cyber security awareness, the strengthening of data privacy law and the need to address the dearth of adequate capacity in the IT security profession, the forum said.
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