There is need for an urgent review of the National Cyber Security Protection Act 2015 to meet current challenges and realities and restated the need for a cyber insurance policy in the industry.
This call was made by ISSAN by speakers and panelists at its quarter 1, 2022 cyber security conference in Lagos. The theme was Payment System Platforms Security. They also made case for robust collaboration and coordinated efforts by all stakeholders including the government to stem the rising wave of cyber threats in the nation’s payment system platforms.
President of ISSAN, Dr. David Isiavwe, who spoke on behalf of the association, stated that as the COVID-19 pandemic begins to gradually ease out, organisations were now settling for hybrid ways of working and providing services for customers, while being mindful of the enlarged cyber threat.
He noted that new forms of attacks are being contrived and implemented by criminals through various means on individuals, nation states and corporate bodies, stressing that cyber security gate keepers are not spared as large sums of monies are usually at risk in every successful attack.
According to him, what we see on horizon is that Business, Emails Compromise (BEC) attacks are becoming alarming; Ransom wares attacks are not relenting.
“There are more phishing and password targeted attacks Denial of Service (DoS) and Distributed Denial of Service (DDS) attacks remain a growing problem. The loss globally is colossal.
“In Africa, Nigeria is expected to lead in terms of estimated loss due to our size. There is therefore the urgent need to brainstorm on how to keep payment systems platform safer,” he said.
As a way forward, Isiavwe, who is also General Manager at Ecobank Nigeria, emphasised that banks and organisations need to be proactive, keep customers educated and updated on new threats and trends in the Cyber space automate and continuously monitor their systems and infrastructure and also place high premium on artificial intelligence machine learning, robotics and data analytics.
In his keynote address available to The Trumpet, Director of Payments, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Musa Jimoh, commended the activities of ISSAN in enhancing a safer and secure payment ecosystem, stressing that the apex bank remained committed to initiatives that would promote and enhance payment systems.
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He maintained that the financial sector could not afford to fail as the payment system is vital to the functioning economic system.
